Defrag status/progress information

Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a drive
in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic representation of
a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of Windows provided the
user a progress bar than informed them of the status of the defrag program
when it was running. It appears that Home Premium runs in the background
and one never gets a "defragmentation complete" dialog box with options to
see a report. I've tried running it manually and not closing the Run dialog
box, but it seems to run for hours without any feedback to the user.

"VistaNewbie" <wpla@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:37458AA2-7F30-423E-AFCC-0937A3F287FE@microsoft.com...
> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
> drive in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
> representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
> Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the status
> of the defrag program when it was running. It appears that Home Premium
> runs in the background and one never gets a "defragmentation complete"
> dialog box with options to see a report. I've tried running it manually
> and not closing the Run dialog box, but it seems to run for hours without
> any feedback to the user.

The previous versions were based on a Diskeeper engine. The Vista defrag is
a fresh start by the Vista team and does not inherit any features. A
progress indicator is still a future project along with other requested
features. I use Diskeeper and recommend that or PerfectDisk.

"VistaNewbie" <wpla@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:37458AA2-7F30-423E-AFCC-0937A3F287FE@microsoft.com...

> Also, previous versions of Windows provided the user a progress bar than
> informed them of the status of the defrag program when it was running.

Like watching paint dry as well, do you?

Whatever defragmentation might be needed on your system is either
non-existent, or in the process of becoming that. Watching it happen is moot
to it's operation. Nothing you can do would either make it happen worse, or
better, and knowing it's state would leave you powerless to make any
decision based on that. Get over it, it's not a factor relevant. or of any
consequence to your decisions about the system. It would be like adding a
tachometer to a car with automatic transmission.

--
Please use the Communities guidelines when posting.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales...help_en-us.htm
Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Mark.Ferguson

"VistaNewbie" <wpla@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:37458AA2-7F30-423E-AFCC-0937A3F287FE@microsoft.com...
> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
> drive in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
> representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
> Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the status
> of the defrag program when it was running. It appears that Home Premium
> runs in the background and one never gets a "defragmentation complete"
> dialog box with options to see a report. I've tried running it manually
> and not closing the Run dialog box, but it seems to run for hours without
> any feedback to the user.

"VistaNewbie" <wpla@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
> drive
> in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
> representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
> Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the
> status of the defrag program when it was running. <snip>

You can use the command line version of the defragmenter instead. It
provides you with status reports both initially and upon completion. Use the
"v" parameter for detailed reports.

Open up a command prompt as administrator (Accessories menu > right-click
the Command prompt icon, select Run as Administrator). At the prompt, type:

defrag -v

Sadly, it will not show you any progression meter. But then again, the
graphical representation in WinXP was rather meaningless, as it did not
provide any accurate time estimates.

Charlie42

VistaNewbie;769463 Wrote:
> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
> drive
> in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
> representation of
> a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of Windows provided the
> user a progress bar than informed them of the status of the defrag
> program
> when it was running. It appears that Home Premium runs in the
> background
> and one never gets a "defragmentation complete" dialog box with options
> to
> see a report. I've tried running it manually and not closing the Run
> dialog
> box, but it seems to run for hours without any feedback to the user.
Hello VistaNewbie,
If you are not satisfied with answers given by Colin and Charlie42,
google Auslogics Disk Defrag ( caution: Not Auslogics Registry Defrag ).
It gives you " play by play " of what is happening, graphic and all, and
a final report/summary. You can sit and watch, if that's your thing.
P.S. It's FREE.


--
t-4-2

"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:eS2FMdF4IHA.4488@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> "VistaNewbie" <wpla@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:37458AA2-7F30-423E-AFCC-0937A3F287FE@microsoft.com...
>> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
>> drive in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
>> representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
>> Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the status
>> of the defrag program when it was running. It appears that Home Premium
>> runs in the background and one never gets a "defragmentation complete"
>> dialog box with options to see a report. I've tried running it manually
>> and not closing the Run dialog box, but it seems to run for hours without
>> any feedback to the user.
>
> The previous versions were based on a Diskeeper engine. The Vista defrag
> is a fresh start by the Vista team and does not inherit any features. A
> progress indicator is still a future project along with other requested
> features. I use Diskeeper and recommend that or PerfectDisk.
Thanks.

I had a Lenovo Vista Business laptop that shipped with DiskKeeper. Not sure
if it was part of Vista Business or if it was a separate program bundled by
Lenovo with its laptops.

Contrary to some of the other replies I received, no, I don't sit in front
of the computer and stare at the graphics like watching paint dry. My
interest was merely to determine whether the disks are fragmented and, if
so, to what degree. Just another diagnostic tool when trouble shooting a
sluggish computer.

I agree with Mark L. Ferguson: in Vista you do NOT need to worry about disk
fragmentation, because the defrag runs automatically as a low priority
background process for as long as it takes to do the job.

Just forget all about it, and get on with using your computer for something
useful.

STeveT

If you want to see analysis of the Vista defrag, open a command prompt as
administrator (right click on the command prompt icon and select "run as
administrator") The type defrag c: -a -v. (c: or whatever drive).
To see the list of defrag options type defrag /?.
--
Paul


"VistaNewbie" wrote:

> Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a drive
> in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic representation of
> a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of Windows provided the
> user a progress bar than informed them of the status of the defrag program
> when it was running. It appears that Home Premium runs in the background
> and one never gets a "defragmentation complete" dialog box with options to
> see a report. I've tried running it manually and not closing the Run dialog
> box, but it seems to run for hours without any feedback to the user.
>

"PaulB" <PaulB@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2B73BEEE-1543-4531-A999-3A80560268E3@microsoft.com...
> If you want to see analysis of the Vista defrag, open a command prompt as
> administrator (right click on the command prompt icon and select "run as
> administrator") The type defrag c: -a -v. (c: or whatever drive).
> To see the list of defrag options type defrag /?.
> --
> Paul
>

Thank you.