That was Windows '98!!! XP doesn't do that. Window's defrag very slow though, imo. As mentioned, best to do it when PC idle for a few hours. Any basic maintenance you can do will help to speed up the processing speed. The less files / rubbish it has to search the faster it will operate.

My Windows defragger kept saying that there were a load of files that couldn't be defragged. The Auslogics defragger somehow manages to delete them. And it's pretty to look at as TP alludes to with his defragger.

I use XP's standard one - but 'pretty to look at' you say, Hils and TP?

That's at least worth a 'Hmmm?', I think.

I don't do ugly, Doc!

Pretty to look at? The words Drying Paint and Watching spring to mind!

Indeed. I started defrag at 21.00hrs. It was 34% complete at around 03.30 when I made a trip across the landing. Nothing else running and speed of scan on max.
Also as Hilary says some files were not defragged.
Thanks for all the responses - I'll probably try TP's solution first if only cos I like my ccleaner.

I use Comodo, Firewall and Antivirus.Free.
Has very handy set of tools, including defrag.
It's very quick, but then it's only an 80 Gig HD.

If you are going to defrag your disk then make sure you run CCleaner first to remove all the unwanted and temporary files otherwise it will take even longer.

Zachary about the CCleaner!

Clear the rubbish and then defrag and then defrag again. Get rid of those frags.

This post was done so fast on this machine, it was edited before it was posted. :-)

One of the other problems with some of the defrag software is that it doesn't defrag the free space. This means that as files expand or new files get written they get bits and pieces to use. I notice that Piriform Defraggler has a feature to just defrag the free space and on a file by file basis if requested. It seems pretty good. It has made a better job at defragmentation than Smart Defrag, but it took around ten times as long. I am going to try the Auslogics Defrag system next.

After Auslogics Defrag and then the other two repeated again I finally managed 0% fragmentation. Each defragmenter managed different files to a different degree.

Whist we are in disk tidy up mode (must be too quiet for much trading) can I mention the massive disk space I recovered by using the facility to delete all the recovery points but one in Drive Properties.

I have a 250 gig disk on this machine. I let MS update my Vista. I recovered about 30 gig three months ago and another 30 gig had crept back by yesterday.

TP

For those of you using Defraggler to work on free space you should look at this.

Judging from the date of the last message and that of the most recent update my guess is that the bug is not yet fixed.

TP

Well defraggler took even longer than the MS version 21.00hrs and finished around 09.30 this am. - and it had an MS defragged HD to start with. I'm still left with 11% defragmentation. I'll try Hillary's option next.

How full is your hard disk, Kernow?

That's a bit personnal!

Is your disk even hard, Skinners?

:o)

Back in the old days, I used to have an 8 inch floppy!

35gb used out of 145 gb capacity - hence I can't see the problem of slowness and fragments left over.

for the record skinny I've still got one :-)