[RESOLVED] Disk Defragmentation Issues

[shiva_42]

Running Windows Vista Home Premium. Have Avira anti-virus loaded and running, but no additional applications. Am having problems with disk defrag utilities not getting anywhere NEAR completely defragged. I've used the built-in Diskeeper Lite that comes with Windows, Defraggler, MyDefrag, and Auslogics Disk Defrag and all report different levels of fragmentation, and NONE of them gets below 20% fragmented after running. Even if you run them multiple times, the inconsistencies don't go away.

Do I need to be running these types of utilities in SAFE mode, or what else am I overlooking?

I remember in the old days when Norton's disk defrag would get you virtually no defragmentation after running, and all of the files would be consolidated to the front of the drive with all free space at the end. Are these unreasonable expectations with new versions of Windows?

[Steve R Jones]

I wouldn't worry about it since you won't notice any difference even if you get it to defrag more.

But, what size partition is it and how much free space does it have?

Do you have any huge 2+ gig ISO type files that are known to cause similar issues?

[shiva_42]

Well... it's a 138GB partition with approx. 92GB free, so... lot's of free space...

As a matter of fact, it DOES have more than 2 2GB+ .iso files stored on the drive... I am ignorant of the expectation that these files will cause such issues.

Is it entirely unreasonable to expect full defragmentation on a Windows OS drive partition, and why do .iso files cause this behaviour? Please point me to one of the (many, I'm expecting) previous threads dealing with this.

Thanks!

[Train]

Perfect disk can handle those .ISO files, but it sure takes time to do it.

[shiva_42]

Thanks for the feedback so far... can anyone address the specific questions?

[Train]

Huge files, like those .ISO, .avi, etc., can have a fault in them that defraggers can not handle, but work just fine.

Run into that off and on when working with video files. Why I cut and paste them to USB hdds and never try to defrag the USB drives.

[shiva_42]

Hmmm... Got it.

Is the ability to fully consolidate all used space at the front of the drive no longer possible like it used to be in DOS? (No laughter please!) I'm assuming the page file and other "files-in-use" issues may affect what I'm referring to, but I'm open to wiser viewpoints!

[jdc2000]

Different defragmenters do different things to not only consolidate used and free space but also move files to the optimum location on the drive for fast loading.

Some useful info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

[shiva_42]

I understand. So running any Windows defragment utility in SAFE mode wouldn't really affect these issues either...

I'm probably making a mountain out of a molehill anyway... I just always prefer to fully understand the issue rather than making assumptions.

Like always, thanks everyone for feedback. I'm marking this resolved.