# How can I tell how fragmented my hard drive is?



## blackberrybunny (Nov 16, 1999)

I know that if your hard drive is fragmented 10% or more, you should defrag. Well, how do I find out how fragmented it is?


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## Rokko Ralph (Apr 24, 2000)

Run defrag, select the drive and click OK. If the drive is less than 5% fragmented, it will tell you this and ask if you still want to continue. If it's more than that it will begin to defrag.


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## Bryan (Jul 3, 1999)

That's true if your running W95. W98 no longer does that.


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## blackberrybunny (Nov 16, 1999)

How can I tell with Win98, which is what I have.......?


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## D'dubyaO (Jul 5, 2000)

This doesn't answer your question, but if you defrag often, say at least once every other day, defrag should only take a minute or two.


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## Bryan (Jul 3, 1999)

Sorry, the answer would have to be some other sort of Disk Management Tool like Nortons or DiskKeeper. There is no way to tell with W98. Like D'dubyaO said just defrag regularly and you'll be fine. I personally think once a month should be plenty.

[This message has been edited by bhesson (edited 07-28-2000).]


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## 4239 (Oct 20, 1999)

Hi bbbunny,
The amount of fragmentation you get depends on how the system is used.
If you have plenty of hard disc space free and don't do a lot of things that involve large files and applications. You may not get 5% in a year or more. Some say defrag will help if done regularly even if there is very little fragmentation. I personally don't see why it would. If someone knows, I would like to hear the reason Bob









Btw: I just went and checked a machine that had not had defrag run in over two years and is on most of every day and some times on continuosly for days at a time but does no database ,spreadsheet , cad , or graphic apps etc. It has 2 Gig free on the hard drive. It said it was 0% fragmented. Bob









[This message has been edited by bd (edited 07-29-2000).]


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## Bryan (Jul 3, 1999)

My guess is the fragmentation is being incorrectly reported at zero though I could be wrong. In all my years, I have never seen a W95 machine without at least some fragmentation. If it is accurate then you may want to call the Guiness people and get it documented.









BTW, I could be wrong but I don't believe W95 reports any part of the swapfile in the fragmentation number meaning the swapfile could be fragmented. The only true way to defrag the swapfile is to disable virtual memory, boot into SafeMode, run a defrag, reenable virtual memeory and then restart into Normal mode.

[This message has been edited by bhesson (edited 07-29-2000).]


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## 4239 (Oct 20, 1999)

Are YOU saying we can't trust Windows?









Maybe we should report that to Guiness.

Anyway thanks for the info on the swapfile. I'll see what develops. Bob


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## Wizzm (Jul 31, 2000)

I had an experience concerning defragmenting that might be of interest to you. I have a Pentium II 350 with 8.4GB, Windows 98 with Updates, and loaded to about 1.5GB. I periodically did my ScanDisk, Defrag, and other things. Everything was up to speed OK. Then I started a 2 week project for the first time on Word 97. It ended up with 20 small colored pictures and wrapped text around the pictures, a page of graphics,and 1 full page photo. It indicated 58MB. I did a lot of cut, copy and paste, deleting, dragging, inserting, croping, sizing, and undoing. Just as I finished, my computer got slow, error messages abounded, peculier incorrect responses occurred after clicking on buttons,and screens froze up. It even effected Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, bringing up half screens and freezing. I defragmented. It was taking forever. The detail screen showed more skips than ever before. I went into safe mode and defragmented 3 times in a row, each time faster than the one before. I also ran ScanDisk and deleted the Temp and Temp Internet files. My computer immediately returned to its previous crisp, like new form. I believe the defragmenting did the most to correct the situation. This shows that the need for defragmentation depends on what you're doing.The symptoms will tell you when to do it. Now I'm set up with the Windows Plus!98 Maintenance Wizard automatic Task Scheduler performing once a week when my computer and I are in sleep mode, just for general principles and preventive maintenance. I also do my updated VirusScan and delete the recent, history, temp, temp internet files and the recycle bin before the maintence schedule begins. I put shortcuts to these folders on the desktop.


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## Rich1131 (Aug 2, 2000)

Hi, new here. Just a suggestion but running the tests at http://www.pcpitstop.com reports disk fragmentation and everything else you could possibly want to know about your PC. You must be running IE...tests take about 2 minutes...a very small 30 second download is required. Hope this helps. --Rich


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## 4239 (Oct 20, 1999)

Hi wizzm and rich,
Welcome aboard and thanks for posting the information.







Bob


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