Defrag Problem (yes, another one)

Alright guys, I just joined this forum yesterday. First off I'll say I'm alright with computers; since my dad went to college for them, I've learned a lot from him. I've also learned from my friends. Now I can go and do some basic troubleshooting and most of the time I figure out the problems on my computer (I don't have many of those). I know most of the computer terms and know my way around on a computer... I'm a hands-on stubborn guy who will sit and work on my pc till it's better- even if it takes a day straight, like I'm sure most of you guys are. What I have is A Compaq Presario, since I couldn't spend enough to get an HP lol. Yes, it's factory built, but I bought a nVidia GeForce 9500gt graphics card off newegg for it. Here are the specs:
-System Manufacturer/Model Number: Compaq (didn't have enough $$$ for an HP so I got it's little brother)
-OS: Vista Home Premium (SP1) 32bit
-CPU: AMD 2.6 GHZ Dual Core
-Memory: 2048 MB (2 GB) DDR2 RAM
-Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9500gt
-Monitor: MAG 17" LCD
-Screen Resolution: 1024 X 768
-Hard Drive: 500 GB Hard Drive
-Case Stock: (Original Case- Tower)
-Keyboard: Logitech Cordless
-Mouse: Logitech Cordless
Now I have had this pc for 8-10 months and haven't once ran a defrag on it. As of the past couple days I've been doing some maintenance on it. You know, updating all the programs, running the CCleaner organizing files, all the fun stuff . Then I get to defragging it. I wasn't about to use the standard Vista defrag program, but wasn't about to go buy one (not even for $5). After some quick checking around, I settled on 'The DeFraggler.' I figured the defrag might take like 5 hours on my 145GB of files and programs, since that's a lot of stuff and it's the first one I've done. I started it last night at around 12:00 am, came back today at 3:00 pm and, low and behold 43% completed. I haven't been running any programs or anything, but just let the pc do it's thing. How can I cut this time down, because at this rate it shouldn't be done till tomorrow. It shouldn't take this long.
Thanks in advance,
GUITARGUY

Hello GuitarGuy, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I would recommend to use the free Auslogics Disk Defrag program. It does a good job of defragging, and it's much faster.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

you have a 500gb hard drive and you havent defragged in almost a year. its gonna take a while. if you defrag at least once a month, it will get faster. plus it needs some free space to work efficiently.

Brink said:

Hello GuitarGuy, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I would recommend to use the free Auslogics Disk Defrag program. It does a good job of defragging, and it's much faster.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

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Thanks, I uninstalled 'the DeFraggler,' downloaded 'Auslogics Disk Defrag,'installed and started it. I'll reply when it finishes. Thanks again,
GUITARGUY

kword88 said:

you have a 500gb hard drive and you havent defragged in almost a year. its gonna take a while. if you defrag at least once a month, it will get faster. plus it needs some free space to work efficiently.

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I figured it would take a while, but it shouldn't take 30 hours. It does have well over 300 GB of free space, though, so that part shouldn't be an issue. Thanks,
GUITARGUY

JK defrag is great too. Its less than 1MB, no install, and has plenty of switches to change how it runs. As an aside, Norton 360 also had built in defrag. Defragging once a month is enough.

+1 to Defragging once a month. Everyone has their own preference to defragging programs. I personally like PerfectDisk, but I'm partial as I use it at work to remote defrag client's computers.

All the above mentioned defragging programs are good (except I won't suggest anything Norton to anyone ever unless they run their own domain), some will even argue vista's is better as it allegedly keeps programs files together. While no one is going to agree on one program, a defragged hard drive SHOULD perform better then one that isn't. Your percentage completed on your defrag sounds typical if you've never defragged. I wouldn't worry about it unless you blue screen or hear a loud distinct clicking and get a sinking feeling in your chest. Welcome to the forum btw :D

Frostmourne said:

JK defrag is great too. Its less than 1MB, no install, and has plenty of switches to change how it runs. As an aside, Norton 360 also had built in defrag. Defragging once a month is enough.

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I'll check that out. I'm not too fond of anything Norton though. Thanks,
GUITARGUY

truthkid said:

+1 to Defragging once a month. Everyone has their own preference to defragging programs. I personally like PerfectDisk, but I'm partial as I use it at work to remote defrag client's computers.

All the above mentioned defragging programs are good (except I won't suggest anything Norton to anyone ever unless they run their own domain), some will even argue vista's is better as it allegedly keeps programs files together. While no one is going to agree on one program, a defragged hard drive SHOULD perform better then one that isn't. Your percentage completed on your defrag sounds typical if you've never defragged. I wouldn't worry about it unless you blue screen or hear a loud distinct clicking and get a sinking feeling in your chest. Welcome to the forum btw :D

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Bleh! I cringe when ever the blue screen of death is even mentioned. That is what led to the demise of my other computer (a dinosaur... it had a 1.1 GHZ single core T-bird processor lol). I think I got that screen every day lmao. I like Vista so far... it ain't terribly different from XP, but it's a bit of a change. Anyways, thanks Truthkid and everyone else,
GUITARGUY

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BTW, the defrag that was first mentioned to me worked like a dream! After installing it, it was done in 10 minutes!:D IDK if it just finished up after the other program I tried or what, but it worked great and it's a keeper. Thank You All

Why don't you just use the command prompt in Windows? Run the command prompt as an administrator and type in defrag "your drive letter here": -w. This will defrag the files that are larger than 64 MB also. Some programs don't defrag, including windows default defragger, files larger than 64MB.

Kudos to running at least once a month, I do it once a week through the command prompt and my pc runs awesomely.

Blackhawk7188 said:

Why don't you just use the command prompt in Windows? Run the command prompt as an administrator and type in defrag "your drive letter here": -w. This will defrag the files that are larger than 64 MB also. Some programs don't defrag, including windows default defragger, files larger than 64MB.

Kudos to running at least once a month, I do it once a week through the command prompt and my pc runs awesomely.

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The performance gains you stand to get from defragging are dependent on how much data you move around your hard drive. Unless you run some sort of server or have torrent running 24 hours, I'd say you wouldn't notice if you defragged every other week, perhaps every month.

I agree with truthkid. I defragged my 120GB HDD about a month ago for the first time since I built it last May-ish. I didn't really notice a difference. And I do quite a bit of file movement and such. But if I did notice my pc slowing down a bit, it is usually a good and cheap process to see if it will help. I have only used the windows defrag though. I actually didn't know there were others out there till I started reading this forum. I don't know if I would be able to trust other ones.

Tipher88 said:

I agree with truthkid. I defragged my 120GB HDD about a month ago for the first time since I built it last May-ish. I didn't really notice a difference. And I do quite a bit of file movement and such. But if I did notice my pc slowing down a bit, it is usually a good and cheap process to see if it will help. I have only used the windows defrag though. I actually didn't know there were others out there till I started reading this forum. I don't know if I would be able to trust other ones.

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You run that risk with anything that you add on to your computer though. As a general rule of thumb, any product that is released by a reputable company that has been around for a while is worth at least looking into. I'm a big fan of Open Source software, as the code is right there for anyone to look at for themselves and essentially use as an audit trail. As long as it's open source and has a pretty good following, I trust it. The built in windows defag is alright, and even more powerful/useful to advanced users when used in cmd prompt

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81786-disk-defragmenter-command-prompt.html

As far as free third party solutions go, Auslogics Disk Defrag, JKDefrag, and Defraggler are some favorites.

Comercial solutions include PerfectDisk (which is what I use, but I often need to perform remote defrags) and Diskeeper. I don't think paying for defrag unless you have very specific needs is a wise investment, but then again I rarely justify paying for any software.