Solved Disk Defragmenter stuck at 1%

[dbtmellis]

As the title says, it is stuck and has been for the last several weeks.

I run the Defragmenter once a week.

My system seems to be running fine, so please any help and info about it would be great.

I am running Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not sure what you mean.
Is your system only 1 % fragmented or are you trying to defrag and it won't go past 1 % while defragging.

Please fill in your System Specs completely. We need to know what we are working with.

 

[dbtmellis]

My system is

Dell Insprion 530s

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.Ghz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: ATI Radeon 5400 1GB
Hdd: 1 TB Western Digital
AV: Microsoft Security Essentials

Yes, I meant to say that the defragmenter says its 1% fragmented.

 

[Layback Bear]

Then I don't understand the problem. 1% fragmented is good. You don't need to defrag.
You will find out that for some reason Windows 7 doesn't fragment as much as older operating systems like XP.
What program do you use for defraging?

Please go to the lower left corner of your post and install your specs there.
The specs will follow your ever post. (My System Specs)

 

[dbtmellis]

I always thought the point of the defragmenter is to get it down to 0%?

 

[Layback Bear]

First things first. Please answer my question from post #4.
What program do you use for defraging?

I don't think you will ever get it to zero.
Watch your defrag about once a week and you will find out you will most likely not need to defrag but about every two week or maybe even longer. You will find that 10 % fragmented is no big deal.
Defragging when not needed is just wear and tear on the hard drive.

 

[AddRAM]

It may not go to 0%, something may be unmovable.

 

[Layback Bear]

Years ago when I use hard drives and a 3rd party defrager I wondered about that also.
After market programs would always give me a little chart with colored little squares and time after time there would be a few unmovable squares would always be in the same place on the chart. I never knew what the reason for this and wasn't bothered enough to investigate deep into the subject. Some just don't move. Maybe they are bad spots on the disk.
What ever, it never hurt anything.

 

[AddRAM]

Best Free Disk Defrag Software, your free disk defragmenter FOREVER ? Smart Defrag

 

[dbtmellis]

I use the Defragmenter that is included with Windows

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I use the Defragmenter that is included with Windows

XP's defragmenter was a joke so I used Defraggler. However, I nothing but problems when I tried to use it in Win 7; it was ridiculously slow and frequently crashed the computer. I started using Ein 7's native defragger and it works great. It's fast, can be set to run automatically at a specified time daily, weekly, or monthly and I have had no problems with it. I have mine set to run in the wee hours every Wednesday when I'm normally unconscious. My data HDDs stay at 0% and, very rarely, may get up to a whopping 1% I see no reason to use any other defragger.

 

[dbtmellis]

so...consensus says that 1% is nothing to worry about?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

so...consensus says that 1% is nothing to worry about?

Correct. My boot drive is an SSD and it stays at 11% with no ill effects (SSDs should never be defragged to avoid wearing them out prematurely; the nature of them doesn't require defragging anyway). The only nonmovable files I'm aware of are files that are in use, such as system files. The only system files I have on my data drives are my data folders (I didn't move the entire User folders) and, since Win 7's defragger is set to run when I'm highly unlikely to be using them, it's no problem to get 0% defragmentation. The rare times I've seen it at 1%, I can't tell there is any problems.

Just for excrement and merriment, I just now checked my drives and the boot drive was at 11% and the HDDs were at 0%

 

[dbtmellis]

I run the defragmenter once a week. Should I run it less often?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I run the defragmenter once a week. Should I run it less often?

It depends on your usage. I run mine once a week but my computer runs 24/7 and gets fairly heavy usage. You can try running it once a month to see what your fragmentations levels get up to. If they go over 5-10%, you can always go back to one a week.

Frankly, I feel that people worry too much about fragmentation. All that is really needed is to set the native Win 7 to run on a schedule (assuming the computer will be always be on at a certain time) and forget it about it. One of the reasons for having a computer is to reduce our work load but that won't happen if we don't let out computers do what they can do on their own.

 

[dbtmellis]

I will set it to run once a month. I see how my system responds over time

 

[mt12345]

Frankly, I feel that people worry too much about fragmentation. All that is really needed is to set the native Win 7 to run on a schedule (assuming the computer will be always be on at a certain time) and forget it about it. One of the reasons for having a computer is to reduce our work load but that won't happen if we don't let out computers do what they can do on their own.

when I finish working on my laptop, I turn it off, just like tv. it's not a fridge

 

[Layback Bear]

Well put mt12345.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I do the same with my notebook but my desktop rig runs 24/7.

 

[mt12345]

1. Laptops 'fall asleep' by default when left alone.
2. PCs running 24/7 mean they DO some work eg. file server, torrent - will defragmenter even start in that case?
3. How about 'defragment whenever PC is idle for X minutes (but only once per Y days)' - some utilities have such option - puran, auslogics. I think mac/linux filesystems do it similar way.