Win7 defrag questions
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  1. #1
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    Win7 defrag questions

    How many passes, how many consolidations until it is finished or does it keep doing passes til you stop it.

    Also when my screen blanks out and my desktop goes to sleep is defrag suspended? This used to be a problem back in the dos 6.1 days, and it seems defrab IS suspended when my desk top inactivity setting kicks in. Not sure tho.

  2. #2
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    The defragger analyses the disk and only runs as and when it's needed. It is far more intelligent than previous versions.

    I'm not sure about the second question, but I would imagine that it depends on whether the hard disk is set to power down in Power Options. I doubt if the defragger would cease working just because the display has gone to sleep.
    Nick.

  3. #3
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    bartholimew: Make sure that your anti-virus program is not running when you defrag, or any other program for that matter. I don't know about Windows 7, but in the past in other Windows, a lot of defrag programs would stop and start all over again because the anti-virus program running was interfering with defragging. And naturally, when you don't have anything running on your computer other than the defrag program, it will run a lot faster and finish quicker.
    Just a suggestion,
    Sheila

  4. #4
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    The defragger is completely different in Win7, Sheila. It runs in the background, only using the computer's resources when they can be spared. There is no need to disable AV, and indeed you will never normally know when the defragger is running anyway.

    BTW, to check if a volume needs defragging, go to an Administrator Command Prompt (cmd in the Start search box, then right-click the entry and choose "Run as administrator"). Type:

    defrag X: -a

    where X: is the volume that you want to check, and it will analyse the volume and tell you if it is OK or not. To force a defrag of a volume, type:

    defrag X: -v
    Nick.

  5. #5
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    Super Sparks: When you said:

    you will never normally know when the defragger is running anyway.
    Did this mean that the defragger is running without you having to manually start it? I ask because I normally use Auslogics Disk Defrag because it works lickidy split and does a good job. It has been the best defrag program I have ever used. But I would not want to run this program if Windows Defragger was automatically running in the background.
    Thanks,
    Sheila

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  7. #7
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    Train: That was very interesting. In fact, I read it 3 times, trying to get a good understanding of it. I already Knew why and how defragging worked--but that was up to XP. I did not know it had changed in Vista--which is mote now that I am using WD 7.

    A couple of questions. After I read that article I opened up Windows Defrag to see what it said. It had the scheduler turned on and turned on for 1 AM ever Wednesday. I noticed below that that it showed the last time it ran was on Wednesday at 9 AM. I turn my computer off at night, so I am wondering if I had my computer turned off at 1 AM that night (early AM that is), did it then defrag my computer when I turned it on the next morning? Tell you the truth, I don't understand why my HDs need defragging once a week anyway. As the article stated, many years ago when hard drives were a lot smaller I use to defrag once a week, but I don't see the point of doing that now--both my hard drives are 1 Terabytes and I just got it so there is hardly anything on C drive yet. If you were me, would you turn the scheduler off and only manually defrag once a month? Weekly just seems a bit much.
    Thanks,
    Sheila

  8. #8
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    I would leave it, but I normally change the time to 1 - 3 PM and change the day of the week to me more convenient for me.

    That way it does not start to defrag in the morning when I am the busiest .

    I'd leave enabled. And yes it will run when it needs to as you noted.

  9. #9
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    Don't turn the automatic scheduler off if you are using the Windows defragger, there is no advantage to doing so, and it's nice to be able to just forget about it However, if you are using a different defragger, such as the Auslogics one, then you should definitely disable the Windows one, as you should only ever use one. They all have different ideas about what is a fully defragmented disk, so using more than one defragger is likely to result in an endless cycle where each one undoes what the other one did

    Personally, I stopped using 3rd party defraggers back when I was running Vista, the Windows one is just as good, and you don't have to think about it at all.
    Nick.

  10. #10
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    Which reminds me , 3rd party defraggers tend to cause the boot to slow down. Why I stayed with the windows one.

  11. #11
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    Train & Super Sparks: Thanks for all the information because if you had not brought it to my attention in this post, I would have been completely ignorant about Windows Defragger program. Now I just have to figure out the best time of the day to configure my settings. Even though most of you have your busiest time in the mornings, my mornings are probably my slowest because it takes me a couple of hours to wake up before I can do anything intensively on my computer. Usually I just sit there in front of my monitor drinking my first cups of coffee of the day and maybe read my emails or play spider solitaire.
    Less ignorant now,
    Sheila

  12. #12
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    TBH, I don't think it matters much, the scheduled time is really for those folks who leave their computers on 24 hours a day. For those of us that don't, Windows will still find a time to run these tasks as soon as practicable after the scheduled time. Given the power of most computers nowadays, you don't notice any performance hit when tasks like the defragger run in the background anyway
    Nick.

  13. #13
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    I'm running PerfectDisc 11 and it seems fine. How do I turn of the windows defrag?

  14. #14
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    Nick.

  15. #15
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    Thanks for that supersparks... just for closure/full info, when I went through the procedure it flashed up a window to say that another program had set the schedule - I wonder if Perfect Disc had taken over the windows defrag system? Anyway, by switching that part off it let me cancel the Wed at 1 which it defaulted back to.

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