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.

Disk Defragmenter

As mentioned earlier, the application offers only two options: "Modify Schedule" and "Defragment now".

Disk Defragmenter

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.

Disk Defragmenter

If you want to schedule automatic defragmentations, first click on Modify schedule.

Disk Defragmenter

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.

Comments

Mon, 02/16/2009 - 04:32 — Dave W (not verified)

Defrag not working?

I have Vista HomePremium SP1 installed with the defrag utility scheduled to run every Mon at 2AM. At the scheduled time the task scheduler will claim it is running but I can find no evidence of this in the task manager process list. If I hit the Run button in task scheduler I also find no evidence of the process. If I run defrag from a command prompt I will then find the defrag process in the task manager process list.
Two, when I return to the computer the next day after work I will open the task scheduler and under the defrag task History tab I will find that the defrag utility is claimed to have run continuously for the last 14 hours, only stopping because I moved the mouse. I will also find the computer in sleep mode. I have always heard that the HD is turned off in sleep mode so I cannot believe that defrag was running while the computer was asleep.
I've also heard that Vista defrag will only run with lowest priority. Could it be that every slight tick of computer activity will cause defrag to restart from the beginning, effectively never allowing it to complete it's work?
Ciprian, could you please use my email to respond?
Thank you, Dave

Sun, 03/01/2009 - 03:34 — Anonymous (not verified)

This is not acceptable M$

Without a graph, how do you know if your page file (swap file) (which is in Green) has data before and after it? With out a graph how do you know if your page file is fragmented? I can not afford to buy extra tools, like diskkeeper, to maintain my systems. This is CRAP. We pay way too much $ for this average OS, and for what we pay for it, IT SHOULD COME WITH EVERYTHING WE NEED OUT OF THE BOX!

Wed, 06/03/2009 - 08:18 — Sepharim (not verified)

Vista SLOW Defragmentation

It has been over 12 hours now defraging! I miss the visual of seeing the fragmented files in red. It is more satisfying to see it! Should I cancel it or let it do it's thing??? I deleted about 56GB of stuff off of my 298GB external hard drive (ie. Autocad program and such). Will it damage the external drive for being on so long? It's getting quite hot.

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