defragmentation questions

i have a vista home premium with a 138GB HD (82GB full, 56GB free) on an
HP pavillion computer. my computer is about 2-3years old.

1) how long does it take to defragmentation for the 1st time? the last
time i did it (and the 1st time, with all the info above, my computer
didn't finish even after 12hrs+. unfortunately, defragmentation does not
have some loading bar, so i could not tell if the thing just stopped or
it was just taking a super long time.)

2) also, when i did defragmentation for the 1st time, my computer
started losing free space! what's going on?


--
lorripop

Hi lorripop,

I have experienced a similar problem and it turned out to be restore
points taking up the space (happens during a defrag in Vista I am told).
Try deleting and then rebooting. Regarding the time taken, it did take a
long time for me too. But exactly how long will depend on how much
fragmentation you have. And since there is no visual display, its
difficult to figure anything out. I no longer use the Vista defragger. I
changed to a third party automatic defrag program.


--
carcen

what program do you use

--
lorripop

In message <> lorripop
<> was claimed to have wrote:

>i have a vista home premium with a 138GB HD (82GB full, 56GB free) on an
>HP pavillion computer. my computer is about 2-3years old.
>
>1) how long does it take to defragmentation for the 1st time?

How long is a string?

>the last
>time i did it (and the 1st time, with all the info above, my computer
>didn't finish even after 12hrs+. unfortunately, defragmentation does not
>have some loading bar, so i could not tell if the thing just stopped or
>it was just taking a super long time.)

12+ hours isn't unreasonable with a reasonably large and/or reasonably
slow drive. If you have drive activity lights, keep an eye on them to
see what is happening.

>2) also, when i did defragmentation for the 1st time, my computer
>started losing free space! what's going on?

This is likely an interaction between the defragger and shadow copies
(which in part is how Vista implements System Restore), Vista's volume
shadow service isn't always defrag aware and in some cases you may lose
older shadow copies and/or see some space consumed. This is normal for
Vista, the space will be released as additional shadow copies replace
the older one.

To DaveWarren

what do you mean string

what do you mean "If you have drive activity lights, keep an eye o
them t
see what is happening"

wait...so this is normal??
and will i regain the space back after my computer has finishe
defragmenting

--
lorripop

Hi, lorripop.

Dave was asking a rhetorical question. :^} But his question does have a
point.

You asked how long a defrag might take. Dave asked how long is a string.
Neither question can be answered without knowing more details: A string
could be any length from less than an inch to more than a mile. A defrag
can take from less than a minute to more than a day. Yes, on a large drive,
with many badly-fragmented files and little free space to work with and with
a slow CPU, a defrag could take many hours.

Most computers have a light that turns on when the hard drive is active.
Experienced users can often tell a good bit about what the computer is doing
by watching the activity light blink on and off. Like the sound of a car
engine tells a story to a mechanic's ear.

Defragmenting generally re-organizes the way that file use space on the
disk. While it doesn't usually create more unused space, it gathers the
used space together, leaving larger free areas so that later files can be
stored more efficiently and more quickly. It often seems to the user that
the disk has more free space than before.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"lorripop" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> To DaveWarren:
>
> what do you mean string?
>
> what do you mean "If you have drive activity lights, keep an eye on
> them to
> see what is happening"?
>
> wait...so this is normal???
> and will i regain the space back after my computer has finished
> defragmenting?
>
>
> --
> lorripop

R. C. White;1235201 Wrote:
> Hi, lorripop
>
> Dave was asking a rhetorical question. :^} But his question does have
> point
>
> You asked how long a defrag might take. Dave asked how long is
> string
> Neither question can be answered without knowing more details: A strin
> could be any length from less than an inch to more than a mile.
> defra
> can take from less than a minute to more than a day. Yes, on a larg
> drive
> with many badly-fragmented files and little free space to work with an
> wit
> a slow CPU, a defrag could take many hours
>
> Most computers have a light that turns on when the hard drive i
> active
> Experienced users can often tell a good bit about what the computer i
> doin
> by watching the activity light blink on and off. Like the sound of
> ca
> engine tells a story to a mechanic's ear
>
> Defragmenting generally re-organizes the way that file use space on th
> disk. While it doesn't usually create more unused space, it gathers th
> used space together, leaving larger free areas so that later files ca
> b
> stored more efficiently and more quickly. It often seems to the use
> tha
> the disk has more free space than before
>
> R
> -
> R. C. White, CP
> San Marcos, T
> rc@newsgrou
> Microsoft Windows MV
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x6
>
> "lorripop" <> wrote in messag
> news:...> > >
> >
> > > To DaveWarren
> >
> > > what do you mean string
> >
> > > what do you mean "If you have drive activity lights, keep an eye o
> > > them t
> > > see what is happening"
> >
> > > wait...so this is normal??
> > > and will i regain the space back after my computer has finishe
> > > defragmenting
> >
> >
> > > -
> > > lorripop > >

...oh, whoops D

well, uhm, well, most of the details of my computer is above... but i
it helps it takes... 5 mins to start up the computer?? ._.

wait what do you mean "low CPU"? ._

and does that mean that the space i lost would be regained afterwards?
._.

and chkdsk might not be related to this question, but if defraggin
takes a long time, would i expect chkdsk to run just as long

--
lorripop

Hi, lorripop.

See below...

"lorripop" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> R. C. White;1235201 Wrote:
>> Hi, lorripop.
>>
>> Dave was asking a rhetorical question. :^} But his question does have a
>> point.
>>
>> You asked how long a defrag might take. Dave asked how long is a
>> string.
>> Neither question can be answered without knowing more details: A string
>> could be any length from less than an inch to more than a mile. A
>> defrag
>> can take from less than a minute to more than a day. Yes, on a large
>> drive,
>> with many badly-fragmented files and little free space to work with and
>> with
>> a slow CPU, a defrag could take many hours.
>>
>> Most computers have a light that turns on when the hard drive is
>> active.
>> Experienced users can often tell a good bit about what the computer is
>> doing
>> by watching the activity light blink on and off. Like the sound of a
>> car
>> engine tells a story to a mechanic's ear.
>>
>> Defragmenting generally re-organizes the way that file use space on the
>> disk. While it doesn't usually create more unused space, it gathers the
>> used space together, leaving larger free areas so that later files can
>> be
>> stored more efficiently and more quickly. It often seems to the user
>> that
>> the disk has more free space than before.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "lorripop" <> wrote in message
>> news:...> > >
>> > >
>> > > To DaveWarren:
>> > >
>> > > what do you mean string?
>> > >
>> > > what do you mean "If you have drive activity lights, keep an eye on
>> > > them to
>> > > see what is happening"?
>> > >
>> > > wait...so this is normal???
>> > > and will i regain the space back after my computer has finished
>> > > defragmenting?
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > lorripop > >
>
> ..oh, whoops D:
>
> well, uhm, well, most of the details of my computer is above... but if
> it helps it takes... 5 mins to start up the computer?? ._."

The only details I saw were the total size of your hard drive and the free
space. With that much (56 GB free on a 138 GB HD), defragging should not be
slowed down. If you had only, say, 5 GB free, then defragging would take a
long time. Sorry I overlooked that info in your first post. (All I really
wanted to do was explain the "how long is a string" rhetoric.)

Five minutes is longer than it takes to boot most computers, I think. Many
boot up in less than a minute. But there are many variables from one
computer to the next. How many applications start automatically? Does an
antivirus scan run at reboot? Et cetera...

But, both slow startup and slow defrag could be caused by a sick hard
drive - or one that needs a better driver. Perhaps the system is having to
make many retry attempts to read some parts of the disk.

> wait what do you mean "low CPU"? ._.

That's "a slow CPU". My copy reads correctly; maybe there was a glitch in
your newsreader?

> and does that mean that the space i lost would be regained afterwards??
> _.

Not sure what this question means. Defragging works by temporarily moving
file segments to other places on the disk, clearing out larger free areas,
and then moving all of the formerly-fragmented file into that space where it
can now be written as a continuous, contiguous entity. You SHOULD have the
same amount of free space after defragging as you had before; it's just
organized differently now. Nothing "lost", nothing "regained".

> and chkdsk might not be related to this question, but if defragging
> takes a long time, would i expect chkdsk to run just as long?

Chkdsk and defrag both work on the hard disk files, but their functions are
quite different. They each might work slowly on a corrupted or failing
disk - but for different reasons.

> --
> lorripop

Has your computer been scanned for malware? Recently?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

To R. C. White: (i'm not going to quote, because now that all thes
quotes are making replies too long it's getting to be abit of a headach
to read them D:

oh haha that's ok how long would your approximation . A

ok i'm sorry, i'm a computer retard. what does CPU even mean ._

during defragging see, i realise that the free space decreases..(lik
mayb 2-3GB??) after defragging do i regain this space back?

oh

uhh i haven't really got the time to do full scans. i'm having my exam
soon and i'm using my mum's computer now...because my mum took away min
OT

--
lorripop