Running Defrag/Defrag Problems

[Geleco]

By defrag, I am referring to the default WVista 32 version of a defragmenter.

For some reason, even if I leave it to run (clear both disks) for 8+ hours, it still persists and says to wait a few minutes to a few hours, i.e., it still doesn't finish.

Now I have looked into the issue and it seems that I should try and disable any unnecessary background applications/processes while defragging.

I tried Safe Mode first, thinking it would work best. But Defragger doesn't even start when I run it in Safe Mode, even as an administrator.

So I am confused; is there something I can do with Safe Mode to run Defragger, or would it be simpler to find out what processes are unnecessary while defragging?

[eisenkopf]

The easiest thing would be to do nothing at all. Contrary to XP, Vista and Seven defrag runs in regular intervals while the computer is idle, without you manually starting it.

If your hard disk is very large and almost full, defrag will take ages. It shifts around the data, so if there is very little space left, it will need an awful lot of shuffling around. EDIT: So, always clean the disk before you run it.

[irishron]

I use Smart Defrag. Microsoft has not had a good one, yet.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

yea i use Ultimate defrag since i get full control on where items get placed on the HDD allowing me to move games to the outer edge for faster loading. etc but in general windows defrag kinda sucks hard.

[The Black Reaper]

I use auslogics disk defrag. Very fast. Only reason i use it.