A problem with disk defragmentation

So I used
http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview//
and found out I had pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys that were taking up 2GB each. So I gor rid of them (pagefile.sys temporarily), and defragmented.

Now HDD looks like
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxFFFFFFFFFFFxxFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFxx

where x denotes files, and F denotes free space.
Why are there three clumps of files ? Why is is not looking like
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF ???

 

Some files are unmovable?

 

The disk defragmenter does not list these files as unmovable. They are colored blue - "contiguous files"

 

Those are Vista's MTF files.
It's its way to keep resources for itself. I had to use the PerferctDisk 8 demo to defrag those files (it will reboot the system and perform a defrag before loading Vista), after temporarily disabling and deleting the hyberation file, disabling shadow copy and other files Vista like to place at the middle and at the end of the disk. One has to do with error log at boot, IIRC.
Otherwise I could not have shrinked Vista's partition to install Linux (those files are the reason for the "there is not enough space on disk to perform this action" message given by the partition manager.

 

This is win XP.

 

Oh, ok then.
Those are XP MTF files.

 

And they show up as free space in the disk defragmenter ?

 

No, they show up as files in the middle and at the end of the disk.
Try using PerfectDisk 8 (the demo will run for 30 days) and do a system files defrag. I had to disable many things in Vista in order to achieve the kind of defragging with all the data at the beginning of the disk. Besides, I guess that having those files in the middle and at the end of the disk is a "feature". That's what MS call them.

 

The goal of a defragmenter isn't (necessarily) to bunch all files up together. It is simply to ensure that each individual file is not fragmented. What you're after could really be better described as defragmenting the free space, rather than the files.

The point is, of course, that there's no pressing reason why all the files should be clustered together at one end of the disk. As long as the individual files aren't fragmented, you won't take a performance hit when reading them, and that's usually the goal with defragging. Some defraggers will also have optional modes that compact the files like you wanted, but not all. (I know O&O can do it)

 

To the OP: Consolidating free space to a level of 100% is of limited value IMO. Your opinion may vary.

It is more important to have the fragmented files defragmented so they are not scattered all over the platter.

As for the MFT, it is placed physically around 1/3rd the way into the disk, and there is also a fragment (the mft 'mirror') that contains a copy of the first few crucial records from the MFT; this is placed further down.

The MFT and it's allocated zone ought to show up in a different color, not as free space, when you analyze with a defragmenter. And FYI, the XP defragmenter cannot defrag the MFT to the best of my knowledge; only the commercial defraggers such as Diskeeper can defrag the MFT entirely, that too during a boot-time defrag. (It's partially defragged during an online defrag).

 

I would add that consolidating the files into 1 area of the disk actually CAUSES more fragmentation in the long run. One should not use such a feature.

 

Aha, gotcha, thanks.

Gues I'm being a little Monk-like