Defraggler - nothing changes!

[Leyla]

I've run Defrag. a couple of times.   Today I re-downloaded the program and ran again.   The percentage of defragmentation is always 12% - why???   I remember using this program and getting the percentage down to about 5%.

Also, I cannot watch the boxes/colours  move about the screen (as in the UTube video).

I'm trying again and in the Status box (bottom left), the fragmentation says 7% so I thought it was working.  Also says 4,000 fragmented files and 29,000 total fragments.

At this point (48% optimising) Used Space is 153Gb, Free Space is 54Gb.   I know my drive is less than 50% used but I know that the drive "expands" during this process.

Now 56% Optimising and 6% Fragmentation.   When this process is finished, the numbers will be back to 12% - why?  

Hope this is enough information.

[Nergal]

12% is a small amount, you're trying to get to zero, you never will achieve that . Windows is a messy child and fragments immediatly. If it was always 30% maybe something to worry about but 12 is normal

[Leyla]

OK Nergal - thanks.   But I did say that previously, I achieved about 5%.   Even so, why, after doing a defrag, does it remain at 12%?

I appreciate your comments!

[nukecad]

What kind of drive is this, HDD or SSD?

You talk of 'Optimising' which is more usually associated with SSDs.
SSDs are always fragmented to some extent, it's the way that 'wear leveling' works on SSDs by spreading the files over the drive.

Defraggler should not try to defragment an SSD, generally no defragmenter should. Instead they will Optimise them.
(There is a special case for defragmenting an SSD, Windows will normally do it for you automatically if needed).

A couple of your other comments are also intriguing. Particularly the one about not seeing the boxes changing colours.

If it is an HDD then are you actually defragging or are you only analyzing?
The drive map will be grey/black until the drive has been analysed when it becomes coloured.
But nothing 'moves about' until you are actually defragging.

Not yet analyzed:

Analyzed but not yet defragged:

As for why a HDD may remain at around 12% fragmented there can be a few reasons.
If it's your system drive then Windows is constantly writing files to it. So are any other apps that may be running.
So some files can't be defragged because Windows, or another app, has them in use.

If you are uing Defragglers 'Quick Defrag' on a HDD it won't touch any fragments that are larger than 50MB. (A Full defrag or a files only defrag should do those).
If you have changed any other Options in Defraggler that could also have an effect.

[Leyla]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

Defraggler shows it's an SSD.

When I analyse, it's b/white, then coloured - mainly blue/orange boxes.   I am using "modern view" but if I switch to "original view" then I get the colours in your screenshot.

I presume your comments refer to HDD so therefore not to my problem with the SSD?

[Augeas]

20 hours ago, Leyla said:

Now 56% Optimising and 6% Fragmentation.   When this process is finished, the numbers will be back to 12% - why? 

If your drive is an SSD, and if you are running Optimise and not a full defrag, then Defraggler will issue a RETRIM on the drive. This - either by requesting Windows to do it or by some other means - will issue a TRIM command to all unallocated pages on the SSD. It will not run a defrag, so the reported defragmentation percentage will remain unchanged, and presumably none of the pretty blocks will change colour.

The file fragmentation percentage (and indeed the pretty blocks layout) is generated by looking at the files' Logical Block Addresses in the Master File Table. It has no bearing on where the files' data pages are allocated on the SSD, which nobody knows. It is, generally speaking, an irrelevance on an SSD.

I would let Windows Storage Optimiser look after your SSD, and stop worrying.

If you are running a full defrag or a zero-fill optimise on your SSD then please stop it.

[nukecad]

Agreed, as it's a SSD then just leave Windows (and the SSD's own in-built controller) to look after it.

That's what I do with my SSDs and only still have Defraggler for occasional use with my external HDDs.

You might want to check Windows Optimiser to see that it's set to optimise your SSD on a schedule, weekly or monthly is fine.

[Leyla]

Great - I understand now and will do as you both suggest.

Thanks for your time today!

 

[Willy2]

- Some files can't be defragmented. e.g. files relateed to the "System Restore Points". Those files can be VERY large GBs and scattered over many fragments.