[Adama]

The last time I Defragged my HD was May 1st, and it took 2 hrs 42 mins (+/-). Yesterday, I ran the DiskCleanup first and then started the Defragging at about 9:14am. I told my BFF that it would take about 2 hours, so off we went to see the Shopping Wizard.


We came back around 1:40pm and immediately checked my laptop, expecting to see the Defragging already finished. I was totally surprised to see that it was still going on! It didn't finish until 2:38pm! It took a whooping 5 hrs 24 mins!!!

It's possible that was the reason why I had been experiencing some slow-downs while on the web, etc. I think that from now on, I will Defrag every month, instead of every 2 months.

How about you - how long does it take you to Defrag your HD?

[Flashorn]

Hey Adama!!



SOOOOO, it took you over 5 hrs to defrag. Which defragmenter are you using?

If it's the one in Vista , that might explain it. I haven't used the Vista one and won't.

There are enough resources at your disposal here at PCW that you might want to try something new.

The one I use , at least every week because, we are on our notebooks every day, is:


|http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/JkDefrag-3.34.zip] [JkDefrag-3.34.zip|Download f



or Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008|465kb|


You can download directly from this link or you can take a look at the web site

JKDefrag .If you run this one It will look a little odd at first because

all you see on the screen are lines of yellow , red and green . The green meaning that

those files are defraged, the red are to be defraged and the yellow are part of the OS that cannot be moved.



So, be a little adventurous and give it a try. As a matter of fact , I have to do one tonight.

I defrag every week if I think about it.



FLASHORN

[piyushsingh]

Three questions for you -

* How frequently do you defrag ?
* How large is your hard disk and how is it partitioned ?
* Do you have automatic/scheduled defragmentation turned ON or OFF ?

[Adama]

Thee answers for you:

* I Defrag every two months, on the 1st of the month.

* HD 1GB (D) 7% free space and © 55% free space. (Is that what you meant by "partitioned"?)

* I have it turned to OFF, because when I had it on a scheduled day, it would not start as scheduled.

So back to the original question - How long does it take you to Defrag your computer?

[lilxkid24]

Vista is just slow as hell when defragging compared to xp. Ive defragged on vista and it took more than 6hrs once too maybe cuz i have like 100gig+ of junk lol. On xp defrag ranges from half an hr to an hr sometimes a bit longer. I defrag idk whenever i feel like it lol

[Adama]

Flashorn, you gotta be kidding me, right?

I clicked on the first link and the thing tried to download a zipped thingy. And then I checked the other link and the information is mind boggling. Just too, too much and too complicated. But thanks anyway.

I use Vista. I have always used the Vista Defragmenting program, because well, it's here in my computer and it has always worked well for me. In all honesty, I have been surfing more in the past month, doing research for my BFF. Thus, more fragmented files.

So, back on topic. How long does it take you to Defrag?

[Adama]

Hi Kid,
Defragging time being 2 hours + is really no big deal for me. I have almost 2,000 pictures, 2 Photo editing programs, the Adobe thing, Quick Time, DivX, Veoh TV and a few more things.


Most of those things I didn't have two months ago, when I did my last Defrag. Plus, I've been doing a great deal of research every day for the past month, and that creates fragmented files. So I can understand why it would take longer this month.

But from now on, I will Defrag every month - on the 1st - and that should cut down the time in half. I think. ;

[lilxkid24]

maybe thats why it explains the long usage of defrag i rarely have any pics but i had a crap load of games that took about 100gigs of space and they have lots of stuff in each file. However now that i dual boot xp and vista my vista has 0 games besides windows one but since i installed it last week i still haven't done a defrag ye but i plan to do one soon.

[Tech4me]

Hi Adama. I use this....: www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,68212-order,6-page,1/description.html . Supper fast..( For Vista Too )

Normally It take 30/45 ms for my lapy ( I have whole lot of stuff plus Office 2007 )

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

[Flashorn]

Heyn Adama!!



What? didn't you like that Direct Download I set up for you?

Beats having to roam around , looking for the download button.

You are soooo funny . I hope this zipped thingy didn't scare you to much LOL.

Adama , you got me rolling on the floor right now. That's the first time I hear of someone

being scared of a download. Anyways, all you had to do is click on the cancel button.

I was simply trying to make as easy as possible for you. Yes, I know that the info. is a bit hard to understand

but, this Defragger is so good.

OK, I use it on a regular basis . Like I said, I defrag once a week when I do lot of searching and posting .

My Defrags usually lasts around 45 minutes to 1 hr. That's because I defrag often enough that the

work is done faster.

There is another Defragmenter that I use on my XP machine called Diskeeper Light and will actually warn

when a defrag is in order. Unfortunately it doesn't work in Vista.



OK, Adama , I think I answered your question. But, I still think that you should give this JKDefrag a try.



FLASHORN.

[piyushsingh]

So your question - it takes me about 30 mins to defrag and i defrag on a weekly basis.
You should run it weekly.

My personal advice to all those running jkdefrag on vista - uninstall it , dont use it , it will give problems. Trust me. It is fine for XP.

[Adama]

Ah knowz et! ROTF, LMAO too!!! LOLOLOL

Gotta run, I want to watch my So You Think You Can Dance program. Sooooo EXIT STAGE LEFT.... !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

[Flashorn]

Hey Piyush !!



OK, now you can't just make a statement like that and run away

with ought explaining why.

I have used JK twice so far and I can't see that it messed up anything.

So, PLZ Piyush , if you know something that we should know........



FLASHORN.

[piyushsingh]

Hi Flashorn
No i m not going anywhere .
In vista system restore is implemented through volume shadow copies , slightly different from XP system restore. The vista default defragmenter takes care of these while defragging. Most 3rd party utilities ignore this , resulting in loss of shadow copy files or restore points being corrupt.

Since you use jkdefrag , i would like you to find in the program if there is any reference to this or not. This wasnt there when i had tried this thing , i m not sure whether they have updated or not.
A 3rd party program which plays nicely with VSS in vista was also mentioned by you , yes the diskeeper. This is compatible with the VSS .That can be used without problems. I got this very program with my mobo and it has an option whether to use VSS mode for drives with shadow copies.

So this was my only concern.

[piyushsingh]

lilxkid24 said:

Vista is just slow as hell when defragging compared to xp. Ive defragged on vista and it took more than 6hrs once too maybe cuz i have like 100gig+ of junk lol. On xp defrag ranges from half an hr to an hr sometimes a bit longer. I defrag idk whenever i feel like it lol

lilxkid - The default defragmenter in vista is much better than in XP. The first time you defragment , it always takes hours to complete , but the more frequently you run it , the lesser time it will take. Only one thing that is better in XP in this regard in that it shows the graphical progress bar type thing but that isn't much important as no one sits and looks at the progress bar.

[Flashorn]

Hey Piyush!!



Thanks for not running away . LOL!

OK, to start off Diskeeper lite will not work in Vista. It is not compatible. This is the free

version I am talking about. I don't know about the full or paid version. I imagine it would be.

You would like me to verify if the JK has this option. OK Piyush , I will just have supper(I know it's late),

and then will verify for you. I was just about ready to do a defrag when you mentioned this, so , I will

hold off and check it out.

see you in a bit.



FLASHORN.

[piyushsingh]

that would be good if you can check since you have it installed. You may try looking in the options menu or something like that. Diskeeper works fine for me, agains looks to me a version problem.

OK, have your supper , I ll get my breakfast (ya , i know its also late).
:)

[rgreen4]

I honestly don't know. I have mine set on a schedule that is triggered at various time depending on the machine. I never see it happen as it happens in the background. I can go in and check the schedule and it will tell me when it last occurred. This machine is set for every Wednesday at 1:00AM Eastern (it has already done it as it is 1:15 now). It did slow down my NAS backup which is copying all my data files to an external drive.

When Vista first came out and the comments started about not seeing the defrag, I was sure that I would miss all the little squares changing color, but now that it does it automatically, I don't miss it at all. BTW - since my system drive in Vista only has 24GB on it, it doesn't take too long, plus the fact that the files don't change that much (no data).

[Flashorn]

Hey Piyush!!



OK, I think I have the answer to your question. This is going to be a long explanation

well, maybe not. this is straight from the J kessels himself in his explanations or FAQs.

Why does JkDefrag delete my restore points?

It's not JkDefrag that is deleting your restore points. Restore points use
the Shadow Copy service to make snapshots of the disk. JkDefrag does not change
files (it only defragments or moves them), but it does change the disk (moving a
file is a change to the disk). The Shadow Copy service remembers all these
changes in big files in the "C:System Volume Information...." folder. When the
total amount of diskspace used by shadow copies exeeds a threshold then the
oldest snapshot (restore point) is automatically deleted. The threshold can be
changed with the "vssadmin" command, see the http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/89d2e411-6977-4808-9ad5-476c9eaecaa51033.mspx?mfr=true] [vssadmin
manpage.

How do I defragment "C:System Volume Information...."?

These huge files are used by the Shadow Copy service, which in turn is used
by the System Restore facility and by Windows backup. The files can be
defragmented on XP by stopping the Shadow Copy service ("srservice"). They
cannot be defragmented on Vista. You can cleanup old shadow copies with "Start
-> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup", the
"More Options" tab. Or you can turn off System Restore altogether like this:

Windows Vista:

# In Control Panel, click "System".
# Select "System Protection".
# If a disk has a checkmark then remove the checkmark.

Windows XP:

# Open the properties of "My Computer".
# Select the "System Restore" tab. If you do not see the System Restore tab then you are not logged on to Windows as an Administrator.
# Check "Turn off System Restore" or "Turn off System Restore on all drives".

OK Piyush , this is what I found . Is it what you were after.



Another point of interest that I found is this:

The Microsoft defragmentation API on Vista can defragment and move the MFT, but
JkDefrag cannot use this capability yet.



So , I think that this JKdefrag is safe to use even in Vista.

The Version that I am using at the present is JKDefrag v3.34 / date of version is / Revised on Febuary /1 / 08.



Here are the changes made for this version:

JkDefrag v3.34 (February 1, 2008)
Changes:
- Re-fixed the "DisableDefaults" bug.
- Partial undo of the change that uses the mountpoint of a volume. It was causing
problems during the automatic scanning for disks to be defragmented.
- Pushed the "Zone calculation" messages down to debug level 4.
- Fixed the VisualC example project.



Ok Piyush, This is what I have found . Is this what you wanted to know?



FLASHORN.

[piyushsingh]

ok flash , i also saw the same faq inbetween . The ver 3.33 onwards are VSS compatible . So you are good to go. :D Cheers friend (INFOMAN) , your utilities never fail.

Now comming to the original question by Adama.
Time for defragmentation is less if you defragment frequently (weekly is best), both me and flashorn run it on a weekly basis. A good thing about windows vista default defragment is that it uses only resources that are idle and doesnt effect performance . Result - you never have to defragment manually.