Defrag question.

Billy · 29 Dec 2009

I just downloaded Auslogics Disk Defrag last night, acording to it I have 21% fragmented when windows says 0% is this normal?

ignatzatsonic · 29 Dec 2009

I would guess it is normal.

Windows defrag only considers fragments below a certain size (64k??) and the other program may consider all fragments. Windows engineers apparently believe that larger fragments are insignificant and can be ignored.

Billy · 29 Dec 2009

Ah. That makes sense. Thanks.

richc46 · 29 Dec 2009

According to the OS, a defrag is only requried when it shows that 10% of the HD needs defrag. The 10% is based on the windows analysis. I do not do a defrag that much. It is really only requeird when there are many installs and uninstalls but I do check. The system will not make a manual defrag unless you have met the 10% requirement.

Billy · 29 Dec 2009

Well I just a system image but didn't want to image some of my games and music / videos so I moved them off the drive then back. Thought a defrag was warranted.

richc46 · 29 Dec 2009

irbeel said:

Well I just a system image but didn't want to image some of my games and music / videos so I moved them off the drive then back. Thought a defrag was warranted.

You made a wise choice and I am glad that you made the defrag. I was just trying to share some information about defrag and future use. You were very astute, to make the defrag. Happy Holiday to you and your loved ones.

madtownidiot · 29 Dec 2009

ignatzatsonic said:

I would guess it is normal.

Windows defrag only considers fragments below a certain size (64k??) and the other program may consider all fragments. Windows engineers apparently believe that larger fragments are insignificant and can be ignored.

a few large fragments are insignificant and won't affect the speed of your system at all. It's only when files get scattered across the HDD that fragmentation becomes an issue. Anything over about 20% fragmentation is where you start to see a noticeable drop in performance. With less than that, defragmentation is unnecessary & might even slow your computer down by rearranging files in a way that makes everything load slower. On the other hand, if you need to image your drive, compacting everything as tight as possible, a good way to do that is with gparted live on a usb stick

Billy · 29 Dec 2009

madtownidiot said:

ignatzatsonic said:

I would guess it is normal.

Windows defrag only considers fragments below a certain size (64k??) and the other program may consider all fragments. Windows engineers apparently believe that larger fragments are insignificant and can be ignored.

a few large fragments are insignificant and won't affect the speed of your system at all. It's only when files get scattered across the HDD that fragmentation becomes an issue. Anything over about 20% fragmentation is where you start to see a noticeable drop in performance. With less than that, defragmentation is unnecessary & might even slow your computer down by rearranging files in a way that makes everything load slower. On the other hand, if you need to image your drive, compacting everything as tight as possible, a good way to do that is with gparted live on a usb stick

Yeah they're mostly video files that are fragmented from what I can tell. I ran the defrag a few more times, fragmentation is less than 5% now. Thanks for all the information everyone.

richc46 · 30 Dec 2009

Glad that we could start you off to a Happy New Year. All the best to you and your loved ones.

burningsoul · 30 Dec 2009

I think that somehow fragmentation of the HDD in 7 is higher than in previous versions of windows. By the way, I recomend defragmenting the system partition whenever when it gets above 5% fragmentation - I did that and my laptot runs noticeably faster! :)