Hi there,
since I “tweaked” some of Windows XP Home (SP2)'s services (i.e. disabled them) Windows defrag’s been behaving in a very odd manner.
In normal mode it works just fine (though a little more slowly than before) but in safe mode it doesn’t seem to work at all. CPU usage is 00 (like every other process) in the process tab, however, cpu usage is around 40 in the next tab.
Still, it won’t work.
From this arise 2 questions:
Which service(s) is/are responsible for the proper workings of defrag?
Is there a better (freeware) defrag prog which works with xp2 (FAT32 - I know about the benefits of NTFS but…)?
Services? I’m really not sure about the services, as I didn’t think there were any dependent services.
Free? I’ve not tried this (I have 2 fairly good paid versions), so I’m not even sure it does FAT32. But, it has been recommended to me by several friends/colleagues & it has good reviews… IObit SmartDefrag.
Recommendation (you won’t like this): Convert to NTFS & defrag less. ;D
Try Power Defragmenter:
extract the attached zip file to your downloads folder. Open the Power Defragmenter GUI file and use the power defragment mode.
This is the defragmenter from Sysinternals - it works very well and I notice a huge improvement in performance with this. As for how it works I am afraid someone with more expertise will have to explain that.
Woah, I’ve only just posted…you guys are soooooooo quick to reply!
This can only happen at Comodo forums…you are the best :■■■■
I’ll make sure to try out your suggestion asap.
I may have forgotten one, but hopefully all these are the only ones:
DCOM Server Process Launcher*
Task Scheduler
Windows Management Instrumentation*
Notes:
= Not 100% sure it’s needed for defragmenter, but recommended to not disable it for system stability
I didn’t list the obvious ones that should never be disabled, such as Event Log and Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
Alternatively, you can list the ones you disabled. Then I’ll be able to confirm.
Warp speed, Mr. Zulu!!! (:CLP)
Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions.
Soya,
every service you mention is set to automatic and running.
What I did to ensure safer browsing and faster bootup (though I’m not sure it helped), was:
SERVICE, set (from - to):
SERVER (automatic - disabled)
SSDP DISCOVERY SERVICE (manual - disabled): might reset to “manual” as suggested on one of the
linked sites
What’s more, I have enabled AUTOLAYOUT in registry (BootOptimize is also enabled - by default).
I have ticked "launch folder windows in a separate process in: “folder options/view”.
There should’t be any issues with defrag resulting from my changes, should there?
Cheers,
grampa.
Thanks kail I might just decide to stop being a such a ■■■■■ and use PM. (:CLP)
hmm…The Win Defrag can be tricky. I’ve read other things (and not necessarily services) that are required, but forgot (:SHY) The 3 you listed are definitely not required for a standalone system and should be set to disabled. (At least for my pc; I have 16 services in Auto).
My experience with running it in Safe Mode is that hangs when it’s near completion at around 99% (:AGY). As a fellow forum member had posted, it’s actually not healthy on the disk drive(s) to defrag too often. Also, Windows (XP) fairly efficient on its own self-defrag. I think it does this at certain times when the pc is idle, which is when it’s not noticeable. You can verify this by accessing your Prefetch folder and you’ll see the executable on defragmenter.
Windows does sort of optimize itself during idle times. The nifty Tweak UI utility from sysinternals allows you to change many useful settings, one of which is the option for this optimization. The ‘Optimize Hard Disk When Idle’ setting is under the ‘general’ section. I find this quite a useful little file - especially since i was able to turn off the annoying pc error bleep with it. LOL.
Some excellent suggestions here.
I personally use a ‘paid for’ software program to monitor my hard drive and have never had a problem. The software monitors your hard drive and dfrgs when necessary…automatically!! ;D
Check out the Web site and investigate… maybe it is what you are looking for. (:KWL) www.diskeeper.com
I use PowerDefragmenterGUI and jkdefrag mentioned above. PowerDefragmenterGUI is just a pretty front end to SysInternals Contig.exe.
Another useful utility is PageDefrag Also from SysInternals.
From the PageDefrag web page:
PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a laptop).
I’ve just dld and already used it. Seems to work fine though I think I’m not in a position to judge it yet.
What I cannot believe is what the bloke on this site http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html (suggested by Soya) says concerning better than Windows’ own defrag freeware programmes: there aren’t any ??? However, I found some very useful information on that site.
Another question:
How often can one run a defrag without damaging once HD? Is it possible to answer that question?
I think a lot of people would disagree with his statement regarding free defrag tools. Sure, if you have a spare few pounds/dollars/Francs/Roubles… laying around, go and buy a commercial product. You will probably only use once every few months.
As to how often. Not really an easy question to answer. If you perform a lot of file operations, install and remove a lot of programs, then you will be defragging more frequently.
Some of the defrag tools let you analyse the fragmentation level and will suggest what to do.
On the whole, if you notice a performance decrease when opening directories/files, then check the level of fragmentation.
I had no intentions of “advertising” anything about commercial productions as that would be spam :P. That site was intended to indicate the win defrag in relation to how it would consume cpu.
Honestly, with a fast cpu I’ve noticed very little to no performance increase. If I ever notice that much difference it would be a psychological effect. Depending how much of your drive is used on a regular basis, defragmenting isn’t required. I download by the gigs per month in p2p, but even then I don’t know any difference after a complete defrag. In fact, I just narrowed it down to 2 lines of my “own” script file:
rundll32.exe advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks
defrag c: -b
Those are basic commands that will at least boost application and boot times. Again, these I probably run once / month at most.
