How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

[iGuest 3]

A great deal of concern over a very minor problemHow To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?It is very doubtful that the problems described are caused by fragmentation. Actually, fragmentation is unlikely to have much effect on performance unless it reaches extreme levels. Often the methods used in attempt to reduce it will cause more trouble than the fragmentation.Regarding the MFT: Except in very specific cases (rare), the system will manage this best without any user intervention. Uninformed meddling, such as described in the comments, will rarely be beneficial.Regarding the pagefile: Contrary to many uninformed sources, the default settings are not inefficient. The pagefile will not gradually fragment itself if it is system managed or allowed to expand. DO NOT put the pagefile on a separate partition unless it is also on a separate physical drive. Doing this will solve the imaginary problem of fragmentation while creating a problem that is very real. This is almost certain to impair performance. Unless you have a very specific need and understand what you are doing, leave it on default settings.Windows designers understand the system better than you do.Larry Miller, Microsoft MCSA-reply by Larry Miller

 

[iGuest 3]

REPLY: How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

Don't pay if you don't have to.

For defrag of MFT download BCUpdate2.Exe available from Microsoft and elsewhere:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/320397

For defrag of registry, page files, event logs, and other system files try PageDefrag, also from Microsoft:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.Aspx

-William

 

-reply by WilliamKeywords:

[iGuest 3]

Re: pagefile on another partitionHow To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

Creating a pagefile on a small partition created just for that purpose is inefficient and will cause far more disk thrashing than is necessary as the heads will have to move to that partition to write to the pagefile then move all the way back to the main area to read the files on the system partition.  The rule of thumb is to put the pagefile on the "most used partition of the least used drive."

If you have two drives, by all means put the page file on the 2nd drive but putting it on a different partition of your system drive gives no benefit.  Only time you would want to move the pagefile to another partition is if you want to defrag the page file from your system drive because it's been set to system managed and you want to make it fixed (usually 1.5x your total RAM).

In this situation, I move the page file to the 2nd partition, reboot into safe mode (or use diagnostic startup in msconfig and turn off all startup options) then defrag the system drive and then move and fix the min/max of the page file to the primary partition and a fixed size, then reboot again.  Page file then stays where it is and stays contiguous.

 

-reply by Freakstone

 

[iGuest 3]

How to Defrag MFT using windows 7?How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

Seems thePageDefrag is not compatibile with win7!

-reply by Brian

[iGuest 3]

Defragging pagefile without special toolsHow To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

It's not as easy as using a special tool, but you can defragment the pagefile without installing any new software.  This guide will give the steps to make sure you get your system as well-defragmented as possible and help prevent the page file from fragmenting in the future

Step 1: Disable the pagefile.  Make sure you click "set" before you click OK.

Step 2: Do not reboot when asked.  Run msconfig from Start->Run or the Start menu's search box (depending on version).   Select "diagnostic startup" then click OK. Reboot when asked.

Step 3: After reboot, close any programs that msconfig didn't disable (some antivirus will do this).  Open a cmd prompt as administrator. 

Step 4 (XP): Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.  When the task manager appears, go to the processes tab, select Explorer.Exe, then click end task.  Confirm this in the popup.  Then close the task manager.

Step 4 (Vista/7): Click the Start orb. Hold Ctrl+Shift while right-clicking the shutdown button.  Select "Exit Explorer" from the small menu that appears.

Step 5: In the command prompt,  type 'cleanmgr' and press enter.  Select the C: drive (or whatever drive you use for the pagefile), and go through the disk cleanup to free some extra space.

**Warning: Vista users: If you use hibernation or hybrid sleep, do not check "Hibernation file cleaner"!  It will most likely break hibernation and it's not exactly a piece of cake to get it back.**

Step 6: Type 'defrag c:' (replace c: if you use a different drive for your pagefile).  If you want to see more detail about the before and after statistics, use 'defrag c: -v' instead.  Note that you will not see any status updates while it is defragmenting in this mode.  If you need to cancel for some reason, just press CTRL+C.

Step 7 (XP):  When the defrag finishes, type 'explorer' to bring back your taskbar and desktop.  Re-enable your pagefile.  You can either let Windows manage the pagefile size, or set your own size.  I reccommend setting it to a fixed size (minimum and maximum size the same) at between 1.5 to 2 times your amount of system RAM (the "reccommended" size listed in the page file settings will be about 1.5x your amount of RAM. Be sure to hit "Set" before you click OK.

**I reccomend setting the page file to a fixed size as described above because if the page file does not grow and shrink, it will remain unfragmented permenantly.  If you have the disk space to spare, you can go as large as you want with the pagefile, but between 1.5x and 2x your RAM is the magic number in my experience.  If it's set too low, you can always increase it manually.**

Step 7 (Vista/7): You can either follow the XP directions, or you can skip restarting explorer by typing 'systempropertiesadvanced'.  Then set the pagefile as described in the XP directions.

Step 8: In the cmd prompt, run 'msconfig' and  change it back to "normal startup".  Click OK.  Reboot when prompted.

 There you go, your pagefile (and the rest of the drive it's on) is thouroughly defragmented.  I do this every time I install Windows on any computer (with a fixed-size pagefile), and the pagefile never becomes fragmented again.

-reply by TuxRug

[iGuest 3]

pagefile defragHow To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

set system to have nopagefile

defrag as well as possible (will not work if disk is nearly full )

reboot

set pagefile size

reboot

-reply by helga

[iGuest 3]

How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?How To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

Replying to ChessoYes this product will help you - UltimateDefrag.http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ only can you defrag MFT but you can resize the reserved zone and even better still you can move the MFT, Page File and all other system files to wherever you want on your drive.Physically you want the MFT to be positioned as close to the bulk of your data as possible. You can do that with UltimateDefrag.As far as we know ours is the only product that can do that.RobertDisktrix support http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

-reply by Robert

[iGuest 3]

Solution to MFT FragmentationHow To Defrag MFT, Pagefile etc. On Boot?

There's a simple, free way to defragment the MFT. Use C-Cleaner. If you don't have it installed already, go to http://www.piriform.com/ and download the latest version (3.10.1525 at time of typing). When you've installed it, you're only a few clicks away from a fragment-free hard drive.Step 1:Run C-Cleaner. If Windows Access Control pops up, click Yes/Allow.Step 2:On the bar to the left, there should be an Options button. Click it.Step 3:Click Settings. There's a ticky-box labelled "Wipe MFT Free Space". Make sure it's ticked.Step 4:Go back to the first screen by clicking Cleaner on the leftmost bar.Step 5:On the Windows tab, there is a section marked Advanced. Tick the box labelled "Wipe Free Space".Step 6:In the bottom right corner, there's a button marked "Run Cleaner". Click it.Step 7: leave it to run it's course. Once it's done wiping the MFT free space, you can cancel the operation.That's it! Done. I cleared 4GB worth of MFT fragments in 10 minutes by doing this. Hope this answers all your questions.

-reply by DrategoniZero

[yordan 10]

Tick the box labelled "Wipe Free Space".

Wow! thanks a lot! I never noticed that "wipe MFT Freespace box".Of course it was checked in my settings, but I did not know that the job was done!
By the way, I guess that this will not shrink the MFT, it will only cleanup.