Long defragmentation time in Defraggler

[Roger Lambert]

Defragler takes a lot longer than the Windows defrag.  Is this because "defraggler" is doing a much more thorough job? 

[nukecad]

Different job is more like it. And it depends how you are using Defragller.

All defragmenters work in different ways, and so you can't realy compare one to another.

To start with you don't say which Windows version you have.

Win10's defrag takes a lot longer than Win7's defrag, - because they do different things.

It all depends on what you want your defragmenter to do.

• Defragment each individual file so that it loads and runs marginally faster?
• Put all your files together on the disc so that you have more free space?
• Put all your files together on the disc so that you have more free space, even if it means fragmenting some files?

Most users of defraggler use the first one and defragment files rather than defragging the whole disc.
With todays terrabyte drives defragmenting a whole disk just takes too long whatever defragmenter you use.
(If it's quick then it's skipping things and not telling you it has).

Open Defraggler and analyze, when it's done that click on View Files, tick all the files (there's a box at the top of the list) and then click Defrag Checked.
That defragments each file without bothering about the rest of the empty disc space.

[Roger Lambert]

Thank you for that info nukecad

[nukecad]

Just to add that whatever defragmenter you use Windows will still run it's own defragmenter/optimiser in the background occasionally, about once a week.

[Adam0310]

I agree with this. I said a few years ago that Defraggler was way too slow for a HDD defrag. You need to leave it running overnight and set the auto "shutdown after completion" option. If you compare it with other programs they defrag so much quicker and I haven't had any problems with them. 

 So it leads me to wonder if I am really getting a much better result with Defraggler ? It seems like it definitely could do with some speed optimization in it's next update.

[Willy2]

- Try this: (Temporarily) Disable System Restore. That will speed up the defrag process.

[kenmk]

Just found this discussion after a finding Defraggler to be *very* slow.  It also hammers the processor, shown by the processor fan frequently kicking in at high speed and always running it at a moderate speed.  Difficult to see how, once the analysis of the drive has been done, it can take all that power to issue read and write instructions.

As an indication of how slow it is, it took a whole morning to sort out a 206GB partition.  On a 2TB drive it has run for 2 days and only got to 47%.

Makes me wonder just what it is acually doing!!??

Edited August 3, 2020 by kenmk
spelling

[nukecad]

Speed of defragmenting depends on quite a few things, including the total size of the drive, the free space available for the defragmenter to work with, and just what type of 'Defragment' you are doing.
As said above there are different types of 'Drefragment' see the link below for more information.

The larger drives available for home use these days means that of course they are going to take longer to do a full disc defrag (consolidation), the solution is to do a file defrag instead.
With larger drives you are unlikely to be running out of free space, so what you want from a defrag is different to consolidating files to free up space.

See this for more information on the different types of 'Defragment' that Defraggler can do, and how to specify each or a combination:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/58213-program-increases-fragmentation/?tab=comments#comment-319520

[Willy2]

@Kenmk:  Post a screenshot of the Defraggler filemap. Could be very revealing.