Do I give up?

[OzRon]

After discovering Defraggler, our enthusiasm was dampened by problems encountered on first tests.

 

I posted a detailed problem description on this forum. ("Serious Defrag Freespace Issues".)

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=21558

 

Two weeks later it shows close to 300 views, but no responses.

 

Perhaps users have no solution, and moderators are very busy. So we tried approaching Piriform directly, using the only means that we could find: online comment submission via the website.

 

No response or acknowledgment to that one either.

 

Anyone care to suggest if (and how) we should persevere? Or do we just give up?

 

.

[Augeas]

Most free applications (and I'm a sucker for free stuff) offer no support at all apart from the forums. At least here we get not only a full version of the software but occasional visits from the developers. In the early days I had a post that had over 1000 views and no responses. Ah well.

 

I find that if you have a problem with a free product you have to search the forums and Google, and if all fails either plug away on your own or, as you say, use another product. Your problem, as far as I can grasp it, does seem a litte esoteric.

[OzRon]

Thanks, Augeas. I appreciate the input.

 

I'm well aware that most free applications don't include support. But few display the appearance of continuity, the "Use This" coaxers, the enthusiasm, and the donation requests that one finds on the Piriform site.

 

In our case we are more than happy to pay (or donate) for useful software - we have done this with every free program that we have ended up using. As long as it works as advertised.

 

The main problem that I described was a complete failure to defrag free space, in spite of repeated attempts. I'm surprised that you find the problem esoteric.

 

Our need, on the other hand, is perhaps a tad esoteric - a compact defragmentation tool that is available in a portable edition. I have not (yet) stumbled across alternatives. Any suggestions?

[Guest MrRon]

Can you PM me with a /debug log and I will look into this.

MrRon

[OzRon]

Thank you, MrRon. Unfortunately the test rig was a borrowed computer, as stated in the problem description, and has since been returned. We don't have an inhouse system with the same characteristics - XP and FAT32. All machines are running Vista/NTFS, though one has XP running as a VMware virtual machine, with both NTFS and FAT32 (virtual) drives.

 

I can see if we can duplicate the symptoms on one of the described computers, if it will help. (Is Defraggler OK in a VM environment?) Alternatively, if it's important, I can see if we can re-borrow the original laptop and, assuming that the problem is still present, we can get a /debug log from it. That option will take a little longer. Please advise.

 

Do I take it from your reply that this is not a known issue, or that it has not been reported before?

[Guest MrRon]

No, we have not seen this issue before so are happy to investigate it for you. Yes Defraggler is fine with VM.

MrRon

[crzftx]

Not a dev, of course, but System Volume Information contains system restore points and other nonsense which has very high permissions (Defraggler cannot touch the contents). Defraggler was leaving a very spotty hard drive for me, as well, until I cleared the restore points and shadow copies.

It's on the second page of Disk Cleanup. I'm not sure where to find that on XP, but give it a go.