Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
When you defrag files the pieces of the file are physically arranged for quicker access. But you can't defrag some files. At least, not easily.
My wife's computer shows several fragmented files remaining after a defrag. She has tried uninstalling some programs but some will not uninstall. What can I do to help rid her of this problem or is there a program that will help with this?
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My first reaction is to suggest not calling it a problem. It's not at all uncommon to have some files that refuse to defrag, and that's quite alright.
Let's look at some of the reasons, and some of the ways to force the issue if you still feel you need to.
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Defragging, or more properly, defragmenting, is the process of taking all the parts or "fragments" of a file on your hard disk and making sure that they are physically next to each other, and in order. Files don't need to be that way ... the first part of your file could be on the outer rim of the hard disk, the next part somewhere on the inner portion, and other parts scattered in between. The "problem" that defragging solves is when all those pieces are next to each other and in order, the hard disk has to do a less work to access the file.
There are several technical approaches to defragging, but most require that you have enough free space on your hard disk for a copy of the largest file that needs defragging. Typically defraggers just require some percentage of free space, like 10% or 15%.
If there's not enough room for a second, temporary, copy of the file then the file cannot be defragged. The most common cause for files not getting defragged is that there's not enough free space on the hard disk to do so.
The second most common cause is that the file is in use by some program. That's why most defragging utilities suggest you close down all running programs prior to attempting to defrag. One of the things you can do when you run into this situation is to look at the list of files that were not defragged and see if they are in use. This article: How can I find out who is using a "file in use"? explains how. If you can, you can then shut down the program that has the file open, and try defragging again.
The next problem is that the operating system, as part of its normal workings, often has files open, and that therefore cannot be defragged. One very common example is windows paging or swap file. The folks out at Sysinternals.com have a free utility, PageDefrag for just this purpose. It can schedule a defrag of the system files on your next boot, before the system is actually running.
Similarly, booting from a CD such that the operating system is running from the CD and not your hard drive might also be an option to allow a normal disk defragger to run.
But my question is - why bother?
Defragging the files you can defrag easily, and regularly, gets you 95% of the performance gain you're looking for anyway. Jumping through these extra hoops to get the system files defragged is typically just not worth it, unless you've determined that these files are severely fragmented. And that's rare.
My recommendation is to simply do the normal defrag every so often. If you leave your computer on all the time, this article, What is 'defragging', and why should I do it? even includes instructions on setting up an automated defrag every night, which is exactly what I do.
Article C2704 - June 26, 2006 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
May 13, 2011 8:22 AM
Mein Gott! I have 17% fragmented files on my laptop, and all of these fragmeted files (147 fragments!) are on the "System Volume Information". How can I defragment the System Volume Information? Please, help me.
14-May-2011
June 7, 2011 6:51 PM
My AVG Internet security 2010 reports that I"m protected and up to date, but windows defender warns that the malware moniter is off. When I update the program it reads completed successfully, and gives a error code. How can I resolve this problem?
October 14, 2011 1:45 PM
I have 1 GB free on my laptop's 136 GB hard drive. This is after I have completely emptied my hard drive of photos, videos, documents, pictures, etc. (moved to external hard drive). I'm not aware of any huge programs on my computer, and it was set to defrag every week automatically. Recently, I tried to defrag manually, and it said I had 70% fragmentation. It took a few hours to go through the process, and when it was finished, it still said I had 70% fragmentation. I know you said lack of hard drive space would reduce ability to defrag, but any advice would be appreciated!
15-Oct-2011
February 2, 2012 12:32 PM
The question for me is "why won't some files defrag under NTFS?" I've been using defraggers since PC Tools Compress v.4.21 (way back in the DOS era--also when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and every FAT-based defragger I've used (PC Tools Compress--all versions, Norton Speed Disk, MS-DOS 6.x Defrag, Win9x Defrag--at least in Safe Mode) not only defragmented every single file, but if I wished (and I usually did) it "compacted" the files so that all of the files were together and all of the free space was together (which of course made defragmenting larger files easier). I have mostly been out of the Windows "loop" for the past several years as a Linux user, but dip back into the Windows world now and then. I have yet to find an NTFS defragger that will do what the FAT/FAT32 defraggers could do routinely. They only defrag files to the extent that there is EXISTING contiguous free space to do it with. They don't move anything to create contiguous free space. And files are still scattered (many of them still fragmented) all over the hard drive.
Are there NTFS defraggers which will do the complete job like the FAT defraggers have? If not, why not? Particularly, does it have anything to do with the nature of the NT File System? Thanks. Sign me "Baffled".
06-Feb-2012
March 16, 2012 10:05 AM
Leo: Remembeer I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I'm only a typist with benefits! But since most of us have far more memory than we need why doesn't M/S program windows so there is routinely a 'buffer' between progams for fragmented files? More to this suggestion if you are interested.
17-Mar-2012