How much free space needed to defrag

[cindyruth]

Hello,
my computer is slow, think i need defrag. did analyze for defrag and it says i do. but then says it can't because only 9% free space and needs %15 free space. then it asks if I want to continue anyway??? is this bad to do with only 9% free? will it hurt my computer or lose things I need? or can I do it to try to improve function anyway?

 

[Guest]

Your slowness is probably caused by the lack of hard drive space. You have at least 10 - 15 % free space.

 

[cindyruth]

So, does that mean I CAN defrag now? I know I probably need more hard-drive space...but until money and time allows that, can i defrag while it says "only 9% free" and cautions against it. or could that be a temporary help for my slow speed?

 

[Guest]

I won't try it with only 9% free space. Did you try running the Windows Disk Cleanup tool? You can also delete the Windows Update folders in C:\Windows\System32.

 

[sidewinderdt]

The Xp defragger requires atleast 15% free disk space to defrag, but it will still run with less without causing any harm whatsoever. So it's prefectly safe. Whether it's effective is a different matter, since even with 15% or more, it often does not defrag properly especially when there are large files and system files involved.

Commercial defraggers (not free) will defrag with low space; for eg, I use a third party defragger that is fully automatic and defrags in the background in real-time. It can defrag the drive fully with as less as 3 % free space (tried it on a 250GB HDD once) when it's on auto defrag.

 

[cindyruth]

Thanks for the help. I was able to remove some old, unwanted programs and such and get myself up to 15% free, so I did the defrag. It has helped....but long term I need a bigger hard drive, this was a temporary fix I think. thanks so much for your input!!!

 

[souper61]

I once had the same problem, one of my friend's who works with computer's suggested keeping between 27-30% free for defragging my hdd's, I use 'MyDefrag' for this.