Defragmentation/Restore issues.

Carlimited

I have recently re-formatted my hard-drive, which I have done numerous times in the past, with no problems. However, when I try to run Disc defragmentation on the drive, it says that "Some of the files on this volume could not be defragmented. Please check the list for these files" - but there are NO files on the list! And I don't know if it's related or not, but I have tried to run the sytem restore feature, and even though the set-points are being made (automatically AND manually), the restore feature doesn't work properly. It goes through the motions and stuff, but when it is complete, it says that the operation was unsuccesfull, and no changes were made. I have tried several different restore points as a reference. Are the 2 issues related, and what (if any) are the solutions? Thanks!

Karoma

OS (inc. SP)?
Computer make / model -- does it have a restore partition?
What drives is System Restore monitoring?
How much free space is there?
List of software (Symantec/Norton software install?)

Have you tried running chkdsk first?
Failing that - (after chkdsk) purge system restore points, boot to safe mode and perform defrag; post the full defrag result if there's still an issue.

Carlimited

It is a CompaqS5200NX, with the Restore Partition removed. It is monitoring the "C" drive, and there is 33GB left on it. There are no unusual boxes checked-off under "System Restore". There is no Symantec or Norton installed. I have not installed anything different on this machine other than games, that I have had installed for at least 3 years now. I reformat this machine 3 times a year to remove any crap that finds it's way onto the drive. The defrag worked fine up until I had to refromat this drive twice in the last month (my own fault - I screwed with something). I have only read of this situation once (with a newsletter I get from "ask.leo.com", and he said to the person who was having the same problem that it could be a background service that is running and not allowed to defrag BECAUSE it IS running. Like I said, the only programs other than games are programs that I keep on a disc (Winzip, etc.) that I have used for years without problems.

Capt'n Midnight

Try defrag in safe mode
Try contig and pagedfrg from www.sysinternals.com
contig should list files that cant defrag
pagedfrg will defrag some sys files.

try reducing swap file / system restore to 0 for the defrag

IIRC O&O allows you to click files on the GUI

defrag.exe c: -b (or /b) to defrag bootfiles and preload folder

deevey

Have you got any files over 2gb ... found this to be a prob recently with a server running sql with lareg database files and trying a windows defrag..

Ended up using diskeeper ... I think there is a trial version

Carlimited

No, but I do have some big games (1.7+ G.B.). However, nothing different than before this happened. Is it possible for files to migrate from my "d" drive to my "c" drive, and therefore put some files on one drive, and cause the defrag or restore feature not to work because the files are misplaced? If so, is there a cure?

Capt'n Midnight

move the big files off
defrag
move them back