Seeing the Windows Defragmenter Defrag

[jujubee08]

Hi, how can I get the Defragmenter utility on Windows Vista to show me what it is doing?

Right now, when I click Defragment Now button, all that happens is that the button turns into Cancel Defragment

I want to see what sectors the Defragmenter is working on. No, not because I want to see it for the sake of seeing it. But just to know how far the process is going along

Is there an advanced mode for the Defragmenter utility that lets you do this?

[cod head]

Vista defragmenter is a very light defragmenter that runs in the background.I do not know of a way to see it running.You can set it to run now but it will not show you anything.You cannot choose wich files to defrag,it defrags everything.I have vista and downloaded another defragger for when I want instant results. .

[sunrisecc]

The Vista-supplied defragger is triggered every Wednesday at1:00 AM and runs silently in the background when the computer is not active. MS has decided what 'not-active' means. One can research to see the exact definition. Yes, it is not visual. If you want something visual, there are free and not-free alternatives. The consensus is that it works. 
I use Perfect Disk . However that is because I had it before Vista on my old XP computer. If I did not have a registered copy, I would not need it in Vista and use the supplied one. The less GUI, the better.
Also one could always check the task scheduler for the results of the Vista-supplied defragger.

[Lisandro]

There isn't an advanced mode for it.
You can try the much much better Iobit Smart Defrag than Vista one, for free: http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html?Str=download

[Hard_ROCKER]

Actually the defrag in Vista is quite a decent one. Vista defrag DOES have an "advanced mode" if you want to call it that. You'll need to run it in the command prompt though. Start command prompt and type defrag ? to see what options it provides(btw the -b switch isn't listed there but trust me it works). By default it doesn't attempt to move files larger than 64 MB but you can get around this by entering the -w switch(eg. defrag -w). If you want it to do the best job possible then boot into safe mode start command prompt and type defrag -w -f c:(can take a long time to complete) and afterwards defrag -b c: (this will defrag the boot files of your system according to the layout.ini file which will speed up the start up of your system). BTW i am assuming c: is your windows partition ...

The biggest problem with almost all freeware defrag programs is that they don't take the layout.ini file into account which means they move those boot files to a different location and that means that your system startup is actually slower after you've run one of those programs. The most powerful freeware defrag i know of is called JkDefrag but that one also doesn't take the layout.ini file into account so it's a good idea to run defrag -b after you've run JkDefrag.

Here is a good comparison of Defrag programs if nothing else at least you will get a few good links from here. http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-all.html

[Lisandro]

Good hints... Thanks.

[Hard_ROCKER]

No problem Tech.

[jujubee08]

I just find it odd that Windows Vista Defragmenter has no visual display of how far it is into defragmenting the drive

On Windows XP, the Defragmenter actually had a visual display of what sectors of the hard drive it was working on

[Hard_ROCKER]

A bit more info ... http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2007/01/26/don-t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-why-windows-vista-defrag-is-cool.aspx

[TheSpirit]

There is only one defragger/optimizer, and it's free!

http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

Enjoy.

[Hard_ROCKER]

There is only one defragger/optimizer, and it's free!

http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

Enjoy.

What exactly are you trying to say here ?

[sunrisecc]

I really do not know why some of us are hung up at the lack of visual interface. It runs in the background quietly and that is the way it should have been all along.

[twl845]

I really do not know why some of us are hung up at the lack of visual interface. It runs in the background quietly and that is the way it should have been all along.

How do you know when it's done defragging? I started a defrag on my Son's computer and as has been said here, you can't tell how it's progressing.

[sunrisecc]

Firstly, since the task runs automatically every Wed. at 1:00 AM, there really is no need to run it manually as there was in XP or earlier. But to answer your question directly, one only has to check the task scheduler for the results. Having said that, remember that it is a background job now (as opposed previously in XP or earlier).

There is a way to run it manually with additional options. Google it if you want.

Maybe because of my background with large mainframes, I can appreciate background versus foreground jobs. Background jobs were always checked by referring to logs since none of them have any real GUI interface.

An example is Vista of another background job is Shadow Copy. I do not need a GUI when it runs.

The link above by Darth_mikey gives excellent background why this change was made. One of the reasons given is that most users were not running a defrag on a regular basis and hence it was decided that make it a background job. I agree with that change.

[Hard_ROCKER]

One only needs to re-read this thread and the links i provided to answer his/her questions.

Look for a DfrgNtfs.exe process in task manager, if it's not there then it's done, if it is then it's still doing it's job. A look at the HDD light can also give you a hint ...

EDIT: If you started it manually then it will look like this:

Defrag doing it's job:


After it's done it will re-analyze the partitions and show this: