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46603
My Disk Defragmenter has been running for over 12 hours...
and there's no end in sight. Can anyone tell me if this is normally and when it might stop?
I've been using this laptop fairly heavily since around May. I've never run the defragmenter before. It's a Dell Studio.
Thanks
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
1
September 15th, 2009 05:00
:^/ A number of different things contribute to the de-fragmentation time. All other things being equal, a larger hard drive will take longer to de-fragment than will a smaller drive. A drive that has seen more heavy use will take longer, and the longer you wait between de-fragmentation sessions the more fragmentation will accumulate, and thus the longer it will take to de-frag. The more real RAM you have to temporarily hold file fragments, the less time it will take to de-frag. The less real RAM, the more time, etc.
I've had my desktop take oodles of hours once, so what you're experiencing is not without precedent.
;^) Now the good news: Once it's done, it should take much less time on future occasions. Also, you can abort part way through without losing your progress. So, you can still benefit from de-fragging your hard drive a little at a time, if you don't have time to do it all at once..
Chris_Abramelin
6 Posts
0
September 15th, 2009 13:00
helpful information. good stuff to know.
thanks
Chris_Abramelin
6 Posts
0
September 15th, 2009 13:00
actually, i hope i did not respond too warmly too soon.
at this i went and started running the defrag again. it definitly did not pick up where i left off. it started defragging the d drive again.
i cancelled this and went to defrag the C drive again, where i left it. hopefully it starts from where i left off? i seriously left it on about 16 hours.
thanks
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
0
September 15th, 2009 22:00
;^) Well, you are correct that the de-fragmentation utility will begin its analysis over again when run a second time. However, when it comes to actually moving the files around in the course of de-fragmentation, you can leave it to its work for an hour or so, then cancel the operation, and the software will exit without first re-fragmenting the de-fragmented files to return the disc to its orginal state. Instead, the files that had already been fixed will be left alone as the software exits. Then, the next time it is run, the utility's analysis will mark those files as unfragmented, and ignore them, instead starting with the still de-fragmented files left over from last time.
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
0
September 23rd, 2009 14:00
:^/ Another thought that I'd left out earlier: reading and writing to the drive that's being de-fragged can disrupt the process and make it start over, so it's best to let it run while you're away from the computer.