Windows XP MFT defrag

**Zayd** · 07-08-2009

Hello Good Morning,

My windows XP HOme Computer has slowed down to an absolute crawl.I have not defragged it for a long time . Unfortunately the defrag didn't make much difference because the MFT is showing 397 fragments.Now i have absolutely no idea what to do.Can anyone advise how to deal with this?

thanks for any help..!!!

**Solomon** · 07-08-2009

You better buy a third party defrag tool such as Executive Software Disc keeper which can defrag the MFT, or backup all date etc and reformat the drive and restore.In addition to other advice, they might want to run chkdsk as well. This act will cleanup leftover security descriptors from files that are no longer accurate.

**Lillebror** · 07-08-2009

I would be interested in viewing a Disk Defragmenter report .In your Disk Defragmenter locate Analyse and View Report Save those files. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents. Do this prior to running Disk Defragmenter as it is more informative.There are many files , some system files , restore backup files thae are not to be modified , replaced or moved during use. the defragmenter cannot move such files.If u really want to defragment all these, u will have to use a boot time defragmenter.I personally use diskeeper for all defragmentation purposes.

**Rudra.J** · 07-08-2009

I would tell you to use Disk properties> Tools> Error Checking check both boxes.It will bring a notification stating that the task cannot be done at this time and should it be done at the next restart. Say Yes. Reboot when convenient to let the tool do its work.they might want to run chkdsk as well. it can helpful to cleanup leftover security descriptors from files that are no longer corrupted

**padukone** · 07-08-2009

Originally Posted by Zayd

Unfortunately the defrag didn't make much difference because the MFT is showing 397 fragments.

Your disk must have been nearly very full at one time, or you must have had a very large number of files on the volume for that to happen.

You can download the free trial version of Diskeeper 2009 Pro and defrag with it..just leave it on auto defrag mode (I use it that way) and it will defrag almost all the files (incl most of the MFT fragments), quietly in the background. After that, a boot-time defrag will fully fix both the MFT as well as the paging file.

It's also a good idea to run disk cleanup before the defrag so there is sufficient free space.