[SOLVED] Windows Disk Defragmenter says 0% fragmentation, SmartDefrag says over 30%?

[Archon of the Valley]

Hi all, I recently ran SmartDefrag's analyze just to see the mapping layout, as I haven't defragged my C drive in years and I haven't defragged my E drive at all. When I analyzed my C and E drives, both of them had around 30% fragmentation according to the analytics. However, I trust the integrated Windows defragmenter more than a third-party tool so I went to analyze both drives in it. To my surprise, when I did, the Windows defragmenter tool tells me that I have 0% fragmentation on my C drive and about 8% on my E drive.

Clearly one of them is in error; which tool should I trust more? SmartDefrag or the Windows Disk Defragmenter? If my disks are around 30% fragmentation, that could explain the stuttering and long load screens I get when playing certain games. Both drives are 2TB drives and are almost full, so that could also be the problem, but I just wanted to double-check to see if you guys think fragmentation might be a part of the problem and if it is, which tool I should use. Also, if you have a better, free defragmenter tool to recommend or something else to try in order to help improve game performance and load screens, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance!

PS: Just in case this info might help, my C drive is a Toshiba DT01ACA200 and my E drive is a Seagate ST2000DM001-1ER164. C has about 56GB free while E has 18GB free.

Mod edit >> OS = Windows 7

 

[Archon of the Valley]

UPDATE 1: I didn't even think about it but both drives were almost full. I've been uninstalling games I don't regularly play (for now) and I had a little bit of progress. Now, my C drive is saying it's 8% fragmented. However, SmartDefrag still reads as nearly 30% fragmentation. I'd believe that's correct but its color map is also showing WAY more than 30% fragmentation and it's not reading any of the "frequently used" files, just the fragments, rarely used files, unmoveable files and the MFT.

Should I just run the MS disk defrag and ignore SmartDefrag, since I've had a little progress on this?

PS: I hope this doesn't count as a bump, since it's an update on my issue. To whichever mod/admin deleted my bump earlier, I only did that bump earlier because I didn't know if anyone saw this thread but I'll avoid doing it in the future since it's against the rules.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I wouldn’t bother with other defragger’s other than what is built into windows also if this is an SSD do not defrag it ever it’s not necessary. In your case I would just run the Microsoft defragmentation tool

 

[Archon of the Valley]

Awesome, thank you for your advice. That's what I figured but I wanted to be doubly sure. Even freeing up disk space like this seems to have made a difference in system responsiveness, so I'll run a defrag through the Windows defrag tool and see how it goes. Thanks again! Oh and yeah, I only have mechanical drives in my system for now, but I definitely won't run a defrag on an SSD due to all I've heard about how it can damage/reduce the life of the drive for no benefit.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Yes when your disks become too far performance suffers and that is also true with SS D’s

 

[Archon of the Valley]

I will certainly be more careful with the drives then. Thanks again!