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Tuesday 18 December 2012

Automatically Defragment Your Hard Drive in Windows XP

Defragmenting your hard drive makes sure that the data on the hard disk is in contiguous order. This provides easier and quicker access to files and programs. Windows 7 and Windows Vista are both set to automatically defragment your hard drive on a weekly basis, by default, or on a schedule you can customize (see our post, Modify the Disk Defragmenter Schedule in Windows 7 and Windows Vista).
Windows XP does not automatically defrag your hard drive on a set schedule, but you can set it up to do so. First, we will show you how to access the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP and some of its features. Then, we will show you how to run the Disk Defragmenter automatically on a schedule.
Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter
There are a couple of different ways of accessing the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP. One way is to select Run from the Start menu.
Selecting Run from the Start menu
On the Run dialog box, enter “dfrg.msc” (without the quotes) in the Open edit box and click OK.
Starting Disk Defragmenter from the Run dialog box
You can also access the Disk Defragmenter by opening My Computer, right-clicking on the hard drive you want to defragment and selecting Properties from the popup menu.
Selecting Properties for a hard drive
On the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab and then click the Defragment Now button.
Clicking Defragment Now on the Tools tab
What’s nice about the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP as opposed to the ones in Windows 7 and Windows Vista is you get a graphical interface in Windows XP showing you details about the disk usage before and after the defragmentation. This graphical interface is not available in Windows 7 or Windows Vista.
You can manually defragment a hard drive by selecting the desired hard drive from the list at the top of the Disk Defragmenter dialog box and clicking Defragment.
Windows XP Disk Defragmenter
You can also analyze the selected hard drive by clicking the Analyze button. When the analysis is complete, a dialog box displays telling you whether you should defragment the hard drive. Click the View Report button to view more details.
Analysis is complete dialog box
The Analysis Report dialog box displays, showing you information about the hard drive and the files on it that are the most fragmented. To defragment the hard drive, click Defragment. You can also click Save As to save the results of the analysis as a text file or click Print to print the results. Click Close to close the dialog box.
Analysis Report dialog box
To close the Disk Defragmenter, select Exit from the File menu.
Closing the Disk Defragmenter
If you accessed the Disk Defragmenter from the Properties dialog box for a specific hard drive, click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
Closing the Properties dialog box
Now, we will show you how to set up the Disk Defragmenter to run automatically on a custom schedule. Select Control Panel from the Start menu.
Opening Control Panel
On the Control Panel, click the Switch to Classic View link, if the Category View is active.
Switching to Classic View in the Control Panel
Double-click the Scheduled Tasks item.
Clicking on Scheduled Tasks
On the Scheduled Tasks dialog box, double-click the Add Scheduled Task item.
Clicking Add Scheduled Task
The Scheduled Task Wizard displays. Click Next.
Scheduled Task Wizard
A list of applications you can automatically run displays. Click Browse.
Clicking Browse to select program
The Select Program to Schedule dialog box displays. Enter the following line, including the percent signs, in the File name edit box and click Open.
%systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe
Selecting program to schedule
The next screen in the Scheduled Task Wizard displays. Enter a name for the task in the edit box. Select how often to perform the defragment task from the list of radio buttons under Perform this task. Click Next.
Entering a name and selecting timing
If you selected Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or One time only, the next screen allows you to specify the details about when to run the task. For example, if you selected Weekly, the options pictured below are available. Click Next when you have finished selecting your options.
Entering the time and selecting the frequency and the day of week
On the next screen, the currently logged in user is automatically entered in the Enter the user name edit box. You can change that to a different user name, if desired. Enter the password for the specified user in the Enter the password edit box and again in the Confirm password edit box. Click Next.
Entering the password
The next screen displays a summary of the scheduled task. To set more options for the task, select the Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish check box. This allows you to specify a hard drive to be defragmented. Click Finish.
Clicking Finish
A dialog box displays with the name of the new task in the title bar. On the Task tab, add a space and the drive letter, such as “C:” (without the quotes) to the end of the line of text in the Run edit box.
If you want to only run the task if the specified user is logged into the computer, select the Run only if logged on check box. If this check box is not selected, the computer only has to be on for the task to run.
Adding the drive letter to the Run command
Click the Settings tab to customize additional settings for the new task. For example, you can specify to Only start the task if the computer has been idle for at least a certain number of minutes. This is useful if you happen to still be working on the computer when the time comes to run the task. The task won’t start if you are using the computer.
Click OK once you have changed the desired settings.
Changing Settings
When you change settings for a task, you are asked for the password for the user account specified for the task. Enter the password in the Password edit box and again in the Confirm password edit box and click OK.
Entering the password to save changed settings
An icon for the newly created task displays on the Scheduled Tasks dialog box.
Disk Defrag task icon
When the task runs, a command window opens displaying information produced by the task.
Defrag running in a command window
You won’t see the Disk Defragmenter graphical interface, but the Disk Defragmenter is running in the background. If you open up Task Manager (right-click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager), you’ll see the process running on the Processes tab.
Defrag task running in Task Manager
Now your Windows XP machine will automatically defragment the local hard drive on a specified schedule just like it does in Vista and Windows 7.
You can also use a tool called pycron to schedule task to defragment your hard drive. See our post, Replacing the Windows Task Scheduler, for more information. The Command to be entered would be “%systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe” (without the quotes), the same as earlier in this post. The Parameter would be “C:” (again, without the quotes).

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