Solved d drive cannot be defragmented

[drkitty]

hi all. my d drive (recovery) is 95% fragmented. only 2.16 gb out of 15 gb is free. i cannot defragment it either using the built in defragmenter or programs like defraggler, smart defrag or wise disc cleaner. when i run the hp disc checker it says there is a problem with the smart function of my hard drive & that it also needs to be defragmented. (d drive alone not specified). i have also run error checking for both c & d drives & it says there are no problems. help needed & appreciated. thanks

 

[Slartybart]

Try running defrag in an elevated Command Prompt

Right click on Command Prompt (start menu / accessories)

enter the following command

defrag -f -v -w d:
​

-f Force defrag when low disk space
-v Verbose output
-w full defrag, disregard size limit

 

[drkitty]

this is what i got after doing what you told me to

 

[kado897]

Why bother. Your recovery drive is not used in normal use. It will only be used if you do a factory recovery.

 

[Slartybart]

You are absolutely correct kado - Thanks.

I should have thought of that. My concern was "disc checker it says there is a problem with the smart function of my hard drive ". It might be interesting to run the HP disc checker again just to see if the message was a red herring. But as you say, the HP Recovery partition is only used for HP Recovery Manager, it's not used by users in everyday use.

This is most likely a non-issue. The command line defrag finished successfully.

Why bother. Your recovery drive is not used in normal use. It will only be used if you do a factory recovery.

 

[kado897]

Yes, My HP recovery partition is also highly fragmented and doesn't defrag at all. I suspect the S.M.A.R.T. problem, if real, is not connected with a need to defrag.

 

[drkitty]

ok so what should i do next guys? do i need to make a recovery disc?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

ok so what should i do next guys? do i need to make a recovery disc?

I wouldn't do anything simply because the recovery partition was fragmented.

But I would make recovery disks, regardless of the fragmentation state of the recovery partition. You should always make them on any PC that ships with a recovery partition.

 

[Slartybart]

Agreed - make your Recovery discs. HP doesn't ship discs, they put Recovery on your hard drive make you create the media.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Just checked out my samsung RV511 7 Home Premium 64 bit, using Auslogics disk defrag and my recovery partition defraged just fine.

 

[drkitty]

ok so is a system repair disc the same as a recovery disc? should i use the "create system repair disc" in the "backup & restore" section of the control panel?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

ok so is a system repair disc the same as a recovery disc? should i use the "create system repair disc" in the "backup & restore" section of the control panel?

They are NOT the same.

Yes, you should create a system repair disk, particularly if you don't have an ordinary Windows installation disk. You can create one of those too--and I would.

 

[drkitty]

Just checked out my samsung RV511 7 Home Premium 64 bit, using Auslogics disk defrag and my recovery partition defraged just fine.

i just did that too... but my d: is still 95% fragmented

 

[drkitty]

ok so is a system repair disc the same as a recovery disc? should i use the "create system repair disc" in the "backup & restore" section of the control panel?

They are NOT the same.

Yes, you should create a system repair disk, particularly if you don't have an ordinary Windows installation disk. You can create one of those too--and I would.

so i should make both recovery & system repair discs? when & how do i use them? im guessing only if & when my system crashes?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Recovery disks have the same purpose as a recovery partition---to return the PC to the state it was in when shipped to you. That would include default partitions, Windows, and whatever other extra applications were included by the manufacturer. Recovery partitions/disks are usually used as a last resort---any personal data on the drive will be erased.

System Repair discs are designed to repair Windows per se and have nothing to do with any other applications. They are more useful than recovery disks because they aren't a last resort and can be used in a variety of situations----system crashes and otherwise.

Create a Windows installation disk if you don't have one. You download an ISO of your Windows edition from mydigitallife.info and burn it to a disk.

 

[kado897]

You can also download an official ISO here... Dell Community

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I see that the OP has Windows "home basic" and I don't see ISOs for that.

Is there an ISO available somewhere or do you have to use a "universal" method, such as:

http://en.community.dell.com/suppor...g-the-ei-cfg-file-to-obtain-all-versions.aspx

 

[kado897]

Ah. I've never seen an ISO for Home Basic so I guess you would have to go down that route.

 

[Slartybart]

Yeah, all this Repair/recovery can get confusing.

1. Create the HP Recovery disks
2. Create the Windows System Repair disk
3. Create the Windows Install disk / USB using the ISO

Why do you need all three? All three serve a different purpose.
Ignatz explained the first two well and kado supplied the source for #3
The Windows 7 ISO gives you two things, 1) a second installation backup, and 2) the Windows installation media to install windows without all of the OEM software.

As an owner of a few HP machines, I was glad to find a way to install Windows without all of the HP "tools". I always ended up having to manually uninstall those "tools" because they really aren't useful - mostly front end user interfaces for existing Windows utilities.

 

[Slartybart]

Doesn't Ultimate present the version to be installed based on the key entered?