Defrag not working well

Recently my computer had been running slowly ,P-3 833 meg,128 ram 40megs hd,X-P,so i ran the defrag program, there was a lot of red ,(fragmented files),after the program had finished there was not a lot of difference.I ran the analyzer again it said i needed to dfrag,so i ran it again with no better results.Can someone help or explain?

 

Raptor,

The main trick is to close down all running apps before running defrag. To do that, right click all icons in the tray and choose Exit wherever it's available. Then right click the taskbar (an empty area) and choose Task Manager, choose the Applications tab, then click each application and click the End Task button for it.

Now double-click My Computer, right click the drive name, choose Properties, then the Tools tab, and then the Defragger. Click the grey-barred name of the drive to select it. Don't bother with Analyze; just click Defragment.

When it finishes, clcik View Report. Now study the list of files that resisted defragging and see how many of those are junk files that you can delete. You may need to seek the help of a more experienced coach. Once you have deleted some of the trash that won't defrag, another run of the defragger will produce better results, using the space the deleted trash cleared.

C'mon back for more help as needed.

 

ALL of my defrag problems disappeared after starting to use this toll. Good catch T'moon.

 

Shut em all down at once

Thanks thundermoon. Now I can shut down all programs at once, before running some other programs that work better with no others running, or loaded. Baz

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Further on from your Defrag Issue, thats the very bare minimum you are trying to run XP with, have you visited blackvipers site and disabled all unnecessary services?
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Also have you used any hard drive cleaners, registry cleaners or spyware scanners lately, good regular maintenance will help keep your machine running smoother
Any questions about any of the above just ask, theres some very helpful people here who will only be too glad to pass on some reccomendations