what the title says. i have a comp im troubleshooting thats running XP and the disk is so badly fragged its just disturbing it still boots. i removed 20GB of data (30GB partition) but the windows tool is half assing itself to failure and i dont have time to search for a tool since i have other things i need to do to the comp in the mean time. preferably something i can run from windows, since im doing drive cleaning on another disk in the mean time
Need a powerful disk defragmentor
- Thread starter faxon
- Start date
JKDefrag does really well. It uses Windows' defrag API, but much more efficiently than Windows does. Check it out at the author's site
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
- 13,576
- 6
- 76
You seem to be beleiving some mythes about defragging... fragmentation does not and CAN NOT cause "damage"... aka, it will ALWAYS still boot even at 100% fragmentation (which is statistically impossible to reach). Fragmentation just cause slight slowdown and a bit of space wastage. Constant background defragmenting causes MORE of a slowdown than leaving it fragemented. as well as wastes the drive life and uses up power. and uses up the CPU and ram causing their lifespan to decrease as well..
The windows tool is shitty, it can NOT defragment the os drive, because it stops if the drive is accessed, but the drive is accessed all the time because it is the os drive.
well it crashed 5 times on me when i was defragging it earlier. i ran chkdsk and didnt find anything. the comp was on for 3 hours today without it crashing when i wasnt doing defrags on the OS disk, and the disk is good, i know its not dead. i have been having other issues with it though here, i think something else is dying, and i dont yet know what. the comp just reboot on me twice and came back with bios beep codes, and now its just stopped doing it so i cant identify the source of the problem since i wasnt in the room when it happened (was in the bathroom, i heard it do its thing). looks like the original issue (drive dying) might not be the only issue
MTDEW
Diamond Member
- Oct 31, 1999
- 4,284
- 37
- 91
My VERY GENERAL bios beep code translations are...
One long continuous beep that repeats.....memory error
One long beep followed by three short beeps.....Video error
Police siren beep .... overheating / cpu fan not detected
Also, if i were you i'd grab memtest 86 and do a memory check.
And if you're overclocked, do the normal stability tests. (ie: prime 95 / orthos)
One long continuous beep that repeats.....memory error
One long beep followed by three short beeps.....Video error
Police siren beep .... overheating / cpu fan not detected
Also, if i were you i'd grab memtest 86 and do a memory check.
And if you're overclocked, do the normal stability tests. (ie: prime 95 / orthos)
A pre-boot defragmeting solution should be used in that case. Tried it and works... more or less.
Yellowbeard
Golden Member
- Sep 9, 2003
- 1,542
- 2
- 0
You might want to look at your Windows Event Viewer and see if you get any clues about what happened. Also, this could be heat or power related.
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
- 13,576
- 6
- 76
that is one of two ways to solve the problem. the thing is, the windows defrag utulity has this problem... aka it simply does NOT work... period.
You want defraging you get a 3rd party tool, either preboot or one that can work while the drive is in use (like diskkeeper).
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,572
- 10,208
- 126
Not true. NTFS has corner cases in which it cannot boot the system if certain fragmentation happens. I documented this (links) in some of my rants against NTFS in the OS forum last year or the year before.
yea i have a lot of analysis shit to do. i ended up just going to bed last night. sounded like a police siren was comming from the comp tho in the bathroom (high beep low beep high beep low beep constantly), but temps were fine (50c idle on the core, 35 on the chipsets). mobo is an Abit IS7 (865P Chipset), cpu is a stock speed 2.8GHz Northwood W/HT. i will try popping memtest into it and letting it run while im at work and overnight just to get that out of the way. the comp needs a total system tear down anyway for cleaning reasons as well so i will examine the components 1 by 1 when i do it as well. i got my work cut out for me it seems hehe. hoping i can just find a 939 X2 cpu for my old comp and i can just give him that rig tho, this one is getting really hard to troubleshoot since the shit in it is so old and the PSU is probably going to cut out next, which i cant replace and they cant afford.
ed: 8.2mb into the test memtest already found 1 error. guess i get to let it run for more while im at work. sucks, i ran memtest on it for a week back before i sold it, one of the sticks must have gone bad =(
ed2: fuck, it crashed while running memtest with that weee wooo weee wooo non stop beep again. it found a bunch more errors on the way there as well. looks like i know where to start when i get home /sigh
ed: 8.2mb into the test memtest already found 1 error. guess i get to let it run for more while im at work. sucks, i ran memtest on it for a week back before i sold it, one of the sticks must have gone bad =(
ed2: fuck, it crashed while running memtest with that weee wooo weee wooo non stop beep again. it found a bunch more errors on the way there as well. looks like i know where to start when i get home /sigh
alright, so, when i went into frys today (i work at palo alto frys in components), i got to talk to our service department head, and he seemed to agree with my diagnosis of the problem, and the possibilities for what to check when and how.
1: this comp's northbridge cooler had a fan, and i say had because it is DEAD, since the bearing is full of dust, and its pretty much completely locked up. fortunately, i actually still HAVE a spare northbridge cooler i was using when the cooler on my old 750MHz Duron board/cpu went up in smoke (completely fused), and the retaining bracket on the stock cooler is identical to the one i need to mount the old cooler, so i can fix that.
2: if the northbridge isnt cooked, or at least a little crispy even, this should hopefully fix my memory error problem. if it doesnt, this comp gets to eat memtest all day tomorrow with different memory settings and configurations until i find out why its erroring. hopefully that should fix this issue
3: if #2 doesnt work, this comp is getting its PSU pulled and were going to have a meeting with my multimeter, as well as a full system tear down/clean up in the process, just since it needs it, and a full capacitor + magnifying glass run
4: i think the other drive that was in the comp, the one i havent imaged yet and was having trouble defraging, is also dying, which isnt a problem so long as i can image it since i was going to replace it with another used drive that still has some life in it (i havent checked it 100% yet), which should solve that problem.
5: pray?
6: i had someone come into work today looking to buy a socket 939 motherboard, but the only one we had was $80, and it looks like he is going to just buy an AM2+ board and an athlon X2 7750 Kuma at my recommendation, and he is welling to sell me his old X2 processor if he replaces the rig. i can use this as a drop in upgrade for my old rig's 939 athlon 4000+, since even a 3800+X2 would be faster in new multithreaded games (which said friend plays), and chances are for what he paid when he got it, this one is at least a 4400+. if i buy said CPU i can talk to him about working out a payment plan for the cost of the CPU, case (brand new CM 690), and graphics card (like new HD4670). even if this isnt an option for them, i was half ready to look into giving the rig away to him, its just that again, the case is brand new and it would need an up to date GPU, since the one in this old rig is an AGP x1650 512mb.
as for parts to test the rig with, the 2 1GB sticks of DDR400 i have in my 939 rig should work in the old motherboard, since they both run DDR400, i have spare power supplies and graphics cards. the only thing i cant swap out directly are the CPU or motherboard really. this system honestly should just get replaced, but somehow he is managing to play farcry 2 on it (dont ask how), and if it means less work for me and no cost for him, thats pretty much the quickest outcome i can get him. its just a pain in the ass and what not. as soon as all this shit is over and done with, i get to go and do a clean sweep of the OS, because it turns out he has a bunch of trojans he cant get rid of, that he got since last time i gave it a checkup, and all the standard ways of getting rid of them just dont want to work, either for me or 2 other guys who he talks to first, since he sees them more often.
well, its 7 am, and i been up all night on monsters watching episodes of supernatural while i hammer away at this thing one bit at a time, and im about ready to pass out. hopefully i can get this fixed by the end of the week.
1: this comp's northbridge cooler had a fan, and i say had because it is DEAD, since the bearing is full of dust, and its pretty much completely locked up. fortunately, i actually still HAVE a spare northbridge cooler i was using when the cooler on my old 750MHz Duron board/cpu went up in smoke (completely fused), and the retaining bracket on the stock cooler is identical to the one i need to mount the old cooler, so i can fix that.
2: if the northbridge isnt cooked, or at least a little crispy even, this should hopefully fix my memory error problem. if it doesnt, this comp gets to eat memtest all day tomorrow with different memory settings and configurations until i find out why its erroring. hopefully that should fix this issue
3: if #2 doesnt work, this comp is getting its PSU pulled and were going to have a meeting with my multimeter, as well as a full system tear down/clean up in the process, just since it needs it, and a full capacitor + magnifying glass run
4: i think the other drive that was in the comp, the one i havent imaged yet and was having trouble defraging, is also dying, which isnt a problem so long as i can image it since i was going to replace it with another used drive that still has some life in it (i havent checked it 100% yet), which should solve that problem.
5: pray?
6: i had someone come into work today looking to buy a socket 939 motherboard, but the only one we had was $80, and it looks like he is going to just buy an AM2+ board and an athlon X2 7750 Kuma at my recommendation, and he is welling to sell me his old X2 processor if he replaces the rig. i can use this as a drop in upgrade for my old rig's 939 athlon 4000+, since even a 3800+X2 would be faster in new multithreaded games (which said friend plays), and chances are for what he paid when he got it, this one is at least a 4400+. if i buy said CPU i can talk to him about working out a payment plan for the cost of the CPU, case (brand new CM 690), and graphics card (like new HD4670). even if this isnt an option for them, i was half ready to look into giving the rig away to him, its just that again, the case is brand new and it would need an up to date GPU, since the one in this old rig is an AGP x1650 512mb.
as for parts to test the rig with, the 2 1GB sticks of DDR400 i have in my 939 rig should work in the old motherboard, since they both run DDR400, i have spare power supplies and graphics cards. the only thing i cant swap out directly are the CPU or motherboard really. this system honestly should just get replaced, but somehow he is managing to play farcry 2 on it (dont ask how), and if it means less work for me and no cost for him, thats pretty much the quickest outcome i can get him. its just a pain in the ass and what not. as soon as all this shit is over and done with, i get to go and do a clean sweep of the OS, because it turns out he has a bunch of trojans he cant get rid of, that he got since last time i gave it a checkup, and all the standard ways of getting rid of them just dont want to work, either for me or 2 other guys who he talks to first, since he sees them more often.
well, its 7 am, and i been up all night on monsters watching episodes of supernatural while i hammer away at this thing one bit at a time, and im about ready to pass out. hopefully i can get this fixed by the end of the week.
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
If I get a system that has that bad of a fragmentation and just general junk on the drive. I format, then install a new copy of windows. Usually faster and more effective.
yea thats on my radar. since i havent even got to the software side of the comp's issues i have been trying to keep it as intact as possible, so i can still load the OS when i need to do work from that end on it. from my perspective though it looks like its full of trojans anyway, so as soon as i get the hardware problems worked out im going to have this dude come by and choose what he wants copied off before i blast it
for the record the Windows de-fragmentation tool is probably the best one your going to find out there.
from everything I've seen (and experienced) the Windows de-framgentor does either just as good a job or better job than anything else you can get out there no matter what options are turned on or off.
Threads like this drive me nuts. I've seen Windows defrag util. doesn't work at all to Windows defrag util. works as good or better than any. ARRRGGHHHH
better as in better performing after defragmenting is done. Some apps will actually make performance worse.
This is the best I can do for you. I'm sure you'll find a thousand reasons why the article is bogus and the results are skewed Bottom line is if you don't believe it then I suggest using whatever you want. In my experience nothing beats (although some might equal) the windows defrag tool. In any case you shouldn't be defragging that often anyways.
if you shouldn't be defragging your hard drive often, then how come vista does it automatically, constantly, whenever the comp is powered on in windows? it's obviously important to system performance and stability or they wouldnt have put that feature into vista.
now as for my problems at hand, i think the new northbridge cooler fixed the problem, but im going to let memtest run overnight anyways just to make sure
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