Defragging seems very slow, have any suggestions?

[Nature]

Hello, I'm having some problems here...

First off, I've used CCleaner for years and love the program. After reading many good reviews and recommendations for Defraggler (and since the build-in Windows defgragger has been noted to be less efficient) I wanted to jump on board and use this tool as part of maintaining my laptop.

 

I was trying to read/troubleshoot the issues myself here on the forums, but I can't figure out what's wrong. I use the default settings, since it seems like nothing much needs to be tweaked or changed—atleast from what I have researched.

I saw some other topics with people having similar issues and I did these steps:
-Under the 'Defrag" Tab; make sure the "move large files to the end of the drive" is unchecked.

-Under the 'Advanced" Tab; make sure the "use custom fragmentation settings" is checked.

...and under this option to make sure to exclude both the 'restore file' and 'hibernation file'.

 

I'm not sure what information to include, so I'll list some things. Let me know if I need to add any more information:

(Actually I realized that you guys offered another cool program called Speccy, so I downlaoded that so I could list some more info for you guys...)

 

HP Probook 4530s

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

Intel Core i3 2310M @ 2.10GHz
4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 RAM

298GB Western Digital WDC WD3200BEKT-60PVMT0 (SATA) HDD

I have a fresh Windows 7 install and everything is patched, up-to-date and all of that jazz. I haven't really added a whole lot of programs to the laptop yet. It's ~2 years old or so, but everything works fine, no hardware issues that I'm aware of after running some tests, running CHKDSK for errors, etc.

 

I ran the analyzer. My HDD (C: drive) capacity us ~276GB. I have 54.2GB (20%) used. I have 221.9GB free space (80%).

Framgentation is now at 13% after trying to defrag this volume, it went down ~1%or so, but it was taking a REALLY long time and seemed be moving the files REALLY slowly. The program was working and I could see the progress, but it was like a turtle's pace—and taking several seconds for each file before proceeding to the next.  I could watch the 'Current State" indicator count down the Fragmented Files and the Total Fragments, but like I said it was soooo slow.  Something just doesn't seem right to me. The Remaining Time started off at like ~5 hours and then it just kept getting longer and longer to the point of <1day.  I stopped the defragging task after a while since this seems like a very unacceptable timeframe. Something just doesn't seem right and I'm wondering why it's taking so long to defrag? (When other people seem to have reported 'faster' results...but I know that's dependent on HDD size and the percentage of fragmentation).  My HDD is rather small and not very fragmented, so again, something doesn't seem right here.

 

I run Kaspersky Internet Security 2014, Malwarebytes Pro, and SuperAntiSpyware (but this one isn't real-time, I use it as secondary scanner and I have to manually open it, update it, and run scans).  I don't want to disable my AV program(s) to defrag (as was suggested somewhere else when I was reading the forums), leaving my system unprotected. That's pretty ridiculous to me and doesn't seem like a proper solution. It seems like both Kaspersky and Malewarebytes are pretty mainstream and used by a lot of people so I would think that there shouldn't be any software conflicts...but correct me if I'm wrong.

I also don't really want to defrag in Safe Mode as a "Fix" (another suggestion I read) because that just doesn't seem like a proper solution to me. I want to use the program normally, like how it was designed to be used. I'd also like to use the program's "Schedule" option so I can defrag every month or so to keep things pretty tidy...which having to boot into Safe Mode all the time seems like it would defeat the purpose here...

 

Anyways, it's starting to feel like I'm writing a novel so I'll stop here. Haha!

I'd love to get these issues sorted out so that I can properly use Defraggler, and be a happy supporter of another Piriform product that many other people have grown to love!

 

Any help would be appreciated and let me know if I need to inculde any more info.

Thanks!

[mta]

you don't mention it explicitly but you were in the right area, but in Advanced, also tick the box to Stop VSS.

[Marf]

My defrag also takes a very long time but then again it is a 2TB 5400RPM drive (Samsung HD204UI) with 257,9GB of free disk space. It's not my system drive, though - my OS is on an SSD. It defrags for over 24hours now. Thing is I quit the process in between one time and after that the drive was much more fragmented then before (initially 3% fragmented, now it's 25% fragmented). Some files on that drive are very large (some are ~10GB, ones even ~45GB). Before I used Audiologics Disk Defrag and it was much, MUCH faster (a little longer than an hour) but it also left out two larger files so I went back to defraggler. Now, it just seems to rearrange pretty much everything, fragmented or not. I have standart settings (it's freshly installed) but after reading here I stopped the process again, stopped VSS in the options and started over.

Since it's taking so rediculously long I'd like to know if there some extra optimization going on or something else which makes it worth the effort. Or maybe there's something wrong with my Windows 7/defraggler settings in that regard? Would be nice if someone could give an explanation.

[mta]

to eliminate the chances that a background task or even your AV software is causing some issues, try a defrag from Safe Mode.

 

have you also excluded restore points and the hibernation file?

[steverobbins]

   I am also having problems with Defraggler being stupidly slow.  Typically 8 or more hours to defrag my system disk. Considering that my system disk has only 56 gigs used on a 1tb drive (see full specs below) on a new machine. This isnt the case on my windows 7 machine though.  they both have bitdefender as the AV but the 7 machine is faster defragging. After reading this I thing the drive size could be the issue though I have to test that out. But as drives get bigger this will not be an ideal solution as the files will also get bigger. 

  I hope someone at piriform is watching these posts as i quite like the program. but a program must be functional to have any business being on one of my machines.

 

Dell Inspiron 5735 with AMD A10-5745 APU 2.1 ghz

8 gb ram

1tb HD

Windows 8.1 X64

[kroozer]

Speed up defrag by defragging only the files. Tick ☑ Filename and click Defrag Checked.

 

.  .  .  the drive size could be the issue though I have to test that out. But as drives get bigger this will not be an ideal solution as the files will also get bigger.

My 1TB HDD is repartitioned so that (C:) is less then 100 GB, takes scant time to fully defrag and wipe.

The unallocated space is used to create volumes that rarely need defragging or wiping.

 

My prevailing method for repartitioning:

 

1. Have Windows disable and delete all restore points.

2. Defrag OS(C:) to migrate the files toward the beginning of the disk.

3. Shrink that OS(C:) drive to 100-200GB.

4. Enable System Restore and create a restore point on OS(C:).