NTFS defragging questions

H3X4D3C1M4L · Feb 15, 2007, 08:14 PM

I used to like the NTFS filesystem but then I noticed with O&O defrag, every once in a while I'll have these giant freespace gaps on filesystems with alot of large files because theres 1 small 'system' file that's in the way of making the file one giant contiguous block. Perfect Disk won't consolidate or move them, nor will Diskeeper or any boot time defragger from any utility. It's annoying because they don't appear to belong to any metadata or any part of the $MFT. I can't see or delete them either!

Anyone know what or why this happens or at least a utility to move them somewhere out of the way? It makes defragging useless at some points and I don't want to reformat/restore just for that.

Thanks in advance

Judas · Feb 15, 2007, 08:28 PM

with the size of the drives today, while yes it would be nice, i don't think there is a huge issue with it. Hopefully the NTFS and whatever microsoft's new system (FX? ) is more capable of handling files more efficiently.

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 15, 2007, 09:33 PM

I use Raxco Perfect Disk:

Homepage - Raxco Software Windows Products - PerfectDisk 8.0

AGGRESSIVE FREESPACE CONSOLIDATION is a great feature and when checked and I do the reboot, then defrag it really does a fantastic job. It seems to gets things other defraggers miss.

JohnDoe47 · Feb 15, 2007, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3X4D3C1M4L

I used to like the NTFS filesystem but then I noticed with O&O defrag, every once in a while I'll have these giant freespace gaps on filesystems with alot of large files because theres 1 small 'system' file that's in the way of making the file one giant contiguous block. Perfect Disk won't consolidate or move them, nor will Diskeeper or any boot time defragger from any utility. It's annoying because they don't appear to belong to any metadata or any part of the $MFT. I can't see or delete them either!

Anyone know what or why this happens or at least a utility to move them somewhere out of the way? It makes defragging useless at some points and I don't want to reformat/restore just for that.

Thanks in advance

Run a chkdsk and run an O&O Offline defrag, that helps to remove a few of the files but not all of them

H3X4D3C1M4L · Feb 21, 2007, 04:39 PM

I've done all of those. Perfect Disk just lumps them in the middle of the filesystem. chkdsk /f /x /v /r just takes a long time and tells me I have no errors.

@Judas: Its a problem when you've got alot of DVD images on a 40GB partition and they keep getting massive amounts of fragmentation and things get slower and slower. I'm already running an 'ancient' system here so the extra slowdowns suck.

It might not make that big a difference but it will put my mind at rest

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 21, 2007, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3X4D3C1M4L

I've done all of those. Perfect Disk just lumps them in the middle of the filesystem. chkdsk /f /x /v /r just takes a long time and tells me I have no errors.

@Judas: Its a problem when you've got alot of DVD images on a 40GB partition and they keep getting massive amounts of fragmentation and things get slower and slower. I'm already running an 'ancient' system here so the extra slowdowns suck.

It might not make that big a difference but it will put my mind at rest

I use Perfect Disk with the aggressive mode and it works awesome.

You did the reboot and let it re-run?

You temporarily disabled the virtual memory and erased all your temp files before you ran it?

Then you re-enabled the virtual memory after it finished?

Zelig · Feb 21, 2007, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DudeBoyz

You temporarily disabled the virtual memory and erased all your temp files before you ran it?

Then you re-enabled the virtual memory after it finished?

Could also just defrag the pagefile on boot.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Feb 25, 2007, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DudeBoyz

I use Perfect Disk with the aggressive mode and it works awesome.

You did the reboot and let it re-run?

You temporarily disabled the virtual memory and erased all your temp files before you ran it?

Then you re-enabled the virtual memory after it finished?

Yes I did that.

I have my virtual memory on a seperate partition so it never gets fragmented.... and I always run CCleaner before I defrag.

So I've done it all it seems

Feb 15, 2007, 08:14 PM	#1
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	NTFS defragging questions I used to like the NTFS filesystem but then I noticed with O&O defrag, every once in a while I'll have these giant freespace gaps on filesystems with alot of large files because theres 1 small 'system' file that's in the way of making the file one giant contiguous block. Perfect Disk won't consolidate or move them, nor will Diskeeper or any boot time defragger from any utility. It's annoying because they don't appear to belong to any metadata or any part of the $MFT. I can't see or delete them either! Anyone know what or why this happens or at least a utility to move them somewhere out of the way? It makes defragging useless at some points and I don't want to reformat/restore just for that. Thanks in advance

Feb 15, 2007, 09:33 PM	#3
~~DudeBoyz~~ banned Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA Posts: 1,677 Rep Power: 0	I use Raxco Perfect Disk: Homepage - Raxco Software Windows Products - PerfectDisk 8.0 AGGRESSIVE FREESPACE CONSOLIDATION is a great feature and when checked and I do the reboot, then defrag it really does a fantastic job. It seems to gets things other defraggers miss.

Feb 21, 2007, 04:39 PM	Thread Starter #5
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	I've done all of those. Perfect Disk just lumps them in the middle of the filesystem. chkdsk /f /x /v /r just takes a long time and tells me I have no errors. @Judas: Its a problem when you've got alot of DVD images on a 40GB partition and they keep getting massive amounts of fragmentation and things get slower and slower. I'm already running an 'ancient' system here so the extra slowdowns suck. It might not make that big a difference but it will put my mind at rest