Windows 7: 0% fragmented, for seven months

Never thought too much about it until reading some threads here. My Disk Defrag was set to once a week which I think is default. AFAICT my disks have always been 0% fragmented.

I don't think it is defragging them to get them to 0, they are not fragmented to any degree, according to Windows.

I decided to change the schedule to once a month based on some comments that defragging too often can be bad. So after eight days I analyzed C: and it still says 0%.

The computer is 7 months old, has 70GB of data and has had a lot of things moved in and out. Shouldn't there be some fragmentation at this point?

I previoulsy used Auslogics on a different computer and understand Windows may not find as many fragments as Auslogics or others.

I just wonder if it's really possible to be 0% fragmented for so long?

Did you run Analyze Disk?
You have to run Analyze Disk to get the new fragmentation after each defragmentation.

You need to push the ANALYZE button to get the actual fragmentation %.

I'm not sure if you did that. If you did disregard.

The only way I could possibly see defragging often being bad, is if you have a SSD. The amount of disk usage used by defragging is unlikely to wear out your drive any more than normal usage.

Windows defrags in the background anyway, even when not scheduled when disk usage is idle, so that could account for some of it, maybe you are checking at the wrong times?

Also, in my opinion 3rd party defraggers do more harm than good. The Windows defragger is Prefetch and Superfetch aware, so it orders the files the way they are needed. 3rd party defraggers dont always do that, and can actually defeat the object of superfetch, as the drive spends more time fetching.

For example: When you launch an application, lets say it reads the first 10KB of notepad, then the last 5KB of Media player. (yes I know... an unlikely scenario, this is just an example) Windows defragger will put the files in that order, so they can be read quicker. A 3rd party defragger is much more likely to put all of notepad together, and all of Media Player together. This actually results in longer seek times because it has to go and find the other bits, and then go back again, even though technically the programs aren't fragmented any more.

The screen shot you see shows C: after being analyzed. And it says 0% fragmented. It had been eight days since defrag had automatically run so I decided to analyze C:.

I am pretty sure Disk Defragmenter has never done any defragging because the disks have always been 0% fragmented. So that leads to my question. Is it possible to have 0% fragmentation after seven months?

Yes, is the short answer.

As I said, it will defrag in the background anyway when the drive isn't busy. The schedule is basically there to clean up anything it misses. Most people's machines probably never even hit a scheduled defrag, as their machine's aren't on at 3am on a wednesday.

It's unlikely for it to always be 0% when you happen to check, but certainly not impossible.

It's not unusual to see fragmentation remain low, NTFS is quite intelligent when it comes to fragmentation resistance anyway, and combined with the background defragging, it is very rare for me to see a drive get anywhere beyond 3% fragmentation, with 0% being the norm. So I would say that what you are seeing is quite normal.

How often do you check how fragmented the drive is? If the answer is not often, then I wouldn't worry. If the answer is say, every day, then I would be a little more concerned.

Not a chance. Even after a clean install there will be some fragmentation. Check it from Safe Mode, see if you get the same results.

Two different opinions, one saying normal, the other saying a problem .

My Disk Defragmenter schedule was set to every Wednesday when the computer was on (it's now set for once a month). I didn't check it more than once or twice a week but it always said 0% fragmented, even after analyzing the disk up to eight days after it's scheduled run.

I guess I could always run Auslogics and see what it says.

edit: Could not get Disk Defragmenter to run in Safe Mode. Tried Open and also Run As Administrator. Nothing. Doing a search tells me it is apparently disabled in Safe Mode although the thread is a bit confusing.

Why is Disk Defragmenter disabled by default in Safe mode in Windows 7?

I honestly don't remember the last time I defragged a machine.

Try defraggler if you are worried about it.