Defragmenter Refuses To Defrag Hdd

The defragmenter tool refuses to defragment either of my 1TB SATA drives, with the analysis result stat "Defragmentation not recommended for this volume". Normally, I would assume that this meant that there was no/little fragmentation, but even Defraggler says that one of the partitions (that I use a download repository) has around 15% fragmentation. On my laptop, BitDefender will offer to defrag drives that show no fragmentation, and even drives that it has just defragmented.

BitDefender will allow either of my external USB HDDs to be defragmented on this PC.

This isn't a RAID array, or any unusual configuration. One drive is a single 1TB partition, the other is split into 4 partition (required Win7 System partition, 2 other primary partitions, and 1 logical). All are NTFS formatted, created by either Windows 7 installation or via Windows' disk management.

The HDDs are both Western Digital WD1002FAEX connected to the Intel Z68 chipset's SATA ports on my motherboard (Asus P8Z68-V Pro). The only non-default/required aspect that I can think of related to the HDDs is Intel's Rapid Storage Technology driver being installed (version 10.6.2.1001 supplied by Asus). In this non-RAID configuration, that is only an optimized driver for the controller.

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Rohugh

Hah, I had the same "Defragmentation not recommended for this volume" message yesterday when I ran the BD defrag on my Win 7 desktop. I didn't think any more of it and didn't try another defrag program. Guess I had better now see what another program says.

mr_stealth

My Vista 32bit laptop says "Defragmentation not required", and a relative's Win 7 64bit laptop had "Defragmenation recommended for this volume". I'll get that 2nd laptop rechecked later, after the defrag is done.

It seems to be something specific to my desktop, since it is running the same OS as the Win7 laptop. I just can't think of anything that would cause it. The only options related to HDD functionality in BIOS is the choice between AHCI and IDE compatibility. I'm using AHCI, since I have no reason to use the IDE mode with Windows 7.

And I also just noticed that I can select to run the defrag anyway if I deselect any of those partitions for the analysis part of the defrag wizard. I didn't actually do this for my desktop, as I'm unsure of BD's reasons for not allowing it after analysis, but I was able to perform a defrag on my laptop without analyzing it.

mr_stealth

Seems like the version Intel Rapid Storage Technology was the cause. After updating to a newer version (12.9.1.1001), the defragmentation tool works as on both other PCs.

In AHCI mode, all this software does is use Intel's AHCI controller driver over the stock Windows driver and enable Link Power Managment. I disabled LPM before looking at BD's defrag tool, so I'm not sure if that feature being enabled causes it to not allow defragging. The previous version of RST that was installed did not have an option for LPM, but it should have supported/enabled it. There were no LPM options in Window's power settings, but iRST could have enabled LPM on its own without any option to disable.

mr_stealth

Just as a follow up to the previous post, I did take the time to test with and without LPM, and it had no effect. The problem must have been with the iRST service or iastor driver with the previous version. iRST (iastorA.sys/iastorF.sys) 12.9.0.101 works fine for me.

antikythera

I doubt iRST is the cause anyhow. I've been using it for years in many iterations including the latest build across multiple Intel chipset generations and never had a problem defragging my HDDs with Windows Defrag, MyDefrag, Diskeeper or O&O Defrag.

The cause is more likely to be the real-time file scanning protection of Bitdefender. I found with 2013 and 2014 that drives are defragmented faster and more thoroughly if either of these are put into game mode. That is even with adding the defrag executables to antivirus process exclusions.

The other factor of defrag not being recommended may relate to whether or not you have volume shadow copy enabled for that drive. If so then it isn't recommended to defrag with that enabled.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312067

mr_stealth

BD's defrag tool was the only one with this behavior. Both Win7's own and Defraggler would allow defragmentation of partitions on either HDD, although I did not do so with the OS partition (due to restore/system images and little fragmentation). BD would give the same message and not allow any partition to be defragmented, even ones with system restore disabled. It continued refusing even with system restore disabled on all drives and all restore points deleted.

I would expect to be having issues with the other tools if real-time scanning was the cause. Plus it seems odd that BD's scanning engine would prevent only their own defrag tool from functioning. I should also still have this issue if it were the cause.

It seems very unlikely that system restore/volume shadow copy would be the cause. If it were, BD should still be refusing to defragment my OS partition as it does currently have system restore enabled, with restore points on the drive. That also should not have caused BD to refuse defragmenting for the 2nd physical drive that has not ever had restore enabled for it. The only change between BD's defrag not working and working was removing the previous iRST and installing a newer version. I agree that it seems strange that iRST could be the cause, but nothing else changed on the system.

The only explanation I can offer for iRST is that the currently installed version's drivers are significantly different than the older version from Asus. Intel had reworked iRST between the two versions, moving from using only iastor.sys to a new setup with iastora.sys and iastorf.sys both being installed. The later, iastorf.sys, seems to be a SCSI filter that causes windows to detect SATA drives on the Intel controller to be identified as SCSI drives. My hard drives currently display in device manager as "WDC WD1002FEAX-00Y9A SCSI Disk Device", despite the fact that they are 6Gb/s SATA drives and that my PC has no SCSI controller.

Malacath

Doesn't work for me either.

After analysing it says defragmentation recommended for this volume.

When I click run nothing happens.

Even though it says volume needs defragmenting it just doesn't work.

mr_stealth

Doesn't work for me either.

After analysing it says defragmentation recommended for this volume.

When I click run nothing happens.

Even though it says volume needs defragmenting it just doesn't work.

If it's telling you that a defrag is recommended, it's not the same issue I ran into.

Did you check the box(es) to right of the recommendations to tell BD which drive(s) to defrag?

Malacath

If it's telling you that a defrag is recommended, it's not the same issue I ran into.

Did you check the box(es) to right of the recommendations to tell BD which drive(s) to defrag?

There were no check boxes there.

Anyway since then I done A full factory reset of my laptop and reinstalled Bitdefender and the defrag function now works.

ChristianC

Hello,

There were no check boxes there.

antikythera

those checkboxes do not have enough contrast. I struggled to see them in the screenshot above at first even with the arrows you added. so depending on the angle and setup of the screen it is entirely possible for people not to see them.

mr_stealth

those checkboxes do not have enough contrast. I struggled to see them in the screenshot above at first even with the arrows you added. so depending on the angle and setup of the screen it is entirely possible for people not to see them.

I was thinking the same thing when Malacath mentioned not having those boxes. That he/she possibly missed them due to display contrast being off a bit.

They have even less contrast if you get the "Defragmenting this volume is not recommended" response from analysis. They are dimmed/greyed out and unselectable.

Georgia

Please update your Bitdefender product in order to correct this issue: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...st&p=219203

Reboot the PC if requested, then check if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, tell me if you have SSD.

Airstream_Bill

There were no check boxes there.

Anyway since then I done A full factory reset of my laptop and reinstalled Bitdefender and the defrag function now works.

There is a check box to the right after it says Volume needs defragging. It is hard to see but it is to the right just put a check mark on it and you will be set.

paulbelly015

If that defragmenter not working well you can choose alternative tools available free online. There are many disk defragmenter or disk cleanup tools are available online like ccleanter, k9tool, k9utilities etc.