Disk Defragmenter says it's completed at 11% progress. How do I get it to keep going?

Question

My drive is about 47% fragmented, so I am trying to run the Windows Disk Defragmenter. It gets about 11% through and then says that it is completed, but if I analyze again, it says I am still fragmented. Has anyone seen this problem? Any suggestions?

This is on Windows XP

Answer 1

maybe there are errors in your hard drive. If not you just have to patient

Answer 2

Windows Disk Defragmenter is a good little utility but is limited with what you Can do with it. A good program to use is System Mechanic 6, i use this and it is a very powerful program. With disc fragmentation System Mechanic offers two options, the first is a quick fragmentation and the second is a slow fragmentation. With the slow fragmentation the program sorts out the entire hard drive, even files that the windows fragmentation utility says "Files can't be moved" and your free space is also fragmented. The program also allows you to def-rag your registry as well as many other use full options.

Answer 3

Some files have to maintain space for operation of the program (like .exe files) . It'll say that it is a percentage fragmented even after running the defragmenter.

Another solution is to run the defrag from dos without starting windows. That will give you a better defrag since all the windows crud wont be running

its c:dfrag

or cd//
c: defrag

to get back to windows, its
c: win

Answer 4

Disk Defragmenter reorganizes your hard drive by sorting scattered fragments back together. Disk Defragmenter can make your system faster. Disk Defragmenter needs a good deal of space on the hard drive while it moves things around (15% of the spaced on the disk, according to Microsoft). Disk Defragmenter won't work if something else runs. Disk Defragmenter may not work if you are connected to the Internet.

Disk Defragmenter can run into problems. Here are the common trouble spots:

A. A malicious program running in the background could cause Disk Defragmenter to fail. Therefore, update and run your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs before running Disk Defragmenter. Also, remember Disk Defragmenter may not work if you are connected to the Internet.

B. The Defragmenter needs an error-free hard drive. Disk Defragmenter will stop if it discovers errors on your hard drive. This could cause the Defragmenter to stop consistently at the same place and leave your hard drive only partially defragmented. Try checking your hard drive for errors. All versions of Windows include utilities to check the hard drive.
•In Windows 98: Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. Select the hard drive from the list (usually drive C:). Select the 'Thorough test' option to check your hard drive for errors and physical imperfections. Check 'Automatically fix errors.' Click Start.

•In Windows XP: Click Start, My Computer; in Windows 2000: double-click the My Computer icon. In both systems, right-click the hard drive icon and select Properties. Select the Tools tab. In the Error-checking section, click the Check Now button. Select (check) the two boxes. Click Start and reboot.

C. The Defragmenter needs lots of space
A full or nearly full hard drive will interfere with Disk Defragmenter. Windows requires at least 15 percent of your hard drive free in order to complete the job of defragmenting your disk—less space will result in an incomplete defragmentation. If you do not have enough free space on your disk, Disk Defragmenter may stop in the same place each time you try to defragment.

Remember that hard drives on older computers are small by current standards (my first computer had a 6 GB hard drive).

Consider using Disk Cleanup to free some hard drive space.

D. If Disk Defragmenter still does not work, try running it in Safe Mode—this loads only essential drivers and Windows files.

To get into Safe Mode, shut down your computer. Wait 10-15 seconds. Boot up again, tapping the F8 key during boot up. This will cause the boot up process to stop, displaying a menu of startup options. (If you don’t get the menu, reboot and try again.) Highlight Safe Mode and press the Enter key. The menu in Safe Mode will look odd because only a minimum of drivers and other programs are started with Windows. Then try running Disk Defragmenter in Safe Mode.

E. At this point, if Disk Defragmenter still doesn’t work, you may have spyware or a virus that is starting in Safe Mode making Disk Defragmenter stop.

Check the Task Manager on your machine.

Boot into Windows and open the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del.

A list of files will be displayed. This list also includes necessary Windows files. You don’t want to disable them. Here are the files that you should leave alone:
csrss.exe
dllhost.exe
explorer.exe
kernel32.dll
lsass.exe
msgsrv32.exe
mstask.exe
services.exe
svchost.exe
taskmon.exe

Malware may be included. To mislead you, they may have innocent sounding names. Non-essential programs should be shut down.

If you find anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall files there, shut them down. To stop a process, click it once to highlight it and then click End Task.

You can then reboot, enter Safe Mode and try to run Disk Defragmenter.

Answer 5

one thing about disk defragmenter... close all applications when it is running... specially the ones that run in background.

any activity on hard disk will make the defrag start all over again... when it tries few times and sees that you wont leave the hard disk alone... it just stops.

Answer 6

Reboot your pc, and while it's booting up keep tapping on the F8 function key. That'll put you into Safe Mode.
Then run Defrag, and it should go completely through.
Good luck.

Answer 7

Try running it in safe mode.