Defrag made my hard drive actually lose space?

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  1. Posts : 4,925
    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
       #11

    Some defraggers do include disk cleanup options. Defraggler empties the recycle bin for sure, so maybe you had stuff in there.

    As mickey stated, defraggers dont affect size of free space unless they include cleanup options.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,642
    Windows 10 Pro (x64)
       #12

    A VSS Compatible defragmentation should help reduce the creation of restore points.
    For example Diskeeper: Diskeeper Blog | DK'08 Feature Spotlight - VSS Compatibility Mode
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 51
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #13

    Rishone said:
    Clear out your old restore points

    right click the drive -> Disk Cleanup -> More option -> Delete Restore points. - This will erase all your restore points except the last one.

    Thank you!
    That brought my hard drive back up to 87 free gigs!
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 53
    Windows 7 Ultimate/XP SP3
       #14

    It's probably the restore point like they're saying. Even if you don't solve your problem; losing 4GB of space is better than not being able to save a large file because there isn't enough contiguous room on your HDD or having horrible seek times because your files are fragmented and strewn all throughout your HDD.

    EDIT: Oh cool you solved it, all the better!
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 39
    W7
       #15

    Same thing happened to me with Defraggler! But I went from 120GB of free space to 24 GB!! I deleted latest restore point (shadow copies) and it freed up 40 GB.. but i'm still down 80 GB.... so that sucks. Any ideas as to where the 80 gbs went? Should I just delete all my restore points and create a new one?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 51
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #16

    dragotron said:
    Same thing happened to me with Defraggler! But I went from 120GB of free space to 24 GB!! I deleted latest restore point (shadow copies) and it freed up 40 GB.. but i'm still down 80 GB.... so that sucks. Any ideas as to where the 80 gbs went? Should I just delete all my restore points and create a new one?
    I say, as long as everything is working properly, and you dont need to restore for any reason, delete all of the restore points, and then manually make a new one right after. Just name it the days date. for example "Restore Point 2/17/2010"

    Thats what I did :)
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 2
    WINDOWS 7 64 bit
       #17

    Recovered 162 GBs with Free Auslogics Defragger


    tylar112 said:
    Did I miss something?
    I always thought defrags made more space on your computer by organizing files and making programs run faster

    But when I did a defrag, using Defraggler
    I went from 83 gigs free space to 79 gigs free space

    I even restarted, and nothing changed

    I think that's kinda weird .
    Or maybe I don't know something about defragging, and its suppose to do that

    I hope someone can explain, thank you
    I lost 162GBs after defragging over time....especially with Prioritize Files check... using another 3rd party defragger on my 2TB Programs drive...also my System Restore points often did not work when used. Auslogics Free defragger info page on use explains that most defraggers can erase restore points and the Volume Shadow Service can hog space. They have the options to check VSS compatibility in theirs and I just used it. My Drive went from 133GBs to 295GBs! After a short Defrag! Space was HOGGED. I deleted all restore points and created a fresh one now. For 15 yrs I used 3rd party Defraggers and Always had problems with System Restore NOT WORKING....got no solution until now.

    Where I learned about the VSS stealing space and erasure of restore points.

    How to Defrag Your Hard Drive Properly
    Last edited by RIPPED TORN; 08 Apr 2015 at 13:19. Reason: adding source
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 25,847
    Windows 10 Pro. 64/ version 1709 Windows 7 Pro/64
       #18

    I would suggest using the Windows 7 built in defrag.

    Windows 7 know where it wants to put things so Windows 7 can find them later.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #19

    Listen to the Bear, he knows of what he speaks. Win 7's native defragger is good enough a third party defragger is no longer needed, like it was in XP. Defraggler worked great in XP but it has been problematic in Win 7. There is no way I will ever recommend a third party defragger for Win 7, especially Defraggler.

    To find Win 7's defragger, just hit the Windows key and type "defrag" (without the quotes), then click on Disk Defragmenter. You can run it manually or it can be scheduled to run automatically on pretty any schedule you want. Depending on your usage, you may want to run it anywhere from once a week to once a month. As long as you never or rarely have more than 10% defragmentation and your data never takes up more than 90% of your formatted HDD space (20-25% for SSDs), you will be fine.

    Speaking of SSDs, there is some controversy on whether they should ever be defragmented or not to avoid wearing them out prematurely from excessive writes. However, generally speaking, if you defrag them no more than once every year or two, you will not hurt them enough to ever notice. SSDs are far more tolerant of defragmentation than HDDs.
      My Computer


 
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