Weird NTFS Problem - can't defragment the drive
Posted: Fri 17 Dec, 2004 14.17
I've had a laptop for about a year now running Windows XP. The hard disk is formatted using NTFS, which I always believed was a self repairing filing system which didn't require regular defragmenting.
Thus, throughout the year the only defragmenting it's received is a couple of blasts with the built in Windows defragmenter.
Recently, I tried to install an Alpha build of Windows Longhorn inside Virtual PC. Longhorn won't let you install to a dynamic virtual disk, it must be a static one. When trying to create a static virtual disk, Virtual PC won't let me do it because it says there's not enough space.
'Drive needs defragmenting then' methinks. I run the Windows defragmenter again, but Virtual PC still won't let me create the virtual disk.
At this point I install a decent defragmenter, Norton Speed Disk. Alarmingly, despite WIndows defragmenter only just being run, Speed Disk manages to find some files on the drive which are extremely heavily fragmented (> 1800 fragments!) and finds the disk to be 76% fragmented.
I run the defragmenter before going to bed. I wake up in the morning, and it's only got to 66%. I go to lectures, go to work, come back later (by which time the defragmenter has now been running for 20 hours) and it still hasn't moved past 66%.
I've moved all the severely fragmented files off, and checked the disk for errors. Although Speed Disk now only reports the disk to be 11% fragmented, it still won't go past 66%, and Virtual PC still says there isn't enough contiguous space to create a static disk.
Firstly, how can an NTFS partition become so fragmented when the filing system is supposed to repair itself, and secondly, any idea what's wrong? I've ruled out a corrupted file and manually dealt with the troublesome files, so short of the drive itself being about to die on me I've no idea what's wrong.
Thus, throughout the year the only defragmenting it's received is a couple of blasts with the built in Windows defragmenter.
Recently, I tried to install an Alpha build of Windows Longhorn inside Virtual PC. Longhorn won't let you install to a dynamic virtual disk, it must be a static one. When trying to create a static virtual disk, Virtual PC won't let me do it because it says there's not enough space.
'Drive needs defragmenting then' methinks. I run the Windows defragmenter again, but Virtual PC still won't let me create the virtual disk.
At this point I install a decent defragmenter, Norton Speed Disk. Alarmingly, despite WIndows defragmenter only just being run, Speed Disk manages to find some files on the drive which are extremely heavily fragmented (> 1800 fragments!) and finds the disk to be 76% fragmented.
I run the defragmenter before going to bed. I wake up in the morning, and it's only got to 66%. I go to lectures, go to work, come back later (by which time the defragmenter has now been running for 20 hours) and it still hasn't moved past 66%.
I've moved all the severely fragmented files off, and checked the disk for errors. Although Speed Disk now only reports the disk to be 11% fragmented, it still won't go past 66%, and Virtual PC still says there isn't enough contiguous space to create a static disk.
Firstly, how can an NTFS partition become so fragmented when the filing system is supposed to repair itself, and secondly, any idea what's wrong? I've ruled out a corrupted file and manually dealt with the troublesome files, so short of the drive itself being about to die on me I've no idea what's wrong.