Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Resolved Question

Computer defrag

Mar 1, 2014 1:48AM PST

My computer needs defragging, but not one program, including Windows Defrag, is able to move any files. Is there a setting that I'm not aware of?

Discussion is locked

LeslieSMedina has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

- Collapse -
(NT) Maybe your hard drive doesn't need defragging
Mar 1, 2014 1:56AM PST
- Collapse -
Computer Defrag
Mar 1, 2014 3:14AM PST

Auslogics, PerfectDisk and Windows all say I have a large number of fragmented disks. Defraggler, which is working on it now, says it's 54%. After two hours, nothing is defragmented. It makes sense to me that having a bit more order than that will allow my computer to work faster.

I'm using Windows 7 Professional.

<input id="mac_address" value="" type="hidden">

- Collapse -
Rarely makes it work faster.
Mar 1, 2014 3:35AM PST

If it does I'm looking at how much RAM, if the OS has issues. For example many folk install Windows and rarely anyone has a great install plan. Microsoft has had decades to sort that out yet here we are.
Bob

- Collapse -
I've seen numerous reports to the contrary
Mar 1, 2014 3:35AM PST

20 years ago it was a common belief that you needed to defrag periodically. With today's technology everything I've seen in recent years says it does little or no good. I have to say that even going back 25 years I NEVER saw any improvement in doing defrags. 5 or 6 years ago PC World magazine ran an article saying they'd done extensive lab tests and couldn't find any situation where it helped. The one exception is when your hard drive gets nearly full; however the best solution for that is to move stuff off or get a bigger hard drive.
Old ideas about defragging and registry cleaners persist, but they are obsolete ideas.

- Collapse -
Computer Defrag
Mar 1, 2014 9:01AM PST

I guess what you're both saying, then, is that defrag programs are useless. I guess they are, since none of them actually seem to do anything. Thanks for your input.<input id="mac_address" value="" type="hidden">

- Collapse -
Answer
(NT) I'd stop and start using the PC. No real reason to defrag.
Mar 1, 2014 2:01AM PST
- Collapse -
Answer
Re: defrag
Mar 2, 2014 5:04AM PST

SSD or HDD?

Kees

- Collapse -
Defrag
Mar 2, 2014 7:20AM PST

HDD. It's a Dell Studio with Windows 7 Professional. I've used less than half the hard drive so far.

- Collapse -
I've never seen defragler doing nothing.
Mar 3, 2014 5:00AM PST

You can try contig (a command line tool) from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx
The nice thing: it shows each file it sees on the screen and it can do one folder.

But it's a command line tool. So some easy step to use it:
1. Move the exe file to a folder with a short simple name, say c:\temp.
2. In Windows Explorer, shift-right click on a folder and choose "Open command prompt"
3. Type c:\temp\contig.exe *.* /s (just copy/paste into the command window, if you can't get the spaces right) + enter
4.It will defrag all files in that folder and all subfolders.

Repeat for all folders.

Kees

- Collapse -
Defrag
Mar 3, 2014 7:10AM PST
Blush Thanks for the information, Keys. I got someone from PerfectDisk tech to help me, and I've sent a couple of logs and files. If they can't straighten out their program, I'll follow your instructions. I've copied them.

Leslie<input id="mac_address" value="" type="hidden">
- Collapse -
Defrag update
Mar 3, 2014 10:09AM PST

Well, I got information from the tech person at PerfectDisk, my latest defrag program. When she found out that I have RollbackRX installed, she said the only way I can defrag is to uninstall RollbackRX, defrag, and then reinstall Rollback. It creates spaces for its various snapshots of my system. That makes perfect sense to me. So I'll do that maybe every three months or so.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Leslie