Disk Defragmenter
Tue, 09/11/2007 - 19:38 — Ciprian
Disk Defragmenter is another application that has been changed in Windows Vista compared to Windows XP. Unlike other applications that were modified, Disk Defragmenter was simplified to a bare minimum. You no longer have menus or the colored graphs showing you how the data is arranged on your hard drive. The application offers only two options: "Defragment now" and "Modify schedule". Even though some people will miss the old interface and the configuration features, others will welcome the change. One thing is for sure - working with the Disk Defragmenter is easier than ever.
In this article I will go through the new interface and the available options and you will see for yourselves how easy it is to use the new Disk Defragmenter.
To find Disk Defragmenter, go to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools.
As mentioned earlier, the application offers only two options: "Modify Schedule" and "Defragment now".
If you press the Defragment now button, the defragmentation process will start. Unfortunately you won't see a progress bar nor an estimation about the time left until the end of the process. You just have to wait until it finishes. This is why I recommend you to do this during the night or when you go to work and the computer is not being used.
If you want to cancel the process, just press the Cancel defragmentation button.
If you want to schedule automatic defragmentations, first click on Modify schedule.
In the scheduling window choose the frequency, the day and the time when the automatic defragmentation should start. For most people, it should be enough to run the defragmentation once per month.
Related articles:
What is new in the Disk Defragmenter from Windows Vista SP1
Defragment your hard drive from the Command Prompt
Benchmarking the Disk Defragmenter
Disk Cleanup
Recommended articles:
Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
Disk Defragmenter FAQ
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Comments
Choose which drives to defrag
The tutorial doesn't mention that you can choose which drives to defrag. With Vista Home Premium, in the Defrag window I have 3 options: Modify schedule, Select volumes, Defrag now. Perhaps not all Vista versions have the option to choose which drives to defrag.
I really like the new defrag options where I can set the computer to defrag weekly and not worry about it. I do miss seeing the colored status bars and especially the report at the end. Windows Help says, "Advanced users can use the command line tool Defrag.exe to generate detailed reports and perform other advanced tasks." I'm not an advanced user and I'd like to see step-by-step details how to generate a report. The subject of reports (detailed analysis) is mentioned here: http://www.vista4beginners.com/Defragment-your-hard-drive-from-the-Comma...
Windows Help says, "Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation process." Defraging took me about 6 hours when I manually ran it. Since you can continue working on the computer while it's defragging, it doesn't much matter how long it takes and I don't really need to know how much time it has left.
Great tutorial!
Option available in SP1
You choose which drives to defrag only if you have SP1 installed. We are working on an article about this as we speak.
Will be published in the next few days.
Disk Defragmenter
I agree with most of the above, having no idera when my disk defragmenter will finish it work is absolutely rubbish. It will simply stop me from defragmenting unless I absolutely have to. As it doesn't give any information at all I guess I'll never know if I have to use it or not.
As for buying an aftermarket disk defragmenter why should I have to. Vista cost me so much it should improve upon previous versions not become more primitive and user unfriendly.
I would also like to throw
I would also like to throw in my two cents and say I hate, hate, HATE anything that doesn't give me feedback. At the very least, you need to indicate that _something_ is being done. This is an inconvenience when the defragger is working properly, and infuriating when it doesn't. For the record, mine has never worked. No matter how I approach it, I just can't get it to do the job it was designed for. I've had the window disappear on me, the DOS command return having accomplished nothing, and the program start up successfully and attempt to defrag only to come back 30 seconds later with the same message that, "[my] file system performance can be improved." Fantastic. When the Vista team figures out exactly how the XP team accomplished that, roll out a patch. In the mean time, I'll keep trying to debug the problem blind.
defrag dont work
my husband has windows vista on a brand new laptop, had a few problems so did a defrag, once started dont no how far it got but the laptop shut down and gave an error message and then booted into safe mode. anybody got any ideas why it does that its done it twice now.
Better options than the built-in tool
The best freeware defrag program IMHO is JkDefrag. It even has a screen saver mode. If you combine this with the boot time defrag capability of UltraDefrag, you have a complete open-source solution.
The best professional defrag product is the relatively new Puran Defrag 5.1 product, which offers boot time defrag, automatic defrag, or manual defrag. It isn't bloatware, and is unobtrusive but highly effective.
even 14 hours...
I started my disk defragment from 11pm,
I left my laptop for the defragment.... it is still defragmenting when I came back from work after 1pm...
what the hell is that?
Is it possible to defragment for even a day to complete ?
defrag... another MS disaster
Wow, just when i thought windows couldn't get any worse. No status during defrag. It's been 5+ hours and who knows how much longer... days? weeks? months? Is it even doing anything? What I wouldn't give for a mac right now. Microsoft is a horrible company. I want my money back.
Use Defrag.exe until Microsoft fixes Vista defragger
Hi Folks,
Microsoft hosed Disk Defrag with its new Vista operating system. It does not work and merely loops back to the beginning when executed from Windows, as far as I can tell.
For those itching to defrag their volumes and don’t want to wait until the Redmond geeks get this one fixed, I recommend using the command line alternative. Here is a link to a page on TechNet that explains the syntax necessary to run it from Command Prompt:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731650.aspx
Vista's Defragmenter, like
Vista's Defragmenter, like most things on Vista, is a horrible downgrade. No status bar or indicator of any kind leaves you wondering whether or not Vista is hung up, and whether or not it's telling you the truth when it says your file system needs improvement. Not to mention the fact that it takes 10x longer on Vista to degrag your hard drive. I've managed to make it through the process one time. When it finished in the morning as I woke up, I restarted the computer, and out of curiousity I decided to start disk defragmenter again. And it still said "Your file system performance could be improved, it is recommended you defragment your hard drive now." Or something to that effect. So a 5 hour defrag that apparently doesn't do anything? Either that or Vista is lying to me when it says that my system needs defragged. But we have no way of knowing which is which. WHY, you ask? Because there's no freaking status bar! I wasn't really a big fan of XP's disk defragmenter when it came out, but it was 30x better than Vista's version.
Isn't the idea of upgrading your computer with a newer OS to make the computer run better? So far, Vista has been a huge let down. Disk defragmenter doesn't work, errors keep popping up, my games all have issues running. Even the ones designed specifically for Vista. I have had to use workarounds for COD 4, COD 5, Grand Theft Auto IV, etc. etc..
And these aren't normal workaround either. In one of them, I had to change the freaking sound settings to output at 16bits 48000Hz just to get the game to work. In a different one, Vista kept saying my disc wasn't in the drive, when it was. And another of them just won't work at all. And on top of it all, I still can't get my microphone to work right with Vista. People can barely hear me, and I have the volume cranked all the way up with the mic boosted to the max.
I know for a fact that I'm not the only one suffering from these problems. And there are people out there that have it far worse than I do with Vista. Only reason I haven't thrown the hard drive out the window is because I have enough experience with computers to know how to work around most of the issues that arise. But some of them are new even to me.
Anyway, enough ranting about Vista for now, I guess.....Bill Gates should shove it where the sun doesn't shine...
Vista should be trashed. It never should have been released in the first place. This is worse than Millenium Edition. And quite frankly, new computers being released should stick with XP. If I could get Vista off of my computer, I would. Unfortunately it's designed to be hard as you know what to uninstall. And I am not paying Microsoft another $80 to DOWNGRADE to XP. This freaking computer came with Vista because I didn't get to choose my OS.
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