Harddisk defragger

[N00b]

Yes, that was the first thing I tried. It helped, but not by much. I suspected that Windows thought it was a system file of some kind. But it is definitely the fault of the build-in defragger. It is a big file (2.6 GB), so if the defragger doesn't try to make free space continious, it just doesn't fit. And it didn't even try to defrag it.

Like I said before, use Contig from Sysinternals. It's the absolutely best tool for this kind of problem. Depending on the fragmentation of your hard disk it might not be able to fully defragment the file, but it will decrease the fragment count considerably, most probably to 100 fragments or less (your mileage may vary).

A good strategy is to defrag your hard disk with the built-in defragmentation utility, then use Contig on any file that still has more than 100-200 fragments and then use the built-in defragmentation utility again.

 

[silence]

A good strategy is to defrag your hard disk with the built-in defragmentation utility, then use Contig on any file that still has more than 100-200 fragments and then use the built-in defragmentation utility again.

How long would that take?

 

[N00b]

How long would that take?

Well, it obviously depends on the size, speed and fragmentation of your hard drive. But as a rule of thumb the second defrag and contig together usually do not as long as the first defragmentation pass (if your hard disk is considerably fragmented in the first place). Again, your mileage may vary.

 

[digitalwanderer]

A few words about defragmenters: Diskeeper Diskeeper Diskeeper Diskeeper Diskeeper.

Tried it last night and liked it a lot, thanks.

 

[N00b]

For those of you, who want to defrag their page files and registry hives, Sysinternals has another utility called PageDefrag that can do this and, of course, it's free.

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

 

[thehulk]

I've used Norton SpeedDisk, PerfectDisk, VoptXP, O&O Defrag, Diskeeper.
The best imo would be PerfectDisk.

 

[karlotta]

I've used Norton SpeedDisk, PerfectDisk, VoptXP, O&O Defrag, Diskeeper.
The best imo would be PerfectDisk.

Because?

 

[thehulk]

Because?

Norton SpeedDisk - was only good on Win9x.
Diskeeper - fastest but not very thorough, probably because of its defrag strategy ?
PerfectDisk - slower but gets the job done.
O&O - took too long and about as good as Diskeeper.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Power Defrag Lite is much faster than any of those and it's free.
Honestly, give it a shot.

Norton SpeedDisk - was only good on Win9x.
Diskeeper - fastest but not very thorough, probably because of its defrag strategy ?
PerfectDisk - slower but gets the job done.
O&O - took too long and about as good as Diskeeper.

 

[one]

Ever after the amount of HDD in my PC surpassed 500GB I don't defrag it.