[Newbie] Did I mess up my external HD?

[njren]

As a newcomer, I should start with a compliment to Piriform and their products: The clarity, simplicity, and efficacy across all of the software titles is just outstanding.

 

Now, the short of it:

 

I stopped Defraggler after about 3 hours of running on an external hard drive. The program indicated 82% completed. After stopping the program and analyzing the drive again, I was rather dismayed to see that the drive was still fragmented by the same amount prior to starting and the fragmented files were different from the first analysis.

 

The long of it:

 

Running Windows XP Pro. A 250GB external drive with about 50GB free space. Basically used for storing important files, so almost always writing to the drive with little-to-no reading/accessing. First analysis with Defraggler indicated 6% fragmentation with a few large fragmented files (for example, a single 200+ Mb music file in lossless format) and many smaller ones. Started the program and let it go. After about 3 hours, stopped it. OK, my fault/stupid/impatient/whatever you want to say to me. A re-analysis showed the same percentage of fragmentation (6%) and an almost completely different set of fragmented files. A double-check using Windows Disk Defragmenter matched Defraggler's report.

 

My questions/concerns/worries:

 

I suppose Defraggler would need around 4 or so hours to finish defragmenting...is that within "normal" range considering the above?

 

The program really seemed to be giving my external HD a workout (rather noisy and hot) as compared to my computer's internal HD (500GB) that seems to go much more smoothly and quickly. I would have thought with around 50GB free space on a 250GB drive, Defraggler could work comfortably...so again, would this be considered "normal"?

 

It's rather alarming to see all my files "scrambled" during the defragmenting; files that previously weren't fragmented are now being reported as fragmented...am I just being paranoid or, again, is this all par for the course?

 

Finally, should I just run the software again and do a complete defragment? Try defragmenting individual files? See what Windows Disk Defragmenter would do instead? Just leave it be?

 

Sorry if some of this sounds so newbie, but could really use some reassurance. Many thanks in advance for the time to reply to any/all of my concerns.

[Alan_B]

It is a normal default for XP to be installed on a NTFS formatted drive,

and for an External Drive to have FAT32 format.

 

Do you have normal defaults or something else ?

 

n.b. XP holds "in use" some files on C:\, and some defraggers may have problems.

The external drive should not hold any files that XP holds "in use", and should be much smoother.

 

Alan

[njren]

Thanks for the reply.

 

The external HD is NTFS in one (big) partition.

[DennisD]

Hi njren.

 

I'm thinking if that drive hasn't been defragged for a while, or even at all, and it contains some big files like movie or video, it could take some time for any defragger to sort it out.

 

Stopping Defraggler in mid scan shouldn't do any harm to your drive as it's written to cope with power outages and/or system crashes.

 

Maybe let Defraggler do a complete run without interruption. I use it on my external USB drive where I have some big movie files, and it takes quite a while.

 

My second internal drive contains a Disk Image of my System Drive (9.55gb), and I inadvertently set a defrag away without excluding that file, and it was gonna take an age to do.

 

I gave up on it and made a new Image, as I don't defrag my Images, but I would have given up anyway if I did, because of the time it was gonna take.

 

Hope that helps.

[njren]

Thanks DennisD & Alan_B...just needed a bit of confirmation/reassurance. Appreciate the time to answer.