Hi Marcy, Welcome back!
The Windows XP Disk Defragmenter is capable of defragmenting the MFT (Master
File Table) and ever since I've been using my Dell Optiplex GX520 computer
with Windows XP, the MFT has always been 3 fragments, so that is nothing to
worry about. Also, it is normal for the pagefile to have 1 fragment.
When you run WinXP Disk Defragmenter, it is best to close all programs
first. View the report and save a copy. Then restart the computer, go to
WinXP Disk Defragmenter and Analyze, view the report and save a copy, and
compare the two. I add date and time YYYYMMDDhhmm to the suggested filename.
My most recent Analyze report has the filename: VolumeC_200910042231.txt
(2231 = 10:31 PM EDT)
Here are some excerpts from my "after restart" Analysis last night:
Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 0 % <---
File fragmentation = 0 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %
File fragmentation
Total files = 180,561
Average file size = 139 KB
Total fragmented files = 10 <---
Total excess fragments = 17 <---
Average fragments per file = 1.00
Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 249 MB
MFT record count = 188,883
Percent MFT in use = 73 %
Total MFT fragments = 3
Note that after restarting the computer, there are 10 fragmented files, and
17 excess fragments. There were none before the restart. Here they are:
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
5 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\software.LOG
4 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
3 49 KB \WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemess.log
3 2 MB \WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log
2 9 KB \**\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG.1
2 6 KB \**\SoundMAX\~SMAud.Cfg
2 1 KB \**\UsrClass.dat.LOG
2 8 KB \**\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG
2 1 KB \**\ntuser.dat.LOG
2 128 KB \**\MSSQL\LOG\log_90.trc
[** file paths shortened to save space]
Note that there are 10 items, with a total of 27 fragments in the left
column. If you subtract 10 from 27 you get 17, which is the number of
"excess fragments". To put it simply, every one of those items actually has
only 1 fragment. The excess is because all those files are open, and Windows
RESERVED extra clusters for their use, should they need them. Those reserved
clusters are actually contiguous, (one after another,) not fragmented, but
they are sort of in LIMBO. They are not actually being used by those files,
but they are not free for any other file to use either.
Look at the first item, the software.LOG file. The file size is only 1 KB.
Each cluster is 4 KB. There are 4 extra clusters reserved for that file, for
a total of 5 times 4 equals 20 KB. That file has NEVER been larger than 1
KB, and easily fits within a single 4 KB cluster with 3 KB to spare. It is
an illusion. None of those so-called fragments matter. They will disappear
the next time the computer shuts down, and reappear after it restarts and
those files open again. You do not need to worry about excess fragments.
The 3 places where most of the real fragmentation happens is in your
Temporary Internet Files, your My Documents folder if you edit documents and
change their size, and in your UserName temp folder. Of course, deleting
temporary files eliminates that fragmentation.
Since you are accessing these messages with a browser on the Microsoft
site, you might want to make a copy of this message for later reading.
This should work: Triple-click this message to select all the text without
the other web page stuff, and press Ctrl+C to copy, then open NotePad, and
Ctrl+V Paste the text in NotePad, and File|SaveAs to your desktop.
Notepad location: Start> (all)Programs> Accessories> NotePad
Here is a little offline experiment for you to do:
Click Start, click Run, type or paste next line and press Enter:
%userprofile%\local settings\temp
That will open your UserName temp folder. Go ahead and Edit/SelectAll and
delete those temporary files. Windows will not let any be deleted that are
still in use, so don't worry about them - delete as many as you can. On the
menu bar, click View, click Details. Leave the folder open.
Next, click Start, click Help and Support. In the Pick a Help topic area,
click on "What's new in Windows XP". In the next window, click "Taking a
tour or tutorial". Look back in your temp folder. There should be one or
more files with TMP endings, and 3 with XML endings. Now, back to help, at
the top left of the window, click the Back button to go back to the previous
window. Look back in your temp folder. Are there 3 more XML files? Look at
the sizes of the first 3 and the second 3. Back to help, click the forward
button, then click the back button, and then look in your temp folder again.
Three more XML files? They are the same 3 files with different filenames.
Now notice the TMP files in your temp folder, and then close the Help and
Support window. Did one or more TMP files vanish? But not the XML files?
They are no longer needed, but whoever designed Help and Support goofed up
big time by leaving them behind. (At least Disk Cleanup can zap them.
Now, let me run Disk Defragmenter (Analyze only) again.
(Mine takes 7 seconds, since I have 93% free space.
Excerpts:
Total fragmentation = 0 % <---
File fragmentation
Total files = 181,005
Average file size = 139 KB
Total fragmented files = 128 <---
Total excess fragments = 311 <---
Average fragments per file = 1.00
Note the illusion again. There is zero total fragmentation, but the excess
fragments make it seem worse than it is. Let's look at a couple:
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
9 691 KB %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\IMT232.xml
9 691 KB %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\IMT238.xml
Those are 2 of those temporary XML files in my temp folder. Those are real
fragments, but they don't slow down anything because they are never accessed
again after the particular help topic window opened. They're wasting space,
of course, and you can eliminate their fragmentation by deleting them.
Besides those 2 XML files in temp, the report also has 19 fragmented files
in my Temporary Internet Files folder, after accessing 6 web pages on 1
site, since I last restarted the computer after defrag. I'm not worried
about those fragments, because they will never be accessed again, unless I
go back to that website and look at the same pages again, and if I did, they
would actually speed up the loading of the pages, since the graphics and
other files the pages use will not have to be re-downloaded. They don't slow
anything down when they are just sitting there on the disk, so there is no
hurry to delete them, since fragmented files that are not being accessed do
not matter. They don't slow down anything.
The bottom line is that you should not need to run Disk Defragmenter more
than once every month or so. If you access the same websites a lot, you do
not want to delete their files, because they speed up page loading. Even if
they are fragmented, they load from your drive quicker than re-downloading
them from the site. If you go to all the usual websites you access, and then
leave your internet files alone, but run Disk Defragmenter, it will
defragment all those files, and yes, that will shave a few seconds off the
time for loading pages from those sites. Visiting new sites will still take
however long the download takes. (I use slow dialup connection.
Guess what? You're no longer a "newbie", since you now know some things
that most "experts" have never noticed!
(Be happy, be Very happy!
--Richard
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Thank you Richard ....I did as you said but after that I defragged my
computer but in the report it states 1 fragmented folder it is the Master
File Table or (MFT) that is fragmented it's size is 140 MB and has a total
of 3 MFT fragments the MFT record count is 113,831 and the percent MFT in
use is 79% It says in the report Files that cannot be defragmented
\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXE
These aren't temperary internet explorer files those were cleaned up, so
what are they and do I need to do anything to them?
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