I've been told a number of times that the Windows Disk Defragmenter could be better.

Is this true; if so, is there a better downloadable alternative?

There always seems to be 'holes' in my Defragmenter (coloured) bar chart, however many times I do it (XP Pro).

Thanks.

BLUE SKY THINKER,

There are programs out there that are faster and might do a little better job, but on a whole the Defrag in WinXP is good enough to do the job adequately.

With WinXP and NTFS, you do not need to defrag nearly as often as was the case with Win9X.

Take Care,

Richard

I think the fefrag is pretty good over all. Also with XP they hide scan disk on you but if you use that you may fix the holes you were talking about.

Merry Christmas,

CB

I was wondering about that, where exactly in XP Pro is Scan Disk hidden? I like to do a full clean up and defrag every so often too.

BlueEagle.....

I've moved all my shortcuts around on Start > All Programs, but after that I think it was > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

If no luck you will get it this way: My Computer > Local Disk (C) > Windows > system32 > dfrg. ...Click 'dfrg' (shortcut to Desktop for future reference).

Anyone sufficiently interested (worried) about the files it is not possible to defragment, i.e., those open for exclusive use, might like to take a look at
THIS (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml). ...Works well (applicable Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003). ...Some great little programs on this site.

A. Well, it's not in Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools... Here are some ways to find it from the most complex to the easiest:

This one took some real thought over at the Microsoft campus on how to make things simple... Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management, Storage, right-click the Volume, Tools, Options, Check Now button, Select Options, Start.

Start, All Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer (right where it is really handy!), Expand My computer, right-click the drive, Properties, Tools, Check Now..., Select Options, Start.

Start, right-click My Computer, Manage, Storage, Disk Management, right-click the Volume, Properties, Tools, Check Now..., Select Options, Start.

Double-click My computer on the Desktop (or Start, My Computer), select drive, File, Properties, Tools, Check Now..., Select Options, Start.

My Computer, right-click the drive, Properties, Tools, Check Now..., Select Options, Start.

You may be prompted to restart Windows before it will run.

Cowbell ...Well, it's not in Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools...

Quite right. Sorry, previous post late at night; didn't notice we had moved from Defragmenter to ScanDisk (!)

Thank'ee kindly Cowbell. The very next time I am awake I will give that a blast!!!

Much appreciated!

Diskeeper from Executive Software (http://www.executive.com) is great - much faster than the defragger included in XP and configurable. eg, you can configure it to do a one-off defrag at boot time which defrags those files normally locked because they are in use by the system.

You can also configure it to run to a schedule, or when it thinks defragging is appropriate, and to do that in the background, etc.

There is a lite version available here (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207). It's not configurable, you can only defrag one volume at a time, manually, but it'll give you a taste. It's version 7. Later full versions have an improved GUI, as well as improved performance and features.

AA