Defrag?

snowdog · 27 Jun 2007 at 22:45

Basicly I was away for 3 hours, I come back to see my hdd workign hard, I do sourcecheck ( or whatever its called) to see whats happening, dfrgNTFS.exe is causing hdd activity, now I've checked sceduled defrags, none enabled, what is causing vista to defrag my hdd by itself and how to prevent it, I defrag regurally in xp (dualboot) with diskkeeper and prefer to use that above vista's own defrag, want vista to leave my hdd's alone when im away or asleep...

So how can I disable this auto defrag thing in vista?

Alex UK · 27 Jun 2007 at 23:14

Ok, I should explain that I'm using XP so this might not work in Vista. Anyway, go to Start->Run, then type 'services.msc'. Then scroll down until you find the service, it will be called 'Windows Defrag' or something similar. Right click on it and select 'Properties', then change the 'Startup type' to 'Disabled'. Reboot your PC and this should permanently stop the service. Hope this helps.

snowdog · 27 Jun 2007 at 23:16

Ntohing to be found in services.msc , looked for: defrag ( or somesthing falmilliar) and windows defrag.

Anyone else has any ideas?

Lydzor · 28 Jun 2007 at 02:12

All you have to do is open up the Disk Defragmenter (Start menu, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter) then when it's open it shows, untick "Run on a schedule (recommended)". If you've done this, then try opening Task Scheduler in the same place as the Disk Defragmenter, and see if you can see a ScheduledDefrag in the active tasks pane. (I've never messed in here before so take what i see with a pinch of salt) Double-click the ScheduledDefrag, then at the top select it again (not the manual one) and click delete under selected item on the right.

snowdog · 28 Jun 2007 at 14:49

But it's not sceduled, also retested today, once my screen goes off ( after screensaver), defrag starts, still don't know how to stop it.

snowdog · 28 Jun 2007 at 22:31

Bump?
Am I really the only one with this?

BigBoy · 29 Jun 2007 at 07:37

this is a built in option with windows XP and the only way i know of removeing it is via reg key but i cannot remember what one at the moment.

The true name of the process is Defrag whilst Idle.

Master Skooter · 29 Jun 2007 at 10:11

Found this by Googling

Open Task Scheduler (just type it into the start prompt),
locate and disable the Windows defrag routine. Under Task Scheduler
Library/Microsoft/Windows/Defrag, click on that folder, then on 'disable' in
the actions field.

Any good?

snowdog · 30 Jun 2007 at 00:39

Can't seem to find task sceduler, bit hard since im on dutch vista, but trying to type it to run gives error not found...
Will edit in 5 mins to post progress...

edit:
No idea where to look sorry

.
Will try searching properly tomoz but today It's too late.

Substance · 30 Jun 2007 at 02:13

My version of vista always defrags whilst idle, its a great feature and if the pc is idle i am not sure why you would want to turn it off,

When your pc becomes active again it will finish the file it is on (about 5 seconds) then stop defragging until the next time it is idle

snowdog · 30 Jun 2007 at 13:35

SuBsTaNcE said:
My version of vista always defrags whilst idle, its a great feature and if the pc is idle i am not sure why you would want to turn it off,

When your pc becomes active again it will finish the file it is on (about 5 seconds) then stop defragging until the next time it is idle

Because vista defrag sucks, im using diskkeeper on most of my disks, but thats similair to normall defrag so not a prob, but on 1 of my drives, im using ultimatedefrag, wich places the more important stuff on the fast bit of the hdd, and vista defrag completly makes a mess of that, I want a proper defrag with some folders placed on the outside rings of my hdd platters ( fastest bits), not a defrag wich messes the whole thing up again.

Besides, I keep my pc on @ night, and want to sleep in silence, seek sound imo is the most annoying sound thinkable, its a lot more annoying than spin sound or fan humming.

Finally, I have no backups, and some of my hdd's are over 3 years old (including maxtors), I don't want to return with a trashed hdd once i wake up in the morning, when i defrag, I want to be sitting @ it, obseverving if everything goes fine, not be away.

marc2003 · 30 Jun 2007 at 13:56

snowdog said:
Finally, I have no backups, and some of my hdd's are over 3 years old (including maxtors), I don't want to return with a trashed hdd once i wake up in the morning, when i defrag, I want to be sitting @ it, obseverving if everything goes fine, not be away.

just lol. seriously, you have no backups and the only thing that concerns you is that defrag is going to bork your disk?

snowdog · 30 Jun 2007 at 14:03

marc2003 said:
just lol. seriously, you have no backups and the only thing that concerns you is that defrag is going to bork your disk?

Any hdd usage, not worried if they're idle...

marc2003 · 30 Jun 2007 at 14:07

snowdog said:
Any hdd usage, not worried if they're idle...

if the drives are idle then how come the files are fragmented. defrag won't run unless it has something to do. it doesn't just move files around for the fun of it....

btw: do you have disk keeper installed in vista? i believe this has an option to defrag while the screensaver is active.

snowdog · 30 Jun 2007 at 14:16

marc2003 said:
if the drives are idle then how come the files are fragmented. defrag won't run unless it has something to do. it doesn't just move files around for the fun of it....

btw: do you have disk keeper installed in vista? i believe this has an option to defrag while the screensaver is active.

Because I use the hdd, just not as extensively as defrag would, and not contstantly, just when watching something ( video hdd ), or putting more stuff on it.
I don't want to defrag, I just want it to leave my stuff alone when screensaver is on, or when it's idle.