Defragmentation not working on W3J

I converted my hard drive to NTFS using the NTFS converter provided by Asus. I then analyzed my HD and it said that I should defragment. So I tried to defragment it and it goes up to a certain point, where it says Moving file REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE, and it does not go past that. I left it on all night and it stays at that point. I tried it twice and it gets stuck at that part. I don't know what the problem is..Any ideas?

 

This is the second time I heard this. It is not a problem with NTFS drives because my desktop is NTFS and I defrag it monthly with no problem.

Can you try downloading another defragger (not the built in one), and try with that?

 

I was searchin the net and found this here!

I just got my W3J and its having the same defrag problems. I ran scandisk and it took like an hour to finish the scan. Defrag won't go pass that file at 9% either. Anyone has a clue?

 

May be pointless but have you tried defragmenting in safe mode or from a dos bootable defragmenter? I don't really know if these exist hehehe...

 

Whats defrag for?

 

Defrag is used for a process (run by a defragging program) whereby parts of data files on all segments of a computer hard disk are taken from their fragmented state (with parts of files spread all over the disk), and grouped together in complete-file segments. This makes it quicker for applications to find the files they need and frees up disk space, making the computer run more efficiently.

JC

 

having the same problem..stuck at 13% with the same file as mentioned above

 

bump bump...

 

I can't believe there hasn't been an answer here first off... and secondly, I'm surprised I never saw it...... Everyone listen up because this seems to be something even those smart enough to buy an Asus don't know....

YOU DON'T DEFRAG AN NTSF DRIVE!

The reason NTFS is slower is actually because it fragments data on purpose...... so that it can file it away and always know where it is. The reason an NTFS drive never does a "check disk" on start up after the system was shut down incorrectly is because the system already knows where the information was placed..... So, although that was the 10th grade version of what's going on... the basic thing to remember is that if you think you need NTFS - you should know what it's doing first. It shouldn't be possible, but if you were to some how defrag your NTFS drive, you'd actually screw it up... so be thankful the programs don't work.

 

I am sorry, but this is incorrect. If that were the case, then how come Computer Management has a defragmentation tab? And how come every time I used defragmentation on an NTFS partition, it worked without a hitch? And how come over a given percentage of fragmentation, Windows XP recommends defragmentation, as in, quote "You should defragment this volume", end quote?

NTFS not needing defragmentation is a myth.

Source: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/relFrag-c.html

Source: http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/

Source: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_optimization.htm

I've said this before, as a general suggestions to posters: please, do at least a minimal verification of the data posted on the forums, as there are unknowledgeable people which you might lead into trouble otherwise.

These being said, the fact that defragmenting does not work on a NTFS volume is not a situation that should normally occur, it is a malfunction of some sorts that has to be addressed. I never encountered this problem so I do not have a solution or suggestion for it, other than first checking the drive thoroughly, i.e. chkdsk c: /f/x/r .

 

This sounds very strange to me. I'm not a code expert, but to say that one should NEVER defrag a NTFS drive, well that's just bad advice. ALL drives will get fragmented over time and this will lead to a degradation of performance. Why would MS even have a defrag utility in XP if it was not needed? My apology to E.B.E. who already summed this up quite succinctly, but here's something else on the subject:

“Even though NTFS is more resistant to fragmentation than FAT, it can and does still fragment. The reason NTFS is less prone to fragmentation is that it makes intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. NTFS reserves space for the expansion of the Master File Table, reducing fragmentation of its structures. In contrast to FAT’s first-come, first-served method, NTFS’s method of writing files minimizes, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes.”

 

Would you mind to do this way?
1) right click the hard drive, go to "Properties"
2) click the "Disk Cleanup"
3) mark all the check box for cleaning up the useless files
4) close it and go to the "Tools"
5) click the "Check Now" in Error-checking
6) mark the "Automatically fix file system errors"
7) retart the machine for error checking
8) defragment the hard drive after rebooting
We did this way before, it works after this, but i don't quite sure whether it works on your laptop.
Cheers

 

Thanks for the tip! I had the same problem with my two-and-a-half week old A6T. Mine previously hung at 54% (didn't try it a second time), but following your steps it defragged my C drive in 20 minutes.

Bianca

 

Go a head and go through the windows defrag and watch the before and after lines in terms of how your drive will look...... anyone used to a fat32 file system will look at that and think their drive is soooooo fragmented.. A newly formatted NTFS drive will look like a Fat32 drive that has gone through a very rough year..... I'm certainly not saying that an NTFS drive can't use an optimizing once or twice year at most, but it's not going to drastically improve performance as it will on a Fat32 drive.

 

Let me give you an example of an almost year old V6va with a 100gb hard drive formatted in NTFS - never defragged.

Of 75,000+ files, 1 file was fragmented.

 

If you're looking for better performance, choosing an appropriate cluster size will probably lead to more of a performance gain than defragmenting. That being said, defragmenting an NTFS drive will not lead to the drive "not working properly" as stated by PROPortable, unless your computer shuts down in the middle of the defragmentation process.

 

Probably not. By what I read when writing my reply above, it seems the file retrieval algorithm is almost unaffected by fragmentation in NTFS. However, what increases with fragmentation is the need for the R/W carriage to move around the surface of the HDD between fragments, when reading a file. That leads to two problems:
1. Even if the algorithm for computing the location of the file fragments is perfect, you still have to add the seek times between fragments to your time for reading the file. That might or might not be significant (I don't know the numbers and don't care enough to find them out ) I would assume it is significant at least to some extent, otherwise WinXP wouldn't recommend the user to defrag.
2. The increased number of RW carriage movements will lead to higher wear in the carriage hardware. Again, this effect is probably not so significant, as by the time the carriage breaks down, the HDD will have probably been sitting in a garbage bin for five years.

Agreed.

Either you're very lucky, or I understand the concept of "fragmentation" differently from you. When I finish installing my software on the WinXP fresh installation, the partition in Defragmenter is half-red, i.e., half the files have two or more fragments. And that's after half a day.

Personally, I defrag my system partition once every few months (2 two 4 months, let's say). Not because I knew that is really necessary, but because it makes me feel good (being a computer geek 8B).

 

I did a bit of reading since my last post and this effect is quoted as the most significant drawback of fragmentation. Now, any file system which suffers from fragmentation will suffer from this effect -- it is in the laws of physics, it cannot be avoided.

Moreover, fragmentation builds upon itself, i.e. there is a positive feedback: the more fragmented the drive is, the less quantity of contiguous storage is available. Hence, when new files are created, they need to be fragmented, spawning new, smaller discontiguous areas of free space. When new files are created... etc. This is positive feedback, leading to an acceleration in fragmentation (which in the worst case can be exponential). So again, unattended, over time (the total amount of time is dependent on the usage pattern of the partition and of its size), any file system affected by fragmentation will severely degrade in performance.

Edit: Don't be scared by this paragraph though. "Exponential" might sound very bad (and it is, in the later stages), but it might take very long periods of time for fragmentation to evolve from "acceptable" to "very bad".

Now the bad news is NTFS is not the best filesystem out there at keeping fragmentation down... it's somewhere in the middle. Certainly better than FAT/FAT32, but certainly not the best, not flawless, and affected by fragmentation.

In conclusion, my advice: do defragment NTFS partitions . How often, it depends on what you do with them, follow their fragmentation and see when it gets bad. Once every half a year is probably a reasonable suggestion.

 

I can recommend PerfectDisk 7, 30 day trial should be free.
Just analyze drive and follow it's advice.

And yes reading scattered or continuous file makes a big difference to the HDD, especially for slower hdd (i.e., in laptops). Spin latency is the most contributing factor to it (for 4200 it's 14.2ms, for 5400 it's 11ms, for 7200 it's 8.3ms).

 

I never used anything else than the built-in WinXP defragmenter. Its advice is binary (it either recommends to defragment, or not), but I decide based on other, personal heuristics as well

I think diskeeper is free if you have a Windows license? I'm not sure.

 

One of the best software purchases I have ever made was the defrag program I got. Get DiskKeeper. It can do what would take windows 5 hours in 30 minutes. The program runs fast, gives nice readouts, and can be scheduled so you don't have to worry about it. Mine is set to defrag when my computer isn't busy and when it is on AC. So, I will come back to my desk from dinner and it will be defragging, but once I start working, the defrag puases until the computer (HDD) is idle. It will also defrag the external drives on my computer as needed. For $20, it was 100% worth the money. The other nice thing is that it will give you more information than the Windows defragger, and this thing can defrag with almost no space left, I defragged an 80 GB hard drive that had less than 2 GBs free, just fine, windows wanted more than 5% free. This makes defragging a breeze instead of a headache.