0% fragmented, for seven months

[bru]

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?

 

[Sardonicus]

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

 

[Hopalong X]

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

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

 

[severedsolo]

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

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.

 

[bru]

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?

 

[severedsolo]

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.

 

[Ztruker]

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.

 

[bru]

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?

 

[pparks1]

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

 

[LiquidSnak]

Try defraggler if you are worried about it.

 

[Ztruker]

Win 7 Pro has been installed since September 09 and i have never done a manual defrag. From what I remember reading, Win 7 does scheduled defrags but I suspect they have never run since I don't leave my computer on overnight.

This is what Defraggler says about my drives/partitions:



As you can see, my F: drive is 99% fragmented, but the only files/folders there are System Volume Information (Shodow Copy, System Restore stuff) and two .vdi files (Virtual Disk Images) for Oracle VirtualBox (Ubuntu and XP Pro). I don't know what defragging that drive would do to Oracle VB so I've not tried it yet.

The G: drive (66%) has my Acronis True Image Home 2010 image backups so again, I'm leary of defragging that drive. Has anyone defragged a drive containing ATI image backups and if so, what were the results.

The H: drive (41%) I can probably defrag but have not tried it yet as it also has another of the OracleVB .vdi files and pagefile.sys.

E: (35%) I will defrag, nothing special there.

 

[logicearth]

Required Reading Material: Disk Defragmentation

 

[bru]

You can manually analyze the disks and see if the Disk Defragmenter gives you similar results to Defraggler. Then you can decide what to do. Or you can change it's schedule to run when the computer is on and I'm thinking it will defrag everything.

 

[Ztruker]

Logicearth, thanks for a very informative article. I bookmarked it.

Bru, agree, I'll play with it and see what happens.

 

[Garlic]

Given the fact that Windows built-in defrag ignores fragments larger than 64MB (consolidating larger fragments does not seem to improve performance) and shows fragmentation in integer % (so, e.g. 0.49% fragmented will be shown as 0%), seeing 0% fragmentation is quite normal.

 

[bru]

I have nothing but bad luck with this computer.

Now that I changed the schedule the Disk Defragmenter doesn't run. I set it for 5:00 pm and nothing happened. Opened it up and it shows the next scheduled run but it's clear it didn't run as scheduled since the last scan was on 6/23. So I kept changing the schedule and the time would come and go with the program not running. I manually ran it so I know it does work. It's the schedule that is messed up.

Right now I have it scheduled for 10:00 PM everyday and it says Next scheduled run: 7/4/2011 10:00 PM. 10:00 PM will come and go and it will say Next scheduled run: 7/5/2011 10:00 PM but it will not have run at 10:00 PM on 7/4. Clock and date is correct.

 

[xarden]

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

Ditto.

My home pc(s) are usually left on overnight until power management kicks in, so theres a fair chunk of idle time.
Win7 defrags in the background during idle time.

It does though sound unusual to always be 0% if you use it every day.

Just checked my work machine while writing this, and it's only %1 fragged on a 70GB partition.
2nd partition (same size) is at 0%, and I've just done a lot of file transfers.

:huh:

So maybe you're right, and its reporting accurately, as surprising as it is.

 

[Britton30]

You may be at 0%. Installing/uninstalling software creates a lot of fragmentation. I have found using Winzip or Winrar does too.

Here's mine, one partition is 1%. The most used is 0%, freshly analyzed. I rarely turn mine off.

 

[logicearth]

I have nothing but bad luck with this computer.

Now that I changed the schedule the Disk Defragmenter doesn't run. I set it for 5:00 pm and nothing happened. Opened it up and it shows the next scheduled run but it's clear it didn't run as scheduled since the last scan was on 6/23. So I kept changing the schedule and the time would come and go with the program not running. I manually ran it so I know it does work. It's the schedule that is messed up.

Right now I have it scheduled for 10:00 PM everyday and it says Next scheduled run: 7/4/2011 10:00 PM. 10:00 PM will come and go and it will say Next scheduled run: 7/5/2011 10:00 PM but it will not have run at 10:00 PM on 7/4. Clock and date is correct.

It only runs when the computer is idle, mouse movement is the opposite of idle. It also runs in such a way that it takes very little resources.

 

[seekermeister]

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

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.

Not true of all third party defraggers. O&O, plus some other defraggers has the option to use the layout.ini, which will preserve Windows layout of files such as you mentioned. Though it is an option, it is enabled by default in O&O.