Incomplete Defragment

[batleth96]

Hello again gang got a new one for you! My Windows 2000 will not completely defrag. It runs all the way through with no problems and does defrag , but it will not defrag completely. I still have fragmented files after serveral defrags.Also is'nt the program files and contiguous files suppose to show up at the beginnig of the analyzer bar? They dont on mine even after several defrags . Wondering if you could shed some light , thanks as always.

[Murf]

Before you defrag clear out all temporary files, Internet Explorer and Windows Temp. Make sure there are no programs running in the background. Disable anti-virus, firewall any of those icons down by the clock disable.

Now try defrag.

[batleth96]

Thanks for your quick response Murf!All that HAS been done ,was one of the first things I tried (even shut down a few processes to eliminate ANY conflicts).Still has'nt helped.I,ve run norton utilities and scan disk(just to clean any possible bugs out) and still nothing works.Any hepl is appreciated .Thanks.I usually run my maintenance (nortons utilities , virus scan , scan disk and defrag)once a week, but this problem started within the past 2 weeks.

[Murf]

If you are defragging within Windows, some files cannot be moved because Windows is using them.

A file with all its parts stored in one location on a disk is described as "contiguous." If a file is not contiguous, it’s fragmented; broken into pieces that are scattered throughout the disk. And defrag should move them.

It’s the file system, not Disk Defragmenter, that takes care of all data movement.

The APIs do not support defragmentation of the MFT, the Paging File, FAT directories, or files open for exclusive use—for example, Windows registry.
NTFS directories can be defragmented in Windows 2000

The following files are permanently excluded from being defragmented. These files may be displayed in the analysis report as still being fragmented no matter how many times you defragment the drive.

Moving the following file can cause desktop problems, if the Recycle Bin or the Recycler folders are removed:
%SystemRoot%\ShellIconCache

Moving the following files (if present) can cause desktop problems:
Safeboot.fs
Safeboot.csv
Safeboot.rsv
Bootsec.doc

The following files are unmoveable system files. They are always displayed in green in the defragment analysis display:

NTFS Master File Table (MFT) and Reserved MFT Zone: Usually contiguous at the very beginning of a NTFS volume but can become fragmented if many files and folders are added to a volume.

NTFS Master File table Mirror (MFTMirr): Usually located in the middle of a volume and is already contiguous.

Virtual Memory Paging file: Used for temporarily swapping pages of memory to disk.

Are you by chance seeing these?

[batleth96]

That makes sense and the report lists alot of these. the volume was so full at one time there was not enough free space(15% needed) to defragment.Files were deleted and registry updated . So it would seem this is just a natural condition of a older maxed out drive , correct?

[Murf]

Your correct, if there is not enough spave for the defrag, then it does what it can and will leave some.This is because a complete copy of the defragmented file is made in the new, defragmented location before the original clusters are marked free.

After defragmenting a disk , Disk Defragmenter may still report: "It is recommended that you defragment this disk." This indicates that there is too little free space to effectively perform the defragmentation routine. If this occurs, do one of the following:

Temporarily move a few large files off the disk.
Delete files that are no longer needed.

It is recommended that you maintain about 30 percent of any NTFS-formatted disk as free space to ensure that you have sufficient room for effective defragmentation

[batleth96]

30% ARE YOU MAD , MAN! How am I supposed to live! LOL thanks for your help .Yous guys Is da best!

[Murf]

Eat cereal for a month after putting out those big bucks for a larger drive...lololo

[batleth96]

Cereal ! Shoot ,grits!