[oscar51]

This is not a tip, but a suggestion for a tip -- maybe.

We all agree that it is a good thing to periodically defragment the files on our HDDs. And I believe we all would also agree that this defragmenting usually takes a significant amount of clock time no matter what time of the day we do it -- for my installation (a half-full 6.6GB Maxtor), about 45 minutes to an hour.

Now it appears to me that a major portion of this clock time is used to rearrange the position of files that are fixed in size, sometimes moving them only a short distance on the HDD. So why not put all the fixed-size files (.exe, .dll, .sys, .ttf, etc.) in a separate partition on the HDD so the position of these files would not have to be changed every time the partition with the variable size files is defragmented? It seems to me this would result in some net savings in defragmenting time because the partition with the fixed-size files would need to be defragmented only when an application was added or removed and not on a routine schedule appropriate for variable-size files. About half of my files are fixed-size. So I would move about 1.5GB of files to a separate partition where they would be accessed via a judicious use of shortcuts. Or if partitioning is not doable, they could be moved to a separate HDD.

Questions: Would this actually save any significant amount of time? Or do I so completely misunderstand the defragmentation process that all the fuss & bother of moving files would not be worth the effort?

[butchk]

Defrag in (safe mode)
Works great and it's very fast.

[Lurker1]

Probably not worth the effort. Most of the defrag time is spent moving files that have space in front of them. If you want to speed up defrag turn off the setting "Rearrange my program files so that my programs start faster" No sence moving everthing at the start of the drive everytime you defrag.

[hewee]

oscar51,

On my old PC I have two hard drives and 8 partitions. Because of what files were on what ever drives it would never get that fragmented on most of the drives. I had Windows 95a and used Norton Speeddisk to defrag and it took at most 15 min. to defrag a 6.3 MB drive. I could also just pick what drive partitions I wanted and it would be even faster.

[GoneForNow]

I'm not recommending this to anyone but I use the defrag utility from Win ME on my Win 98SE. It's much faster. I downloaded it to the Windows folder then renamed the defrag utility from Win 98SE so that the shortcut in the Acces menu points to the Win ME defrag utility. Works like a charm.

[butchk]

How to resolve Scandisk & Defrag problems



If you're having problems running ScanDisk and or Defrag, you might like to try out these fixes:

Sometimes Defrag appears to freeze at the 10 per cent mark If it does so wait a bit longer because defrag is just figuring out how to best organise your files and will start running again in a few minutes.

Use Scandisk if Defrag repeatedly dies on you. Run ScanDisk: For Win95 users go to Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools. Win98 users open MyComputer and right-click the drive you wish to ScanDisk and then select Properties then Scandisk. (Or use the same method as previously mentioned for Win95 users.

Use Thorough scan by checking it before you click Start. If ScanDisk can't finish its job either, exit Windows and try using the DOS version of Scandisk to do this click Start/Shutdown/Restart in MS-DOS mode. When you get to the DOS prompt c:\ type scandisk.

Close all your programs including your virus scanner. Don't have any programs running when using either Scandisk or Defrag because these programs will need to access the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and will thus halt or usually cause the process to restart. To exit all your applications, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the Close Program window. Close every program listed -- except Explorer and Systray -- by highlighting each item and clicking End Task.

Disable your screen saver. To do so right-click the desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab. For your screen saver, select None, then click OK.

Clean up your hard drive. The more free space there is on your HDD the better these tools work.

Empty your browser's cache and history folders. Delete all the .tmp and .chk files you can find. To do so, click Start/Find and in the search box (field) type *.tmp and this will search for all your temporary files. Repeat for chk files by typing *.chk in the search field.

Uninstall any programs you no longer use, and finally don't forget to empty the recycle bin. Both Scandisk and Defrag should run like a dream now :O)

[oscar51]

Thanks, butchk, et al, for finding my old post (10-20-2000!) and responding. I had forgotten all about it. It seems that defragging more frequently, e.g., once per week, makes them go faster -- 20 minutes or so.

[johnpaul]

I don't understand. I use Norton 2002 and a defrag takes about 10-15 minutes. My 40 Gb hard drive is about half-full. I defrag at least once a week, sometimes more. The scandisk takes about 10-15 minutes, too.

JP

[oscar51]

As of this morning, ScanDisk in SafeMode took 4 minutes with one reset. I started Defrag in SafeMode*, but after 5 resets and 15 minutes it had gotten to only 80%, so I gave up and ran it again in Regular(?) mode. It took another 10 minutes to get up to speed, run quickly through the first 80%, and then finish the remaining 20% with no resets. (Defrag has never reset on me in Regular mode.) I have the 'Rearrange pgms...' option turned off and am using WinME defrag with Win98SE on a 6.6Gb Maxtor, 2/3 full. I think larger, faster drives may do better.

* P.S.: SafeMode has never done anything for me except scramble the icons on my desktop. I prefer to use DOS where I can to straighten out problems.

[GoneForNow]

Oscar----I'm interested in knowing if you saw an improvement in time by using the Win ME defrag program over the standard one in Win 98. My personal experiance has been that the ME defrag is much faster.

[oscar51]

Yes; it's much faster. I'm happy with the way things are. Maybe some day I'll get a larger, faster HDD, partition it, and selectively defrag as hewee suggested. But with ScanDisk + DeFrag times under 30 minutes, I can't complain.

[$teve]

VOPT...the best and quickest 3rd party defragger on the market.
www.vopt.com
infinately quicker than windows.

[nunfly]

how do you get in the save mode?

[hewee]

nunfly,

F5 or F8 will get you to safe mode.

[vlrbsf]

When i go into safe mode i lose all control of the cursor and my Help and Support screen comes up automatically. The only thing it will let me do is enter a subject to search and once i hit enter it goes to that subject and i can't do anything else. This is with WinMe. Can anyone tell me why? I go into safe mode by holding the Ctrl key down. Would using the F key make a difference? Also, I started using EnditAll which has decreased my defrag time incredibly but my Scandisk time is extremely long. I'm still getting a lot of restarts.