My defrag has stopped working. How can I fix it?

Question

My defrag will not complete the task. It will only get to 2-3 %. I have rebooted, left it on all night, deleted unnecessary files, cookies, etc. No matter what I have done, it still doesn't get past the 3 %. What else can I do? Will this affect the usage of the computer as far as speed. I have always been told to defrag. It was set for automatic, but it isn't able to defrag the system.

Answer 1

how long does the defrag hang at 2-3% ? most systems especially if the defrag hasn't been done in some time will hang at 2 or 3% for sometime. also its best not to use the computer while you are defragmenting. also make sure the screen saver isnt on, try and let us know.

Answer 2

Go to MY COMPUTER and Right-Click the C drive and Click Properties...
Click TOOLS
Click ERROR CHECKING
Put tics in BOTH boxes and restart your computer.
Now try defragging again.

What is happening is Defrag moves files around on the hard drive for easier access. Files you hardly use, it will put together. Say you download a new program. Windows will put these files on your hard drive but not in any certain order. So when you click to use the program, Windows must now collect all these files and bring them back together for the program to work. Defrag puts these files as close together as possible so the program will load faster when you use it. However, if your hard drive gets a 'bad sector' or 'bad file sector' then the defrag can't continue until the bad sector is 'moved' or 'fixed' out of the way. By running the Error Checker first it will fix the bad sectors and then when you defrag it should go much quicker than before. good luck to ya :-)