Which is the BEST tool that I should use to defragment my HD?

[KotaXor]

No problem, just a gentle reminder, that's all.

[drmaster]

I understand that some of you are very BIG fan of Ultimatedefag but my experience with this program is so far some what negative.

Maybe it is just me but so far this is just weird program and I don't think it is working property nor work better then any other defragment program.

Here are some of issues I am having.

1. Ultimatdefrag won't defragment entirely on first attempt. Disk analysis reports 30% of my disk is fragmented but even after I run the defragement, it reports about 17% of the disk is still fragmented.

2. Okay maybe I need boot time defragment to eliminate that fragmented file but after boot time defragment, fragment file jump up to 30% again. I have to rerun defragment and boot time defragment to eliminate fragmented file. How inefficient is that?

3. My primary use of this computer is internet use. I don't' download and erase big files nor do video editing. But yet a week after defragment, disk analysis reports yet again 30% of disk is fragmented. I doubt the disk would fragment so much so quickly.

I have to question the efficiency of this program.

FYI. Vista Ultimate 32 bit.

I use only auto mode.

[KotaXor]

Hmmm, this is unique.

Normally I need to do a full defrag about once every few months unless I have installed or uninstalled big program.

But then I don't use 'Auto' mode. I configure base on sought tutorial in the tutorial page.

And so far it has been fabulous.

Maybe sought can help you on this..

[drmaster]

Now I've done Boot time defragment and auto defagrament twice and it still reports that the disk is 12% fragmented.

I going to read a sought tutorial to see it helps but

I might just go back to Perfectdisk.

It became a bit of bloat ware but never had a problem with it.

[shought]

Could you show us a screenshot of your fragmented disk(in UD).

[drmaster]

The degree of fragmentation will grow humongous within few weeks, if not a week. If you are interested, I'll also post that screen shot.

[shought]

Well, it seems there is one really big file UD can't defragment, could you click one of the blocks that the big red file fills and tell us what file it is?

I would also recommend checking out my guide in the Guides & Tutorials section. Another thing you might want to do is this:

Start > Run > cmd > enter 'cd \', press enter, enter 'fsutil usn deletejournal /D driveletter'(in my case: fsutil usn deletejournal /D C:) and press enter.

This won't hurt your computer in any way, I'd recommend doing this before every defragmentation(even though the boot time defrag is supposed(and does here) defrag these files...).

Sometimes these files($usn$jrnl, or smet manage to fuck up the defragmenting process because they are stored all over the HD in sometimes hundreds of fragments.

If your HD shows like that I don't believe you already did a boot time defrag, or did you?

[drmaster]

If your HD shows like that I don't believe you already did a boot time defrag, or did you?

Oh yes I did. Twice!

I didn't do anything and the red fragmented file magically disappeared.

By looking at the percentage drop, fragmented file consist of only 2%...

I am pretty sure that the disk will get fragmented soon, I'll post when it happens.

[shought]

Could you right click the drive that gets fragmented all the time and show us which files are fragmented(all of them). (Either by multiple screenshots or making a list)

[drmaster]

Due to the upload file size limit, I had to reduce it to tiny size.

Before defragment, degree of fragmentation was 9.34% but after it jump up to 26.35%

Most of the fragmented files are system volume file.

It seems then while defragmenting, system volume keep increase, filling the hard drive as fragmented file.

Free HD space before defragment it was 64GB but after it went down to 45.8GB.

What seems to be a problem?

[shought]

You should upload the screenshots to TinyPic.com :)

It seems you have a lot of very big files, what I recommend you is this: copy at least 10 GB of your biggest files to an external HD, a secondary HD or a memory stick, run a boot time defrag, then run a normal defrag, copy the files back to your primary HD, run another defrag. That should fix it.

If you can not copy at least 10 GB(or 5GB, that may also do the trick) then you should do this: Start > Run > cmd > Enter > type 'cd \'(not /, but \) > Enter > type 'fsutil usn deletejournal /D <driveletter>:'(so in my setup(primary driveletter C) I would type 'fsutil usn deletejournal /D C:') > Enter. Do not reboot your PC afterwards, run a defrag, after this defrag the problem should be fixed.

[drmaster]

After reboot, degree of fragmentation went up again to 30.80%

but contrary to fragmentation, free disk space freed up to 60.4GB. And of course, still most fragmented files are system volume files.

Before defragmentation

http://i43.tinypic.com/2ljtky0.jpg

After defragmentation

http://i43.tinypic.com/o6batz.jpg

After reboot

http://i44.tinypic.com/2rhxu9y.jpg

If you can not copy at least 10 GB(or 5GB, that may also do the trick) then you should do this: Start > Run > cmd > Enter > type 'cd \'(not /, but \) > Enter > type 'fsutil usn deletejournal /D <driveletter>:'(so in my setup(primary driveletter C) I would type 'fsutil usn deletejournal /D C:') > Enter.

I have already done that when you first mentioned it.

Maybe I'll give Ultimatdefrag a shot again when next version come out.

But it's time for me to move back to perfectdisk. ;)

Thank you shought for your help.

[shought]

Mkay, sorry to hear that...

Didn't copying some of the bigger files of your HD to the secondary HD(or memory stick) do the trick?

Additionally could you show me which files are so heavily fragmented(as UD says).

Still trying to solve the problem ;)

[drmaster]

If I remember correctly, it looked like

System Volume File {asdfasdfasdfkjlahfiuehkljasdhfnkljasdh..................................}

And most of the red squares looked like the above.

UD is gone now but if you are really curious, I can reinstall.

[LeetPirate]

If I remember correctly, it looked like

System Volume File {asdfasdfasdfkjlahfiuehkljasdhfnkljasdh..................................}

And most of the red squares looked like the above.

UD is gone now but if you are really curious, I can reinstall.

Try PerfectDisk 10 and but use consolidate method, not smart placement cuz their smart placement algorithm is pretty dumb if u ask me.

Most likely those files in system volume information could be system restore crap, sometimes indexing, and sometimes other programs like norton somehow gain access to it to store other useless shit. You might want to double check to make sure you don't have any program that makes backups of system data in those folders. The best thing is to disable system restore, then use the windows disk cleanup utility to delete all but the last system restore or vice versa I can't remember which way it goes. When you're done then try PD10, and if you want you can try UD once more. ;)

I also recommend taking a read of this thread, they seem to know lots about the similar files you have.

[shought]

Maybe try to defragment your HD with another defragmenter(liker Raxco PerfectDisk) and then try to run UD again? I really can't see why this is happening.