Defragmenting with Vista

blue_ashleigh · 8 April 2009 at 6:01PM

Hello,

I started defrag on my computer since there's no evidence in the Event Log that it's run since I got the computer (it says it's due to run every Weds at 1am, although I never have my computer on then). I have Vista and my computer's about 4 months old. The defrag box has a spinny blue circle indicating that it is indeed doing something, but it's been doing since 10am (so roughly 8 hours so far). Is this normal for Vista? On my XP computer it would take max an hour to do. Is there anyway of seeing if it is infact defragmenting or just showing me a spinny blue circle?

Thanks

aliEnRIK · 8 April 2009 at 6:28PM

I wouldnt bother with vistas inbuilt one but use DEFRAGGLER instead as it does a better job and you can see everything its doing in realtime

ThomasK31ly · 8 April 2009 at 6:33PM

I think the Vista defrag utility runs as a background service, depending on the size of the fragmented disc this could take a long time.

You can run defrag from the cmd line, if you type Defrag -c -w -v

blue_ashleigh · 8 April 2009 at 6:33PM

Cheers
I think I'll give that a try instead.
Vista's blomming rubbish

Bishenden · 8 April 2009 at 10:07PM

Yeah the best thing to do is go to start -> run -> cmd then type: defrag c: -a

Similar to what Thomas mentioned but this will analyze the drive and tell you how fragmented it is. If its above 5% then run defrag c: -f

JethroTull_2 · 9 April 2009 at 3:18PM

blue_ashleigh wrote: »

Hello,
Is this normal for Vista?

Pretty much normal. Vista' defragger is a background low-priority process that grinds away at the disk for hours. You can get verbose defrag analysis and a few more defrag options using an admin-level (elevated) command prompt, but still no drive map or progress indicator.

If you try third party defrag utilities for Vista, i suggest you go for the ones that support shadow copy services. I used to run Diskeeper 2009 Pro on my Vista laptop (now XP) and they recommended to always use the VSS option if system restore was enabled, otherwise it could lead to loss of older system restore points.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312067
http://www.diskeeperblog.com/archives/2007/12/dk08_feature_sp.html

Diskeeper is an excellent defragger, although it's not free, you can get free trial versions from their webpage.

AFAIK, none of the free defraggers are VSS compatible, so use with care.:beer:

ih8stress · 14 July 2009 at 8:22PM

aliEnRIK wrote: »

I wouldnt bother with vistas inbuilt one but use DEFRAGGLER instead as it does a better job and you can see everything its doing in realtime

Hi aliEnRIK, my son is having the same problem as blue-ashleigh. I have followed your advice on previous occasions. Can you please confirm whether defraggler IS suitable for vista as the VSS comment by Jethro Tull (great band incidentally) just goes over my 'too technical for me' head.

Thanks

aliEnRIK · 14 July 2009 at 8:57PM

Defraggler works fine

As for the VSS talk ~ Ive never known defraggler do anything it shouldnt, its fast, and defragging barley makes any difference anyways unles the computers SERIOUSLY fragmented

ih8stress · 15 July 2009 at 2:05PM

Thanks, aliEnRIK. Will let you know how I get on (for future users reference).

ih8stress · 17 July 2009 at 3:54PM

Quick update as promised:

Downloaded Defraggler and it ran fine. It did take AGES but I think that was because it was the first time I'd been able to defrag properly as the Vista one was useless and because I forgot to use Ccleaner to delete temp files, empty recycle bin etc first so of course it had to trawl through all that lot too, doh!

aliEnRIK · 17 July 2009 at 3:58PM

You should ALWAYS run ccleaner first else once youve defragged THEN run ccleaner youll have 'gaps' appear in the harddrive (Which isnt helping at all)

Defragmenting with Vista

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