Defragmenting help needed

[Greg Wallace]

I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to the
max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that space
would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been struggling
for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to be
pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the System
Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a small
portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it does
is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore had
taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can someone
tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there any
3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down, then
I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
--
Greg Wallace

[JS]

You can disable System Restore (this will delete all restore points), then
defrag the drive.
If you are using Speed Disk, the Drive Options icon (located on the left
edge of the Speed Disk window) will allow you to specify where the files are
to be located: Choose 'Files First' and add a Wildcard entry to move all or
only those files you want at the top (beginning) of the drive partition.

JS

"Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
...
>I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to
>the
> max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
> space
> would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
> files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
> has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
> any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
> user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
> struggling
> for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to
> be
> pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
> System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
> System
> Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
> small
> portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
> does
> is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
> Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore
> had
> taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
> someone
> tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
> Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there
> any
> 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down,
> then
> I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
> --
> Greg Wallace

[Gerry Cornell]

Greg

Is your hard drive formatted as NTFS or FAT32? How large is the hard
drive and how much free space? In Windows Explorer right click on the
drive and select Properties to get this information.

Are you using Norton Protected Storage?

To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and
remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can be quite
large.

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore on
your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right
click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore.
Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time find the
slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get
to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of your
C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder
typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.

These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the
text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed
you can compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to
save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained
by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is
only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is that for
temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline copies on
disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings
to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history
is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. On your drive
5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on your
Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move the slider
from 10% to 5%.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
...
>I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to
>the
> max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
> space
> would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
> files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
> has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
> any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
> user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
> struggling
> for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to
> be
> pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
> System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
> System
> Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
> small
> portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
> does
> is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
> Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore
> had
> taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
> someone
> tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
> Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there
> any
> 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down,
> then
> I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
> --
> Greg Wallace

[Greg Wallace]

I tried this but, even though I turned system restore off, the area still
shows up as allocated to system restore and Speed Disk will not move any data
up into that area. I tried defrag, and it did move some files up, but
apparently only the ones that needed defgraging. In other words, if the
file isn't fragmented, it doesn't seem to want to move it, regardless of
where it's located on the disk.
--
Greg Wallace


"JS" wrote:

> You can disable System Restore (this will delete all restore points), then
> defrag the drive.
> If you are using Speed Disk, the Drive Options icon (located on the left
> edge of the Speed Disk window) will allow you to specify where the files are
> to be located: Choose 'Files First' and add a Wildcard entry to move all or
> only those files you want at the top (beginning) of the drive partition.
>
> JS
>
> "Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to
> >the
> > max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
> > space
> > would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
> > files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
> > has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
> > any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
> > user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
> > struggling
> > for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to
> > be
> > pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
> > System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
> > System
> > Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
> > small
> > portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
> > does
> > is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
> > Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore
> > had
> > taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
> > someone
> > tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
> > Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there
> > any
> > 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down,
> > then
> > I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
> > --
> > Greg Wallace
>
>
>

[Greg Wallace]

Thanks for the info. I was able to use all of your tips. I set my System
Restore space to 200 mb. I only use it when I'm about to make some registry
changes, so it only needs to be able to hold that much data. I tested it out
by creating a restore point and it still left one out there from before, so I
think 200 mb will be plenty. I had a great many of those $NtUninstal...
files out there. Some were already compressed but many, many more were not,
so compressed all of those. Regarding Temporary Internet Files, I have 2
id's, Administrator and a limited account that I do all of my work under. I
do virtually no Web browsing under Administrator and yet it's temporary
internet setting was huge (multi-gig). I cut that down to 5 MB. On my
personal ID, I use more space for temp files than on Administrator, but it
was still set too large. I cut it down to 60 MB. Thanks for these tips.
Always nice to find places to save space.
--
Greg Wallace


"Gerry Cornell" wrote:

> Greg
>
> Is your hard drive formatted as NTFS or FAT32? How large is the hard
> drive and how much free space? In Windows Explorer right click on the
> drive and select Properties to get this information.
>
> Are you using Norton Protected Storage?
>
> To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
> Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and
> remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can be quite
> large.
>
> You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
> Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
> should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
> Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
>
> It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore on
> your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right
> click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore.
> Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time find the
> slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get
> to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.
>
> If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
> your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of your
> C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder
> typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
>
> These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the
> text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed
> you can compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
> General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to
> save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained
> by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is
> only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.
>
> Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is that for
> temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline copies on
> disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
> offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
> select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings
> to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history
> is held.
>
> The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. On your drive
> 5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on your
> Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move the slider
> from 10% to 5%.
>
> --
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Gerry
> ~~~~
> FCA
> Stourport, England
>
> Enquire, plan and execute
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> "Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to
> >the
> > max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
> > space
> > would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
> > files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
> > has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
> > any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
> > user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
> > struggling
> > for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to
> > be
> > pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
> > System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
> > System
> > Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
> > small
> > portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
> > does
> > is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
> > Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore
> > had
> > taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
> > someone
> > tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
> > Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there
> > any
> > 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down,
> > then
> > I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
> > --
> > Greg Wallace
>
>
>

[JS]

Strange, I don't have that problem with Speed Disk as I am able to move both
the important files to the top and system restore files to the end of the
partition where they are out of the way.

My pagefile is located on another drive and I review and then delete Event
log files and do a general cleanup of temp files before I start the defrag.

JS

"Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
...
>I tried this but, even though I turned system restore off, the area still
> shows up as allocated to system restore and Speed Disk will not move any
> data
> up into that area. I tried defrag, and it did move some files up, but
> apparently only the ones that needed defgraging. In other words, if the
> file isn't fragmented, it doesn't seem to want to move it, regardless of
> where it's located on the disk.
> --
> Greg Wallace
>
>
> "JS" wrote:
>
>> You can disable System Restore (this will delete all restore points),
>> then
>> defrag the drive.
>> If you are using Speed Disk, the Drive Options icon (located on the left
>> edge of the Speed Disk window) will allow you to specify where the files
>> are
>> to be located: Choose 'Files First' and add a Wildcard entry to move all
>> or
>> only those files you want at the top (beginning) of the drive partition.
>>
>> JS
>>
>> "Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> >I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore
>> >to
>> >the
>> > max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
>> > space
>> > would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the
>> > system
>> > files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What
>> > this
>> > has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling
>> > up
>> > any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
>> > user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
>> > struggling
>> > for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data
>> > to
>> > be
>> > pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up
>> > that
>> > System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
>> > System
>> > Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
>> > small
>> > portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
>> > does
>> > is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I
>> > tried
>> > Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System
>> > Restore
>> > had
>> > taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
>> > someone
>> > tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the
>> > disk?
>> > Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is
>> > there
>> > any
>> > 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted
>> > down,
>> > then
>> > I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
>> > --
>> > Greg Wallace
>>
>>
>>

[Ayush]

Adding to Gerrys tips :
Remove Hibernate file (If you use hibernate) when you are defragging.
Clean up the selected folders:
Windows\Temp
Documents and settings\<user name >\Local settings\temp


--
Ayush [ Be ''?'' Happy ]

For any query, search - www.Google.com
Want to know about a term - http://en.wikipedia.org

Replied To :
-------------------------------------------------------------

"Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
...
| Thanks for the info. I was able to use all of your tips. I set my System
| Restore space to 200 mb. I only use it when I'm about to make some registry
| changes, so it only needs to be able to hold that much data. I tested it out
| by creating a restore point and it still left one out there from before, so I
| think 200 mb will be plenty. I had a great many of those $NtUninstal...
| files out there. Some were already compressed but many, many more were not,
| so compressed all of those. Regarding Temporary Internet Files, I have 2
| id's, Administrator and a limited account that I do all of my work under. I
| do virtually no Web browsing under Administrator and yet it's temporary
| internet setting was huge (multi-gig). I cut that down to 5 MB. On my
| personal ID, I use more space for temp files than on Administrator, but it
| was still set too large. I cut it down to 60 MB. Thanks for these tips.
| Always nice to find places to save space.
| --
| Greg Wallace
|
|
| "Gerry Cornell" wrote:
|
| > Greg
| >
| > Is your hard drive formatted as NTFS or FAT32? How large is the hard
| > drive and how much free space? In Windows Explorer right click on the
| > drive and select Properties to get this information.
| >
| > Are you using Norton Protected Storage?
| >
| > To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
| > Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and
| > remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can be quite
| > large.
| >
| > You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
| > Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
| > should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
| > Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
| >
| > It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore on
| > your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right
| > click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore.
| > Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time find the
| > slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get
| > to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.
| >
| > If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
| > your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of your
| > C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder
| > typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
| >
| > These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the
| > text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed
| > you can compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
| > General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to
| > save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained
| > by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is
| > only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.
| >
| > Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is that for
| > temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline copies on
| > disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
| > offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
| > select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings
| > to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history
| > is held.
| >
| > The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. On your drive
| > 5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on your
| > Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move the slider
| > from 10% to 5%.
| >
| > --
| >
| > Hope this helps.
| >
| > Gerry
| > ~~~~
| > FCA
| > Stourport, England
| >
| > Enquire, plan and execute
| > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| >
| > "Greg Wallace" > wrote in message
| > ...
| > >I recently messed up by setting the space allocated for System Restore to
| > >the
| > > max. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I did that that all of that
| > > space
| > > would be allocated at the beginning of the disk, causing all of the system
| > > files, etc. to be moved way down toward the inside of the disk. What this
| > > has done is degraded the performance of my machine enormoulsy. Pulling up
| > > any application, built-in (System Control Panel, Internet Explorer) or
| > > user-installed (Norton, etc.) takes about 20 minutes. I had been
| > > struggling
| > > for close to a week trying to figure out what caused all of this data to
| > > be
| > > pushed down and only today realized that it was me having bumped up that
| > > System Restore space that caused this problem. I have now reduced the
| > > System
| > > Restore setting to its minimum, but the disk defragmentor only moved a
| > > small
| > > portion of the files back to the first of the disk. Apparently, all it
| > > does
| > > is defragment but not compace. I want them all compacted down. I tried
| > > Norton Speed Disk but it seems to think that the area that System Restore
| > > had
| > > taken up is still unavailable and won't move any data into it. Can
| > > someone
| > > tell me how to compact all of the files down to the beginning of the disk?
| > > Assuming there's no way to do it with Windows built in funcions, is there
| > > any
| > > 3rd party software that will do that? Once I ge tit all compacted down,
| > > then
| > > I should be able to run Speed disk to get it organized properly.
| > > --
| > > Greg Wallace
| >
| >
| >