Defraggler

I downloaded Piriform Defraggler from your website. I am not kidding but it defragged for a day and a half and only defragged 7% out of the 14% it said was fragmented. I have a HP Pavilion Notebook, Windows 7 - and it ran all that time. It was still telling me it would be >1 day to finish. I stopped it and uninstalled it as I didn't see how this was possible. I have Diskeeper 9 Home Edition on my albatross XP and it runs very quickly so tried to get Diskeeper onto my Windows 7. It said that edition would not go onto Windows 7 and could not find it free from a site I trusted. Would you PLEASE tell me what you would recommend as a defragger - my system is very slow and I have done every fix it, repair, cleanup, scan, suspicious malware checkers I can think of - and it still runs slow. It is 14% fragmented so if I can defrag it with SOMETHING, I am hoping that will give me back my happy life. The Windows defrag would not work for some reason - stopped every time at 39% analysis - so I removed it when I downloaded Defraggler. The Windows updates have not worked for a couple of months, so I have downloaded the Windows Repair Tweaking.com as you recommend and will work with that today. I started it but it says I need to close out all power, etc. If I do that, do I just restart and come back to the Tweaking screen but ignore that first instruction to power down everything? I want to know before I start my serious tweak with the repair. Thanks for all your help - I trust this site - highly recommended... Mimi

 

How much free space, in %, do you have on the drive? If you have ~25% or so free, the W7 defrag tool should be enough anyway - but you need to find out what the error/problem is that defrag runs into and get a fix implemented.

(Some defrag utilities use a different algorithm to the one used by MS, it sounds like Defraggler might be one, try to find one that uses the same algorithm, it should work with the stock file layout, not against it = faster first time around.)

 

David GP - I have 396 Free of 49.1 used for a capacity of 445. I have 4 installed memory (RAM) with 348 usable... I don't believe it is "healthy" for a laptop to run consistently for as many hours as I ran mine in awaiting a defrag... I need to find something that does its job a wee bit faster I think. I am impressed with Diskeeper 9 as I mentioned - and it is on my DINOSAUR XP with many years of usage and lots of space used up I know. It defrags quite efficiently. Do you think Iobit Smart Defrag will do a similar job for me? Mimi

 

Satrow, see my comment above to David GP with regard to stats. . How would I find what the error/problem would be and fix it? I am quasi computer-literate and have always been able to row my boat out of the problems in the past - with assistance from others such as to be found on this forum - but I stumble along with super intelligence with what the heck I am doing... In other words, I do not know how to find the algorithm of my MS as compared to the algorithm of a defragger I might want to use. That is "greek" to me. Grin. Mimi

 

It is worth running ChkDsk on your hard drive:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2641432

 

Well, it's a notebook so there might be power-saving features enabled that are sending the hard drive to sleep, causing defrag to stall. Do you see nay error messages, if so, see if there's a link for 'more details' or similar?

See if the following helps defrag to continue further: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Herd disk > Turn off hard drive after > Setting Never (0 minutes).

Finding out which 3rd party defragger uses the same algorithm as MS isn't easy, many makers insist on trying to blag you into using/paying for their product with snake oil 'facts'. Usually, you need to dig into comments from users in the Support forums to look for clues - like time taken for the initial defrag, very long = non-MS, short = MS usually

 

Yes, I have done this previously - the long way. But I just ran it again (the short way) for good measure. No bad sectors, etc. Their report stays so briefly on the screen that I don't know a lot more than my eyes grabbed the No Bad Sectors bit. Why don't they let you see the report a bit longer?! Grrrr... Thank for the suggestion... Mimi

 

Why not just do a default setting clean with CCleaner, restart your system, and just run Windows 7 defrag tool and leave it to finish.

 

Okay, that thought crossed my mind while Defraggler was running (and running, and running) but didn't pursue it as I wasn't quite sure where to go to change the sleep mode while the defraggler was running - I was scared to do anything that would bump it out of its run. Now I have set it to Never sleep. I had no error messages while it was running... I missed a lot of sleep but maybe it didn't? I am going to download the defragger suggested by David GP and give it a go. Pray for me - I'm going in... Mimi

 

Don't forget to breathe...

 

I had already uninstalled the Windows 7 defrag tool as it had been months of me trying to get it to go past 39% on an analyze. I am now running the Iobit Smart Defrag and it is moving on!! That 's more like it! Let's see what good it does for me in some of the issues I have been having. I have installed the Windows Repair Tweaking as suggested by MajorGeeks and will do that run afterwards. Thanks for all the help - I will report back on this thread... Mimi

 

I wasn't aware you can even uninstall any such services built in to the OS. Never had a problem with the inbuilt defraggers from Win Vista onwards.

 

Today it looks like I am having a day out with the computer! Such fun - but breathing is part of my plan as well! In the middle of a defrag that is going well, but I will report back when life is happy again!! Mimi

 

I don't remember where this question was posed to me - might have been in the Defraggler process but I think it was in something where I was going through and getting rid of useless stuff installed on my computer - lots of HP stuff I never used or needed and the Windows Defrag might have been part of that wipeout. I was in a mood to rid myself of stuff that had not benefited me... Mimi

 

Yes branded systems often include enormous bloatware.
PC Decrapifier is great for people who aren't confident of removing stuff individually.

 

What Max said, though PC Decrapifier seems less effective than it did in the early years. I was suspecting some OEM bloatware 'optimisations' might have been tied into the Power plan, though accessing the advanced settings there usually overrides them.

Always good to have a clear out, Mimi

 

I LOVE IT!!! Decrapifier indeed! I may run it just to see if I missed some crap other than the HP crap !! Ha, ha, ha!! Mimi

 

Yep - thanks for all your help! I am about to post on this thread to the "Grand Poohbah" with my results/success... Mimi

 

This is my report and results on my install/run of the IoBit Smart Defrag you suggested. The dirty deed is DONE!! Took about 2 hours (which is a WHOLE better than almost 2 days!! It was very clear and efficient what was happening throughout and even gave a report for me:
Total Files & Directories:
146202
Fragments Defragmented:
7789
Files Defragmented:
1338

Life is sweet again - and now to the Windows Repair Tweaking.com. Just a quick question - when it tells me to super power down and even remove the battery, etc., to totally drain power before starting the "tweak" - when I do that, of course, I have to leave the point at which I have just started to run the application and it tells me to power down. Does it come back to that screen after I restart ? Or do I start all over again - and will I get the screen about the power down which started the odyssey in the first place? If you know in case you have run this particular repair... Thanks for ALLLL your help!! Mimi

 

P.S. I was 78% fragmented that's all. Yikes - no wonder!

 

Excellent work!

Yup, it pops up a continuation window just after the shutdown/boot up, take your time, study the options, you probably don't need all of them.

78% looks like a different algorithm had been used somewhere (Defraggler?), it sounds a long way from the 14% in the OP.

 

Thanks for that info on the Windows Repair Tweaking.com Now I can approach it with a bit less apprehension. And I got the 14% from Defraggler which worked a LONGGGGG time before it ever got to 7% - and I was just not ready to give it an additional day of my life, so uninstalled. My new defrag operation will be the IoBit Smart Defrag as I want to have some kind of one installed as I like to do a weekly regimen of disk clean and defrag. That has worked for me for years, but the last few months have been increasingly more frustrating and time consuming. I hope I am about back to "normal!" Thanks! Mimi