Large 2-or-3-fragment files repeatedly processed every time, causing delays

[harpo]

[BTW, thanks for a great product -- I "found" it by reading the comparisons on Donn Edwards' comparison site -- and I see you are working on an improved series 4 -- fantastic!  When searching for prior answers to my questions I read with great interest some of the great new optimization ideas posted by you and some of the more knowledgeable folks.  I hope it comes out of BETA soon!]


Hello,

I installed and occasionally use a product called Returnil which creates and runs a "virtual" Windows session ( www.returnilvirtualsystem.com ) for protection against poorly-written or rogue software installations, unwanted changes by other users of my system, etc. 

Upon installation it created a couple of big files for this purpose, each about 4GB (for my 2GB ram, XP MCE system).

I just installed JkDefrag 3.36 a couple of days ago, selected the screensaver version, and since have noticed that, so far (and probably due to my 8GB free space remaining on my 80GB C: drive) was attempting to process these files every time it kicked in and ran.

Since it takes several minutes to work on each of the two files (then proceeds to process all the others), if I caught it during those times it then takes a while before I could get back to work while waiting on the "screensaver" to exit.

I did successfully use the "-e" option to specifically exclude these two files from processing, which has helped a lot.

[Also (another issue?) I noticed that although I had selected "6 hours" as the minimum time between consecutive defrags, it still begins defragging sooner than that whenever the screensaver mode kicks in.]

Since the log file still is reporting these big files as fragmented every time, and they are not likely to get unfragmented any time soon, if I were to remove the exclusion and allow them to be processed again, would they eventually automatically become totally unfragmented and then no longer processed afterwards? 

(Yes, I have plans for a bigger hard drive!)

[Also (yet another issue) I noticed that the log file is NOT updated with results from the screensaver runs, only the manual "Start Menu" initiated runs, or the "Analyse only" runs.]

[Also (OK, final issue) I notice that the "Analyse only" window does not stay on screen after running, or pause between disk drives being processed, to allow for any viewing of the display.  It would be nice to have an option/choice to do so when it first begins, or perhaps instead an additional "Start Menu" icon, say, "Analysis Display" for launching a version with the manually-stepped pauses.]

[jeroen]

[Also (another issue?) I noticed that although I had selected "6 hours" as the minimum time between consecutive defrags, it still begins defragging sooner than that whenever the screensaver mode kicks in.]

The screensaver only applies the "6 hours" after it has finished a full run.

if I were to remove the exclusion and allow them to be processed again, would they eventually automatically become totally unfragmented and then no longer processed afterwards?

That's the idea, yes. The files may still occasionally be moved (down) to fill up gaps, though.

I noticed that the log file is NOT updated with results from the screensaver runs

The screensaver has it's own logfile, in the same directory where you have put the screensaver executable.

I notice that the "Analyse only" window does not stay on screen after running

Solved in MyDefrag v4!

[harpo]

Thanks so very much for the fast reply and answers.

In the meantime I did figure out how to use the options (read the manual) a bit and came up with this:

   -e "C:\RETURNIL\RVSYSTEM.*" -l "C:\Program Files\JkDefrag\JkDefragSS.log" c: d:

Then I saw your hint regarding the original whereabouts of the screensaver's default log file, removed my "custom" log file, and set up a shortcut to that file in JkDefrag's Start Menu folder.

I originally used Donn Edward's JkDefragExtraSetup.exe installer which provided a shortcut to the "manual" JkDefrag's log file, but not one for the screensaver. 

Also, since I first noted that a copy of the same pair of screensaver files were located in the Program Files\JkDefrag folder as was under Windows\System32 folder, along with the "manual" log file in the Program Files\JkDefrag folder, I wasn't immediately aware of the existence of the screensaver's log file located elsewhere.  (Though I should have guessed since I manually placed the pair in System32.)

So now I have these two shortcuts in place of the original one:

  JkDefrag Log File (manual)
  JkDefrag Log File (screen saver)

...which is clear enough for me.

Also, I noticed that when I was using the screensaver with the kick-in "Wait" set for 1 minute (normally 20 minutes, but shortened for testing) it was indeed analyzing/defragging every time.

However, I noticed a while ago that with my normal 20 minute "Wait" I got the message in the log file about 6 hours having not yet elapsed and the processing being skipped.  So it does work!

Thanks!  I was afraid it was going to turn into something that would eat up my hard drives (like Diskeeper seemed to want to do if I don't throttle back its "smart scheduling").