Defragment takes too long on exFAT external drive

[7OKER]

Hello everyone,

I've read some similar posts but no one was on exFAT file system, so I've decided to create a new topic.

I have a 1TB 5200rpm external HDD, file system is exFAT. Today I decided to defrag it with ccleaner defraggler since my drive didn't show up on built-in windows defrag menu.

It started defragging, it immediately raised to 33% and now its moving extremely slow. After 6 hours its now 37% completed. Says its >1 Days to complete. On task manager, defraggler using 0.2MB/s disk. (I don't know if this is misleading information, since my drive is an external drive.)

• Analysis results:
• 4 Fragmented Files(91,3GB)
• 60 Total fragments 
• %12 Fragmentation

I read that windows doesn't let it use cache on USB 3.0 and it might be useful on USB 2.0. Should I wait? and is it safe to stop the defragment now and try USB 2.0 or other things and start over?

Thanks.

 

[Andavari]

Stopping a defrag doesn't destroy data since all defrag software is using the Microsoft Defrag API in the background which is relatively safe.

You state the built-in Windows Disk Optimizer won't let you defrag the drive, that's just the GUI interface that stops you from defragmenting certain file systems or drive types (such as it won't let you defrag a USB Flash Drive), whereas via an admin Command Prompt you can use the command line defrag regardless of disk type or file system that's supported by Windows, I use it all the time.

Here's a search for "Windows 10 Command Line Defrag":
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=windows+10+command+line+defrag

[crashbrennan]

On 30/12/2020 at 05:18, Andavari said:

You state the built-in Windows Disk Optimizer won't let you defrag the drive, that's just the GUI interface that stops you from defragmenting certain file systems or drive types (such as it won't let you defrag a USB Flash Drive), whereas via an admin Command Prompt you can use the command line defrag regardless of disk type or file system that's supported by Windows, I use it all the time.

I know I'm extraordinarily late, but this is incorrect.  The windows disk optimizer supports NTFS and FAT32, but it does not support exFAT in any capacity whatsoever.  OP would need (and hopefully found) a defragger that supports exFAT, such as O&O.

[Andavari]

I never explicitly stated it would work on exFAT which it won't, which is stupid on Microsoft's part to be honest. Suggest your re-read my original reply carefully before making such statements!