defragmenting XP

[lorraine]

When running dfrg.msc on my husband's XP SP3 Home Edition (P4 3GHz, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD with 59% free space and no third party defragmenter installed) I select "analyze" and get "you should defragment this volume". When the process is done I get a message "some files cannot be defragmented". Volume fragmentation = 11%, file fragmentation = 23%, free space fragmentation = 0%; File fragmentation Total files = 81,529, Average file size = 487 KB; Total excess fragments = 40,744, Average fragments per file = 1.5; Pagefile fragmentation Pagefile size = 720 MB, Total fragments = 1,: Folder fragmentaion Total folders = 7,131, Fragmented folder = 1, Excess folder fragments = 0; MFT fragmentation
Total MFT size = 105 MB, MFT record count = 90,099, Percent MFT in use = 83%, Total MFT fragments = 3.

There are only three files that cannot be defragmented are related to Thunderbird and are only a total o about 6 GB. Not a big deal, in my opinion.

Nothing seems amiss in my view yet each time I analyze the drive I get the same message and results as if no defragmentation even was done despite its running for a while and saying that it has completed. Why did I analyze it again? I had uninstalled a few programs after the first defragmentation and wanted to check again. When I saw the message about needing to defragement and got the same results about not being able to defragment the Thunderbird files I got curious and tried it a couple of more times--each time with the same results, as if in a loop.

My question is: should I be concerned about any of the reported results or is this just the nature of dfrg.msc in windows XP?

[online_fixes]

Lorraine,

I would try running CHKDSK first to see if you have a sector on its way out. I have listed some options to use with it and some other links that may help.

Here are three ways to run CHKDSK

*Option 1:
1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click on the Hard drive, click Properties.
3. Click on the Tools Tab.
4. Under Error Checking click on Check Now.
5. Click the Start button to run Check Disk.
Using choosing the options "Automatically fix files.... or Scan for and Attempt recovery... " you will get the following message:
"The disk check could not be performed because exclusive access to the drive could not be obtained.
Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?"
Simply click on YES.

*Option 2:
1. Click on Start, Run.
2. Type in CHKDSK and press Enter.
3. Check Disk will run a very quick check of the drive.

*Option 3:
Complete Check:
1. Click on Start, Run.
2. Type in Command and click Ok.
3. Type in CHKDSK /F or /R and click Ok.
You will get a message:
"The disk check could not be performed because exclusive access to the drive could not be obtained.
Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?"
4. Press Y for yes.
5. Close the command prompt and reboot the system.
/F switch Fixes errors on the disk.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information, implies /F switch.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can download and run diagnostics from the drive manufacturer to test the drive.

Samsung http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/s ... index.html
Seagate http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
Maxtor/Quantum http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/download/
IBM/Hitachi http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
fujitsu/Seimens http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/ha ... diagnostic
IBM/Hitachi http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

[lorraine]

Thanks, Gary. We have the same approach. I already had run chkdsk (sorry I didn't mention it) and then checked the Winlogon entry in the Event Viewer immediately after chkdsk completed and Windows loaded. Nothing special was reported other that a few "minor inconsistencies" were cleaned up.

Today I ran the Western Digital DLG extended test for the HDD and it passed.

All in all, I guess that it's something that we'll live with since uninstalling some old programs and cleaning up some clutter seemed to have helped. I was just trying to figure out what else might be able to be done, if anything, since I don't see this issue at school on all of the XP Pro computers I check. However, most people at school don't use mail clients. I might try defrg.msc on the one computer there that I know has Thunderbird to see if I get the same message. If so i might post something on a Mozilla forum some day.