defrag slow. REALLY slow

[superdave1984]

Working on an older machine, 700Mhz, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HD. Upgraded to XP Pro from ME because they wanted to keep all their old stuff as-is. Fine. Upgrade went perfectly, did all windows updates, (after having to nuke Norton because it didn't want to cooperate) and finally going to defrag. Defrag has been going for 3 hours. WTF???? The computer isn't locked up, just crawling. And it wasn't but like 20% fragmented anyway. Everything else has worked good as can be expected for that box. I need a better defrag program. What is free?

 

[Jorsoft]

I've heard Power Defrag, never used it though.
http://www.download.com/Power-Defrag/3000-2086_4-10230284.html?tag=lst-0-1

This one got very good user ratings, looks like it's worth a shot
http://www.download.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/3000-2086_4-10613449.html?tag=lst-0-1

 

[superdave1984]

Thanks, I'll look into them. I downloaded one from O&O and it seems pretty good, slow as can be too. Wonder if it's the machine not the program?

 

[zmatt]

very likely. with a machine of that age the hard drive is going to be spinning slow compared to today's disks, and its old to so that factors into it.

 

[Jorsoft]

If you have a small disk that's very fragmented that can hurt a lot too. Especially if there's not much free space.

 

[Osiris]

O&O is one of the best, XP's defrag is no good. I forgot the name of the company that made it. Did this ever finish? Your best bet would have been to perfrom a fresh install, you wouldnt be doing this right now. Was there a way for you to back all the files up or was this the only solution?

 

[superdave1984]

It was a rush job and they wanted to keep their existing programs becuase they don't have all the CD's anymore. I wanted to format, but they didn't. O&O was still running when they came to pick it up, so I stopped it.

 

[Osiris]

I would say the only way to fix it is a fresh format.