BUG? (disk size needed to defrag)

[SFX Group]

Hi

 

Installed, used, seems fine...

 

However, i have a 400Gb disk, over 100Gb free and the log file says it cant defrag 2Gb files as not enough space, i can fit a 2Gb file 05 times in that space, so why wont it defrag... see images below...

 

Many Thanks

Ashley

 

http://www.ashleygriffin.ca/temp/smartdefrag_screen.jpg

 

http://www.ashleygriffin.ca/temp/smartdefrag_log.jpg

[solbjerg]

Hi SFX

It does say that your d. drive has about 25% free, but the image doesn't look as if this is quite true.

Why have you chosen deep optimize in this situation, I would have started with just defrag - I might even have started with the windows defrag - and then moved on to defrag&optimize and concluded with the optimal optimize.

Once it has run its course it will be faster in the next defragmentations.

Have you tried that?

Cheers

solbjerg

p.s. I just noticed that you have the icon "Speed up your pc" displayed, this must be a leftover from several versions back. This can happen if the newer versions are installed over the top. Please try a Clean Install of the program, where you uninstall it and then delete the program folder before installing the newest version again.

Please read about the procedure utilizing the links in my signature.

[SFX Group]

Hi SFX

It does say that your d. drive has about 25% free, but the image doesn't look as if this is quite true.

 

25% free is correct, i cant comment on the image as didnt program the software

 

Why have you chosen deep optimize in this situation

I chose the full defrag, time isnt of an issue, i wanted to see how resilint the pogram was, and was impressed until its saying it cant do everything due to size limitations (this drive is not RAID, its a plain 1 drive partition).

 

Have you tried that?

I have, it doesnt seem to want to do most of the larger files

 

p.s. I just noticed that you have the icon "Speed up your pc" displayed, this must be a leftover from several versions back.

This is a new install, i've never used this software before every, i have to be very perticualr about this due to the strict guidelines with regard Dolby (as i have a Dolby Trade Agreement).

 

This is XP Pro x64

 

Many Thanks

Ashley

[MagicHunter]

Hi SFX,

 

You seem to have a lot of Large files that are 2GB+

From the image of it, I do not see any Free Space. Most of them are Fragmented.

 

- Try running the Windows Defrag first and see how it goes.

- Temporary move those 10 files that are larger than 3GB to C drive.

- Under "Options" inside SmartDefrag, Check if "Skip files larger than 1GB" is unchecked.

 

Cheers.

[solbjerg]

True Magic

Futhermore it looks as if there is only one block free space, + one unmoveable block? - no MFT blocks? - at least not un-fragmented - and also it looks as if you may have changed the colors of the legend. What does your colors stand for?

In these circumstances I am fairly sure that the program would not have recommended a deep optimizing defrag.

According to the screenshot you have about 10% fairly often used files and about 10% seldomly used files, the rest of the space is filled up with fragmented files - if the legend is with the normal colors.

As Magic says - do you have a setting that ignores files over a specific size?

Cheers

solbjerg

 

;52162']Hi SFX,

 

You seem to have a lot of Large files that are 2GB+

From the image of it, I do not see any Free Space. Most of them are Fragmented.

 

- Try running the Windows Defrag first and see how it goes.

- Temporary move those 10 files that are larger than 3GB to C drive.

- Under "Options" inside SmartDefrag, Check if "Skip files larger than 1GB" is unchecked.

 

Cheers.

[enoskype]

Hi guys,

 

The empty spaces in the blocks are over shadowed by fragments of the files .ie. red fragments shadow the white (almost) empty spaces. (The other colored system files and directories too.) So, the empty spaces are not seen and scattered all over the disk.

 

The program can not find contiguous space to defragment the fairly huge sized (over 1 GB) files.

 

The remedy could be copy some part of the non-system part of the disk to another disk, defragment the original disk, then copy back the copied non-system part back to original disk.

 

Once the contiguous empty space is created, later defragmentation by Smart Defrag should work, as the beginning part of the disk will be organized for optimization.

 

For that specific disk, Skip files larger than xxGB checkbox should be kept unchecked in the Options.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. "Speed up your pc" icon is displayed because the user does not have ASC installed in his PC.:-)

OK, enoskype - thanks!! solbjerg

[Toppack]

My conclusion is the same as usual, around here. :cry:

 

We All Need Larger Hard-Drives :lol:

[SFX Group]

looks as if you may have changed the colors of the legend. What does your colors stand for?

Orange is now yellow, thats the only one changed.

 

do you have a setting that ignores files over a specific size?

There are no ignore settings, set in this (iit attemps all file sizes)

 

 

Many Thanks

Ashley

[SFX Group]

My conclusion is the same as usual, around here. :cry:

 

We All Need Larger Hard-Drives :lol:

 

Has RAID ready for this once i get a new board :)

[Toppack]

I have a question pretaining to this problem.

 

If I understand correctly, 'Deep-optimize' requires more contiguous free disk space than just doing a 'defrag', correct?

But does doing a deep-optimize also use up free space? (less space available after running it?) By watching the block-graph during a deep-optimize, it appears that there is less free space afterward?

 

If that's True, then I suggest that deep-optimize mode may do 'more harm than good'.

 

(I did a test on another drive and got same results, of less free-space shown afterward)

[solbjerg]

Hi Toppack

Interesting question!

I put it to some tests:

First Analyze said 36,07 GB free

I then ran a Defrag only

Next Analyze said 36,04 GB free

So 0,03 GB was used - probably by adding some information data to the directories.

Then I ran Optimal Optimization

Analyze after that said 36,04 GB free

So no extra information was added it seems by that optimizing.

The amount of information in the directories I think is changing over time as old information gets deleted I think after some period of "grace".

Likewise the unmovable blocks seems to change in number over time too.

I haven't seen any problem by me relating to this.

Then I ran a chkdsk (the program one - 3 steps)

and after that a new Analyze by SmartDefrag which now said 36,12 GB free!

I then ran a fast optimize and the Analyze after that said 36,12 GB free - so nothing was used by that defrag either.

So what does that tell us? - In my opinion that chkdsk is an important tool too!!

That should be run fairly often also!!

Cheers

solbjerg

 

I have a question pretaining to this problem.

 

If I understand correctly, 'Deep-optimize' requires more contiguous free disk space than just doing a 'defrag', correct?

But does doing a deep-optimize also use up free space? (less space available after running it?) By watching the block-graph during a deep-optimize, it appears that there is less free space afterward?

[Toppack]

I wasn't sure if what I was seeing in the block-graph was real or not :?:

I should have kept the 'before and after' Numbers, but did not. :oops:

I was only looking at the additional graph blocks used and I think there were about 2 additional blocks used, each time I ran Deep-optimize.

I very seldom run D-O mode, so had not noticed this before.

 

I'll wait a few days, until it needs defrag again, and try to test it more accurately. I'll do before & after screen-captures also, to make sure the blocks are not just moving. I don't think they were, tho.

 

I realize that there's not a great deal of space used each time, but if you Only run D-O every day and Not any Other Defrags, and that amount is added each time, it could Add-up real quick.

I hope that's Not what is happening, tho. :roll:

[SFX Group]

Hi

 

As for my first problem, i have correct it.

 

I removed around 100Gb of data, run windows defrag until no red was seen (no fragmented files) then run SD until it looked like a black of blue then copied the 100Gb back, it now seems ok.

 

However i had the same problem on drive C, thing is on both times i needed to run WIndows Defrag a number of times before SD would do its thing, question here is, why do i need to use Windows defrag when SD does the same job (or as it seems, it doesnt, it needs to be fully defragged first before it will run fully).

 

Shouldnt this program being "hunting" to find space then use it rather than rely on Windows defrag to do this for it?

[enoskype]

You didn't have to use Windows' defrag, you could have used SD's Defrag Only option instead.

 

It is advisable to use Defrag Only option couple of times, and then Fast Optimize, and once in a while, Deep Optimize too.

That's valid for a disk which is not defragged by SD or other defragmenters.

 

Cheers.

 

Cheers.

[solbjerg]

Hi SFX Group

Glad to hear you fixed it.

Did you try SmartDefrag after having removed those 100 GB first - before using Windows defrag?

The apparent problem seemed to have been that there wasn't enough contiguous free space available initially.

In my opinion the good thing about SmartDefrag is that it is very fast once it has run it's first defrag. I think that the defrag function is the one that saves the most time, the placement of mostly used files at the outer rim probably helps a bit too, but I think in the view of time-saving something like 10 milliseconds for finding the data it looks for - and that is hardly discernible by human senses.

I read somewhere that ample free space made for less easily fragmented discs.

Cheers

solbjerg

p.s. Ok enoskype - I just saw that you had answered

 

 

Hi

 

As for my first problem, i have correct it.

 

I removed around 100Gb of data, run windows defrag until no red was seen (no fragmented files) then run SD until it looked like a black of blue then copied the 100Gb back, it now seems ok.

 

However i had the same problem on drive C, thing is on both times i needed to run WIndows Defrag a number of times before SD would do its thing, question here is, why do i need to use Windows defrag when SD does the same job (or as it seems, it doesnt, it needs to be fully defragged first before it will run fully).

 

Shouldnt this program being "hunting" to find space then use it rather than rely on Windows defrag to do this for it?

[SFX Group]

You didn't have to use Windows' defrag, you could have used SD's Defrag Only option instead.

 

Tried this, it kept stalling with "not enough space", the windows one didnt have this issue...

[solbjerg]

ok SFX

I think it perhaps is that it checks the log file and responds accordingly.

I think I have seen that before with other applications as well.

A point for the developers to think about!

The better this free application gets, the more goodwill will it generate I think.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Tried this, it kept stalling with "not enough space", the windows one didnt have this issue...

[solbjerg]

Ok Toppack

I tried again today because you were afraid that it added some blocks every time it ran.

Not so!

Today the Analyze said 36,80 GB free (I cleaned up a bit yesterday) :-)

I then ran Deep Optimize. It looked fine afterwards.

The Analyze after that said 36,80 GB free!!

Nothing used!!

The blocks you see doesn't necessarily mean that they are filled up, it might be a small fragment that by happenstance has been dropped in that block. Some of the black blocks also represents some function or application that are running during the defrag scan, but doesn't necessarily fill the block, therefore I think that the written report of the Analyze is a better reference point, there are too many parameters/imponderables that we don't know if we start relying on our count of blocks.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

I wasn't sure if what I was seeing in the block-graph was real or not :?:

I should have kept the 'before and after' Numbers, but did not. :oops:

I was only looking at the additional graph blocks used and I think there were about 2 additional blocks used, each time I ran Deep-optimize.

I very seldom run D-O mode, so had not noticed this before.

 

I'll wait a few days, until it needs defrag again, and try to test it more accurately. I'll do before & after screen-captures also, to make sure the blocks are not just moving. I don't think they were, tho.

 

I realize that there's not a great deal of space used each time, but if you Only run D-O every day and Not any Other Defrags, and that amount is added each time, it could Add-up real quick.

I hope that's Not what is happening, tho. :roll:

[Toppack]

Ok Toppack

I tried again today because you were afraid that it added some blocks every time it ran.

Not so!

The blocks you see doesn't necessarily mean that they are filled up

 

Okay, I guess it was one of those 'Optical Delusions'. :lol:

Thanks for checking on it. :!:

[SFX Group]

Today the Analyze said 36,80 GB free (I cleaned up a bit yesterday) :-)

I then ran Deep Optimize. It looked fine afterwards.

The Analyze after that said 36,80 GB free!!

Nothing used!!

 

This might not be a real figure, i ran mine, says a figure free, i then removed 70Gb, it said the same amount free when i run the scan again, it never updated this display at all....

 

Many Thanks

Ashley