Defragmenting at 1% after 4 hours. This things going to days days to finish. How to make it faster?

[CostaP]

So University finished for me the other day and so I decided that now was the best time to defrag my PC as it definately needed it. Last year I uninstalled many of my games leaving chunks of space in my HDD. I am currently using Piriform Defraggler.

Fragmentation shows 19%. Its been Defragmenting the past 3-4 hours and is only on 1% with 'Remaining Time: Calculating'.
Should I cancel it and choose specific folders, or defrag a certain amount of folders each day? At this rate I wont be using my PC for days, which as I mentioned is not an issue with Uni finished..but still. I dont want my days wasted doing nothing if there is a quicker solution.

Here are different screenshots of my defragging information from using Piriform Defraggle

-C Drive status of degragging: http://imgur.com/a/Txafd
-File List http://imgur.com/a/3whdM
-Health http://imgur.com/a/6j9zk
-Statistics http://imgur.com/a/rGHKh
-Task Manager Processes (just in case): http://imgur.com/a/1VC86

PC Specs:

-Windows 10
-Intel Core i5-3470
-8GB RAM
-GTX 760

Hopefully there is an easy fix?

Thanks

 

[jaslion]

So University finished for me the other day and so I decided that now was the best time to defrag my PC as it definately needed it. Last year I uninstalled many of my games leaving chunks of space in my HDD. I am currently using Piriform Defraggler.

Fragmentation shows 19%. Its been Defragmenting the past 3-4 hours and is only on 1% with 'Remaining Time: Calculating'.
Should I cancel it and choose specific folders, or defrag a certain amount of folders each day? At this rate I wont be using my PC for days, which as I mentioned is not an issue with Uni finished..but still. I dont want my days wasted doing nothing if there is a quicker solution.

Here are different screenshots of my defragging information from using Piriform Defraggle

-C Drive status of degragging: http://imgur.com/a/Txafd
-File List http://imgur.com/a/3whdM
-Health http://imgur.com/a/6j9zk
-Statistics http://imgur.com/a/rGHKh
-Task Manager Processes (just in case): http://imgur.com/a/1VC86

PC Specs:

-Windows 10
-Intel Core i5-3470
-8GB RAM
-GTX 760

Hopefully there is an easy fix?

Thanks

I use auslogics disk defrag. I turn it on auto defrag when pc is not in use and just let it run. You can't speed it up and I would recommend you just let it go at it when you are sleeping.

 

[bloodroses]

That sounds about right. Unfortunately there isn't a quick way to do a 'full' defrag of a hard drive. What I used to do is either let it run overnight, or manually select the files to defragment at chunks at a time with the most fragmented files first.

The other option, which is an extreme way to do it, is to get a SSD drive instead of a platter drive since SSD's don't need defragmenting and TRIM runs much faster in comparison. This was the eventual solution with my laptop.

 

[CostaP]

1) So are you both saying I just let it defrag my whole harddrive until its fully complete? OR

2) Shall I cancel my defragging and just select 'file list', tick e.g the top folder that has Dota 2 (thats no longer installed on my PC) and just defrag that? If that does not take that long (maybe you know roughly?) I dont mind doing that method each day, defragging some folders day by day if thats the better solution?

3) When you say let it defrag when I sleep...so I pause it now and defrag at night? That means it will take longer as I am not allowed to use my PC. When I read people say that they let it defrag whilst they sleep, what do they mean by that? Is it the way I do it or..? They say your pc automatically defrags in the background, but why is my one at 19% fragmentation then?

Thanks so far!

 

[bloodroses]

1 or 2 will work the same. With individual file defragmentation, it can sometimes take quite a while as well.

For letting it defrag while you sleep, I would start the defragmenter before going to bed. If it finishes while your sleeping it will stop on it's own. If it isn't finished, you can stop it and close the program and start it back up again the next night; where it will for the most part continue where it left off (assuming massive changes on the drive weren't done through the day).

With Windows 10, the built in defragmenter does run in the background on it's own at regular intervals during idle time with the computer. With Defraggler installed, it may have disabled the Windows one since a 3rd party program. This is to prevent a conflict. Defraggler does have the option to schedule times for defragmentation though.

On my desktop, I just used the Windows built in defragmenter since it's on 24/7. On my laptop, I was using Defraggler since the only time the machine was one was when I was using it; and even then 90% of my time felt like it was wasted on updates/defragmenting/etc.

 

[CostaP]

Ohhhh so I can stop it, close the defraggler softare and run it again another time!? Thats is great to hear! I presumed you would have to restart over again and let it run till the whole thing finishes. But I presume it just resumes from its current defrag state right? Hmm ok well I will probably let it defrag the whole drive then instead of individual files.

So I think I will let it run at night, although I dont think it will finish overnight. It now updated to 'Remaining time> 1day' ...lol. Also, my PC is right next to my bed which sucks :/.

Everyone says use Piriform defraggler as its better..and also set a schedule for it...something that you just mentioned the default Windows 10 defraggler does.

And just to finally confirm, I click 'Pause', then 'Stop' and that should finish what its doing and eventually close..or will it close straight away? So I can carry on using my PC when I stop it, and then when I resume it tonight, I click 'defrag' or analyze it again and then defrag?

Thanks!

 

[boosted1g]

It doesnt per-say resume from its current state, but if it defraged say the first 10% of your drive then when you open it again and it scans your drive, that 10% is already fixed so wont need to be defraged again.

Unforutunatly you have a very large hard drive that has never been defraged so it is going to take some time.

 

[bloodroses]

Whenever a defrag is performed on a drive with any defragmenter, the program analyzes the disk to determine the most efficient method to reorder the clusters in relation to the position on the drive platters. If the first 10% or so is already defragmented, this section is essentially skipped on the next defrag run.

Either Pause/Stop or just Stop will work. It will finish the last fragment (not necessarily the whole file) and stop there. The pause button is only used to prevent a reanalyze when you start defrag again while the program is open.

When you get up to use the PC for the day, go head and stop and close defraggler. Reopen defraggler when you're done for the day and click on either analyze then defrag or just defrag since defrag will run an analyze on its own anyways. The analyze button is just basically used as a visual representation to the user how fragmented the drive is before you click on defrag.

 

[CostaP]

Excellent! I just want to get this first proper defrag out the way so I can quickly and easily defrag it once a month like everyone else. Although I am sure I did this defrag in November 2015. Will pause/stop it now and resume tonight. Its just annoying as its still on 1% and has not changed, except showing >1 day to go.

Thank you everyone, appreciate the help and reassurance If I could choose everyones answer as 'best answer' I would as you have all given great advice. Sorry if it is not your answer that has been chosen but I appreciate it nonetheless