Disk Defrag problems

Sponsored Links

I attempted to run Disk Defragmentor several times recently, and it never
completed - even after 19 hours! To make matters worse, rather than gaining
space on my 400 GB hard drive, I lost a total of 20 percent. I also tried
running it in safe mode, but that didn't work. I tried to do a System
Restore, and it failed.

What happened to my hard drive space? How do I recover it?

Do you have a backup program creating backups on that hard disk? This
isn't unusual, and will eat disk space very quickly.

Aside from that, you should turn on "view hidden/ system files" and have a
look. And look at defragmenter and its logs to see what it thinks are the
files it wants to move around. If it's stuck on one very large file -
perhaps you should halt the process and do something else with that file.

Before defragmenting, it's not a bad idea to clear all the caches, temp and
recycle folders. ccleaner can help greatly with this.

I don't have answer to your question. However, seems to me there is/are
certain misconception on your part : --
Disk defrag does NOT give you back disk space. It's function is to
improve your computer's performance by organizing the data in your disk.
Applications such as CCleaner can help you gaining back some disk
space. Your built-in disk cleanup can help too.
Disk defrag is to be run in the background Automatically. You don't
need to be bothered. Let Vista take care of that.

" I tried to do a System Restore, and it failed. " What failed ? System
restore failed ? If yes, go to safe mode and do the system restore
there.

As to your lost of another 20% disk space, I can't speculate the source
of your problem. However, it wouldn't do any harm if you did a sfc/
scannow, or may be a
chkdsk /f afterwards.

Don't try to run it manually - it runs automatically in the background so
you don't need to worry about fragmentation in Vista. Long run times like
this are perfectly normal - it runs at the lowest CPU priority and the
lowest I/O priority in order to have zero impact on your use of the
computer.

Seriously, you can and should forget about fragmentation, and defragging, in
Vista.

Defragging is NOT intended to recover disk space. That loss of space looks
like your machine did a System Restore whilst you were defragging. Again,
perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. It won't eat up all your disk
space.

I recommend you stop worrying about all this and just use your computer for
something constructive.

SteveT

[barracuda]

Originally Posted by sam1117

I attempted to run Disk Defragmentor several times recently, and it never
completed - even after 19 hours! To make matters worse, rather than gaining
space on my 400 GB hard drive, I lost a total of 20 percent. I also tried
running it in safe mode, but that didn't work. I tried to do a System
Restore, and it failed.

What happened to my hard drive space? How do I recover it?

As others have pointed out, you cannot gain any space with a defrag. But you are not supposed to lose any either. If you have VSS enabled, and have lost space during a defrag, it could be due to the file movement causing new shadow copies to be created and deleting old ones. VSS-compatible defragmenters such as Diskeeper 2008 (not the older ones) minimize this by using a special defrag mode. I use Diskeeper on my XP and Vista systems, and on the latter I use the VSS-compatible mode exclusively. It works fine, and I've not lost any disk space so far.

You can read more about it here:
http://www.diskeeperblog.com/archive...eature_sp.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312067

If you want to try Diskeeper for free, you can get the free trial versions from their website.

And what I'm saying here is a moot point for reasons well explained
above, but if you MUST MUST MUST do a defrag - on ANY Windows OS,
disable any and all anti-virus/auntie-spyware you have running.

I personally have run into the same "hanging" Disk Defrag with ME and
XP and part of the solution was? Turn off the AV!

-CC