defragmentation..

[mb26]

i have a fairly serious case of fragmentation on my data partition.. i'm guessing due to the way p2p downloads etc work.. anyway, i have 5 files around the 30,000 fragments mark.. and 69% file fragmentation..:eek:
and this is after going over it once with XP defrag.. (which didn't do much)
i have over 30gig free space, and its not the windows drive so that shouldn't interfere.. and i dont get why things aren't able to properly, fully, defrag :confused:

so, whats a really good defrag program?.. the best..?

will it defrag everything decently.. if not, why?:confused:

[pam123]

You can use this : http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp
If you don't want to spend the money then resign yourself to running defragmenter several times.
That 30 GB clear had better be at least 1/4 of the space on that drive because if you have 150 GB full and 30 GB clear you don't really have enough free space for the defragmenter to run efficiently.

[mb26]

isn't XP's defragger based off diskeeper? (which would have made me think it would be a bit rubbish?)

..its 170GB full.. hm.. how rediculous that u have to keep 1/4 of the drive empty to defrag efficiently..
i have no files > 4GB, and there seems to be a continuous free-space area whcih seems to be pretty much the whole 30gb.. so why can't it just defrag file-by-file :s ..

[pam123]

You will have to defragment repeatedly, that is how you will end up doing it file by file, with XP getting a little more of the job done each time.
If you can pull some files off the drive do that as well.
A good rule of thumb is, the fuller the drive the more frequently you defrag.
The less windows has to do to defrag the better.
When you hit 69% after a defrag you've left it too long.

[mb26]

using XP, it just says Defrag is complete, some files could not be defragged, see report..
returns that in < 10s.. so i guess trying diskeeper is the only option..

[glc]

Defrag won't even RUN when the free space hits only 15% - you are getting pretty close to that. Diskeeper probably won't even clean the drive up very well - you need to temporarily remove a bunch of files to get it defragged.

[mb26]

hm, the vast area which was reported as free space by XP, is reported as 'reserved system space' by diskeeper.. which could explain why it wouldn't run with XP?
what is this??.. i disabled sys restore (is there any point on a documents partition??) and hibernation (but of course the file was on the win partition..)

how do i get it to become 'unused space'.. or is it not a problem atall?

[glc]

Reserved system space is probably the master file table. You need to temporarily move some documents, etc. to the system partition then put them back. Sounds like it's time for a bigger drive...........

[Panama Red]

The reserved space(s) could also be the saved Restore Points and the Page File. You can delete all but the most recent Restore Point using Disk Cleanup>more options tab. You can turn off the Page File temporarily, reboot, run defragmenter, return the Page File to it's orginal settings and see if that helps.

[mb26]

i found the answer.. its neither.. its space left for the MFT

.. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;174619

^shows u how to resize it..
which, i'm assuming will give better defrag performance, and perhaps explains why XP needs 15% free space to run.. when, in theory, it shouldn't need so much.

edit:assuming it applies to XP aswell as 2K (microsoft states it as 2k/NT..)
but, i think its to do with NTFS rather than the OS as much so, hopefully it works with XP..

edit2: hm, doesn't seem to do anything for XP (after restart..)
anyone have any idea how to resize the allocated space for it?

[pam123]

Before you get ambitious, can you afford to lose any of those files?

[mb26]

i have shedded a few files.. and now have 42GiB free space, which according to diskeeper is enough to perform ok (they say >20%).. it ran well a couple of times but now isn't going much further, and is still at 64%..

but its really not an acceptable long-term solution leaving 25% of the drive empty.. it seems ridiculous when half of that amount is just reserved for the MFT.. and most of the files on the partition are large ones so the MFT isn't going to fill any time soon, or anywhere near.
Reserved system space is probably the master file table. You need to temporarily move some documents, etc. to the system partition then put them back. Sounds like it's time for a bigger drive...........lol, it is a new drive.. basically i'd fill (up to a point) whatever drive i had anyway with TV and stuff.. no point having a drive to leave half empty, imo.. and there are no other reasons to other than the MFT for a data partition..

just bit the bullet and deleted some more.. 45GiB free now which is nearly the 25% suggested.. but, i still want to sort out the MFT thing, as i'm sure there will be less free space again in the future.. (and it still remains to be seen weather it defrags better still)

edit: just to make the situation a little clearer.. with >150GiB full, my MFT stands at a whopping... 17MiB! soo, i definately dont need to leave 25GiB to stop it defragmenting!!! (and ironically, make everything else fragment more..)

[glc]

Diskeeper (but not Lite) can defragment the MFT, and the latest versions can also resize it. I'm using 10 Pro.

The files you want to move off the partition to free it up are the big ones - like movies and music and saved big program downloads. These are what are not defragmenting - the bigger a fragmented file is, the more free space it needs to defragment it. If you have multiple user accounts, not all files in other accounts will be accessible to defragment either, you may have to defrag in every account.

[mb26]

lol, ok.. whatever all that was about..
i have Diskeeper 10 pro.. how do u change the size of the space left for future MFT?

[peekaboo]

i don't mean to hijack this thread, but would you recommend diskeeper over perfect disk?

[mb26]

peekaboo, i'd take a wild guess that they would, since glc uses it and pam reccomended it out of nothing..

anyway, i 'resized' the MFT to 100000 from 17xxx (17>100MB) but, it just padded the MFT file rather than reducing any of the 'reserved system space' for it

??

i've defragged 12 times (atleast its quick) and have it down to 25 fragments per file.. from 70-something.. but it still is at 63% file fragmentation..

edit: just discovered theres an option to defrag continuously :) wooh.. lets see how it is after a few hours eh..

[glc]

I've never used any modern 3rd party defragger except Diskeeper and Norton Speed Disk, so my recommendation was based on rather limited data. Try rebooting between runs and do a boot-time defrag.