Defrag Slows Computer

[rwinegar]

After running defrag and rebooting everything slows to a crawl. Clicking on Windows Explorer shortcut takes a minute to completly expand C:/. Opening a jpeg in M/S Photo Editor takes about 5 seconds. Copying and pasting a jpeg from Windows Explorer to desktop takes about 15 seconds. About a month ago I reformatted the HD on which the OS and program files reside. The problem was occurring previous to that following defrag. I defragged this weekend and the problem resurfaced. I discovered that if I remove all 4 checked items from msconfig startup and reboot and them recheck them and boot again that the problem appears to go away. Programs open in a flash just like before. I am not sure if it will slow down again or not though. I just discovered this so-called "fix" late last night.

It appears that when defrag moves files that Windows is, for some strange reason, unable to find them again. I know this problem is not happening to everyone.

What causes this? Is there any way that I can prevent it? Is this happening to anyone else? I have not tried to defrag in safe mode, but I fail to see how this would make any difference. Norton AV and screen saver is disabled during defrag. Drive being defragged is 40 GB with about 35 GB free.

Dell 8200 XP home 512 Ram 1.8G P4

Thanks in advance.