Can't Defrag in Windows XP SP-2

[jpmackay]

   This morning I try to defrag my hard drive in my computer but it did not finish because of two problems and I posted below.  One is from avast and I am not too familiar what to do to delete or correct the problem. So I thought that I should post my message here to seek help from others before I go further to do something with the two problems.

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Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented
152 20 MB \System Volume Information\_restore
{B959EC7A-5B60-471D-BCC9-81360227

1,290 186 MB \WINDOWS\YTemp\_avast4_\PxB14F.temp

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now you see the second line about the anti-virus program that I have in my computer.   Any help with this would be appreciated.

Thank you

John P. Mackay      
Belleville, ON Canada  eh!!

[DavidR]

1. clear your temporary files, internet files, etc. you don't want to defrag temporary files.

2. try this program instead, much faster than windows defrag by a long way - Power Defragmentor - RejZoRs - eXcessive-software.eu.tt Site

[igor]

Well, I don't know what the defragmenter message really means, but the second file belongs to avast! Web Shield. Were you downloading anything from web when you defragmented your drive?

[jpmackay]

No I did not download anything while defragmenting on the hard drive.

Thank you

JM

[igor]

What if you stop the Web Shield provider before you start the defragmenting?

[invisible]

I'm having the same problem. If stopping the web shield provider is a matter of unclicking 'enable web scanning', then it doesn't help.

[DavidR]

Windows defrag at best is slow at worst it is downright picky, with any background activity interrupting the defrag and having to start again.

In the past it was always advised to shutdown non-essential application or run it in safe mode, try this to see if this resolves the issue.

However try RejZoR's Power Defragmentor (PD) link I gave above, you don't have to stop programs and it is quick like you won't believe. There are occasions were I believe it takes less time to defragment a drive with PD than it takes to analyse a drive with windows defrag.

[lukor]

Well, here are my comments:

- what the heck is the point of defragmenting temporary files when they will get deleted shortly after! Need to waste your time or CPU cycles?
- the file is there because it is currently being used by webshield to cache downloads - it will get automatically deleted as soon as it is not needed and since then it would NOT get defragmented since it is opened and as such locked.
- temporary file is there because it is needed for some operation. Mostly some program (webshield) will read and write to it - and when written it will probably get larger. So even if it would get defragmented it would probably get fragmented few seconds later AGAIN
-  stopping webshield is done by clicking the "Terminate" button on the webshield provider config page or by right clicking the (a) icon and choosing "Stop On-access protection". It will definitely help!

[invisible]

DavidR ,

Downloaded the defragmenter. It IS fast! After some defrags, I ran the microsoft defrag again and there was still the 'unable to defrag etc.' message.
However, the com is now moving like greased lightening! Thank you.


lukor,

I turned it off, as per your instructions, but the results of the defrag were the same.

[lukor]

lukor,

I turned it off, as per your instructions, but the results of the defrag were the same.

If you terminated webshield you should be able to delete the TEMP file, under win98 you might need to restart beforehand.

[RejZoR]

XP Defragmenter restarts only on prehistoric FAT32. NTFS is immune to this. It's not a defraggers fault,but filesystems fault.
It doesn't really matter much for NTFS if the file is in use,as long as it's not a system file like pagefile or registry hives. Use my Power Defragmenter in single file mode and try defragmenting just this problematic file.

[lukor]

XP Defragmenter restarts only on prehistoric FAT32. NTFS is immune to this. It's not a defraggers fault,but filesystems fault.
It doesn't really matter much for NTFS if the file is in use,as long as it's not a system file like pagefile or registry hives. Use my Power Defragmenter in single file mode and try defragmenting just this problematic file.

Hi RejZoR, as I said before - in this case there is no point to defragment this file - it is WebShield's temporary and should be deleted at the latest on restart.

[invisible]

This is what can't be defraged:

/user data/local settings/application data/...

It's 187 fragments, 8.00 GB and the message reads " if this area is frequently used, it could have a major impact on performance" (words to the effect). What and where would I type, to defrag the above, on the "Power Defragmenter"?

[DavidR]

Select Defragment File, click Next, click the ... button to the right of the window and browse to the file you want to defragment.

[invisible]

DavidR,

There are two 'user data'. The upper case one is "access denied" and the lower case one was scanned as per. Then an XP defrag was launched and the results were the same. C drive is NTFS.

Thanks anyways.