Anilrgowda

One of the most Preventive Maintenance Routines you can perform is to keep your computer's hard drive in prime working order. This tutorial will look at the Windows XP System Tool, Disk Defragmenter.

What this tool does is to reorganize the data located in the occupied space of a disk volume within XP by making each file to be written to a contiguous part of the volume. Bit confusing to you?

Try imagining a binder with 100 clear plastic sheet holders in it. You are able to hold a total of 200 sheets of printed paper in that binder, placing them back to back; two sheets of paper per holder. The perfect solution is to have your page 1 in the very first sheet with page 2 inserted on the back side. Yet let's say you've finished page 47 first, and have to slip it in quickly. You don't have time to count the sheets to see where page 47 would fit in.

As you go, you insert pages. Maybe page 14 would be the next page finished, and it would go right behind page 47. Then you finished page 183, so it is slotted into the second sheet holder in the binder. You get the idea.

Once your binder is filled with 200 pages, imagine how time-consuming it would be to read your manual, starting first with page 1. Next you would have to find page 2, 3, and 4. The amount of time spent locating the pages in order to read the manual in sequential order would be several times as long as the actual reading.

So along comes Miss Defragmenter. She first pulls out the first sheet in your binder. Then she will locate and pull out page 1 and insert the prior sheet (page 47) into its place. She places page 1 into the first sheet holder in the binder then next pulls out the page behind it (page 14). This process continues until the binder is organized in sequential order. She then hands you the binder and you gleefully read through it from start to finish in a flash.

Now you understand what fragmentation is for a hard drive, and how it is fixed. You also should understand why you would want to fix it. Speed things up, right?

How Defragmenter Works

The tool will first analyze your volume to discover how badly fragmented the files on it actually are. It does this by checking the File Allocation Table (FAT) on FAT/FAT32 volumes, and checking the Master File Table (MFT) on NTFS volumes. Since both table types keep a record of the data blocks used by each file, it is rather easy for the defragmenter tool to determine which files are using discontinuous volume space.

Once the volume has been analyzed, Defragmenter will start in cleaning up the fragmented files. You may still notice some areas of free disk space after the Tool has finished the job. This is due to the fact that Defragmenter only defragments the files on the drive. It does not reorganize nor compact the files on the volume.
Actually Using It

There are two popular methods of accessing Disk Defragmenter. I shall give instructions to both methods below:

Using the Start Menu

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Highlight All Programs.
3. Highlight Accessories in the sub-menu.
4. Highlight System Tools in the next sub-menu.
5. Click on Disk Defragmenter.
6. In the Disk Defragmenter Window, click on the Hard Drive you wish to defragment.
7. Click the Defragment button.

Using My Computer

1. Double-click on My Computer.
2. Right-click on the Hard Drive you wish to defragment and click on Properties in the pop-up command window.
3. Click on the Tools tab.
4. Click on the Defragment now... button.

Once the Tool has completed the job, you can exit the Window. The time involved to defragment a volume varies depending on how badly fragmented the volume actually is. Generally, the first time you run the tool; it can take up to several hours to complete. Yet if you run it twice a week, the job is done within minutes.

You will not want to be running other programs while this process is under way. It might slow it down. It would actually force it to start over again from the beginning if the other program you are running accesses the Hard Drive during the defragmentation process.

Fragmentation of the Pagefile

This section is a bit tougher, and you may want to skip this if you feel you are uncomfortable with the process. Also note that you will need to have two volumes running on your PC to perform this feat. That means you will either need to have at least two logical drives set up on your system's single physical hard drive, or have two physical hard drives installed.

The Pagefile has also been called Paging File, virtual memory, and swap file. They are all one and the same. Disk Defragmenter will not and cannot remove the fragmentation in a Pagefile. However, there is a slick way around this by simply re-creating the Pagefile.

What we will be doing is creating a new Pagefile on the second volume and activating it. Then we will remove the Pagefile from the Primary volume and run Disk Defragmenter. The space once occupied by the Pagefile will be available to Disk Defragmenter to insert whole files into.

Once the defragmentation process is complete, we will place a fresh and contiguous Pagefile back on the Primary volume, and remove the temporary Pagefile on the second volume. So let's get started.

1. Right-click on My Computer located on your Desktop.
2. Click on Properties.
3. Click on the Advanced tab.
4. In the Performance frame at the top of the window, click on the Settings button. Be careful that you select the correct button, since there are three of them in the window.
5. In the Performance Options window, click on the Advanced tab.
6. In the Virtual Memory frame at the bottom of the window, click on the Change button.
7. You will see your drives (volumes) listed in a dialog box at the top of the Virtual Memory window. Keeping in mind that Drive C holds your Primary Pagefile, click on a drive other than C on which you would like to make a temporary paging file.
8. In the Paging file size for selected drive frame, click on the radio button next to Custom size.
9. Taking note of the size in megabyte listed beside Recommended in the Total paging file size for all drives frame at the bottom of the window, enter this figure into the dialog boxes next to Initial size and the Maximum size.
10. Click the Set button. This will result in the Paging file being created.
11. Click on the volume with the primary paging file, (commonly Drive C).
12. Change the Initial size and Maximum size to 0.
13. Click on the Set button.
14. Exit all windows.
15. Reboot your computer. This will remove the paging file from the Primary volume and place it on your other volume.
16. Run Disk Defragmenter and select your Primary volume (normally Drive C). Defrag will reuse the space which was once occupied by the paging file.
17. Once Defrag has completed its process, exit the Tool.
18. Open the Virtual Memory dialog box once more by following steps 1 - 6 above.
19. Click on the drive you just defragmented.
20. Follow steps 8 - 10 above to once again assign a paging file to your Primary volume.
21. Start the process of removing the Paging file from your other drive by clicking on it in the dialog box in the Virtual Memory window. Then set the Initial size and Maximum size to 0.
22. Click on the Set button.
23. Exit all windows.
24. Reboot your computer.
25. Repeat steps 1 - 6 above.
26. Click on the drive you just set the Page File to 0 on.
27. Now click on the radio button next to No paging file.
28. Click on the Set button.
29. Click the OK button.
30. Again, reboot your computer. You now have a defragmented Pagefile.

I have always recommended that people check their drives for errors before defragmenting one. You can do so by clicking on the Check Now... button located in the Error-checking frame on the same Tools tab where the Defragment Now... button is located. If there are errors on the volume when you run Defrag, you can increase the seriousness of those errors, possibly to the point where your computer will not boot from the Primary volume.