Defragging and junk

[kineaesth]

Okay, so I've just defragged my computer this morning, and it's run through completely, but at the end it said that some files weren't properly de-fragged. I thought: Fine, probably doesn't matter, however it's ALOT of files, and the drive is still 22% fragmented. Turns out all the files it couldn't defrag were Steam and/or Source ones- all of the gcf's for all my Steam games- HL2, CS:S, HL, everything.

Still not that much of a problem, because I realised maybe you have to defrag the gcf's through Steam, but, apparently, they all have 0% fragmentation.

So, what is the haps with that shizz? Any ideas?

 

[function9]

Do you have any Steam processes running? I'm not sure but I think defraggers can't mess with anything that's in use. I would also try a boot-time defrag and see if that helps.

 

[Asus]

If it is just the large cache files then it might be because of the size of the files. How much free space is on the drive?

If it is small files as well then make sure none of them are in use. Maybe defrag in safe mode.

 

[kineaesth]

Yeah, well nothing was running, and I've got 16% free space on the drive I'm referring to, which is 5.8 GB. What's strange is that Steam doesn't say (or notice) that the gcf's are fragmented...

 

[Asus]

Are the cache files bigger than 5.8 GB though? Cause it wouldn't be able to copy them to the free space on the drive if they are. 16% doesn't mean anything when we are talking about a smaller drive. I would really free up some space before trying to defrag any more.

 

[Stonewall]

About 20% free space is usually enough for defragging I think. Anyway, what defragger did you use, was it the built-in XP defragger? You could also try with a dedicated defragger like Diskeeper Pro. Do a manual defrag followed by a boot-time defrag; maybe that will fix it. There are free limited-time trial versions at the diskeeper site.