#Why cant i defrag my computer manual#
#Why cant i defrag my computer windows 7#
#Why cant i defrag my computer free#
#Why cant i defrag my computer windows#

#Why cant i defrag my computer manual#

I like it much more than the old conventional manual defrag or scheduled defrag because it automatically and intelligently tackles fragmentation in the background, without interrupting my computing. I use an automatic defragmenter that defragments my 3 drives as and when necessary quietly in the background, so remembering to defrag or scheduling one for late nights is not a factor. Essentially, defragment the ‘normal’ fragmented files and the MFT, and you’re all set. While defragging some of the other system files may not be important, the MFT and paging files need to be defragmented for the best performance.

#Why cant i defrag my computer windows#

There are also some system files like the Master File Table (MFT) that cannot be defragmented by the windows defragmenter, but requires a third party utility.

#Why cant i defrag my computer free#

So the actual percentage of free space is not the only factor, but the size of the fragmented file is important too. Leo’s explanation is correct : the available free space has to be atleast twice the size of the largest file to be defragmented.

#Why cant i defrag my computer windows 7#

In fact, Windows 7 and better will do it automatically for you, once a week. My recommendation is to simply do the normal defrag “every so often”. Jumping through these extra hoops to get the system files defragged is typically just not worth it, unless you’ve determined that these files are severely fragmented. My question to you is a simple one: why bother?ĭefragging the files you can defrag easily, and doing so regularly, gets you 99% of the performance gain you’re looking for anyway. It can schedule a defrag of the system files on your next boot, before the system is actually running. The folks out at have a free utility, PageDefrag for just this purpose. One very common example is windows paging or swap file.

The next problem is that the operating system itself, as part of its normal workings, often has files open in such a way that those files cannot be defragged. If you can, you can then close the program that has the file open and try defragging again.

This article: How can I find out who is using a “file in use”? explains how. One of the things you can do when you run into this situation is to look at the list of files that were not defragged and see if they are in use. That’s why most defragging utilities suggest you close all running programs prior to attempting to defrag. The second most common cause is that the file is in use by some program. The most common reason files do not get successfully defragged is simply that there’s not enough free space on the hard disk to do so. If there’s not enough room for a second, temporary, copy of a file that needs to be defragmented, then that file cannot be processed. No, that’s not technically necessary, but it makes the defragmenting tool significantly simpler, faster and otherwise more reliable.Īs a result, many, if not most defragmenting tools just require some fairly random percentage of free space, like 10% or 15%. There are several technical approaches to defragging, but most require that you have enough free space on your hard disk for a copy of the largest file that needs defragging. The “problem” that defragging solves is simply that when all those pieces are next to each other and in order, the hard disk has to do a lot less work to access the file. Let’s look at some of the reasons, and some of the ways to force the issue if you still feel you need to.ĭefragging, or more properly, defragmenting, is the process of taking all the parts or “fragments” of a file on your hard disk and making sure that they are physically next to each other, and in order.įiles don’t need to be that way: the first part of your file could be on the outer rim of the hard disk, the next part somewhere on the inner portion, and other parts scattered everywhere in between. Chances are it won’t impact performance in any noticeable way, and that’s really what defragging is all about: improving performance. It’s not at all uncommon to have some files that refuse to defrag, and that’s quite all right. Actually, this is not necessarily a problem.