Undefragmentable folders ? screenshot

[Erixtu]

It looks like it is not possible to defragment some folders ?
It is visible on the screens.

//edit :
I tryed all defragmentation methods, but it does not help.

[molecule]

hey I like that second screen shot -- what program is it? or is it a Mydefrag script?

as to the unmovables ... apparently they are remnant files and dirs possibly $$ type, that were improperly deleted.  they are marked as unmovable when mydefrag asks the standard MS defrag API to move them, and the API returns a refusal.

See my post just after yours ... list of unmovables

I'm a 98se user, and still think it's the best.  So I'm a TOTAL noob at NT stuff.  I'm learning all this building a 2k machine.  It makes sense that if the registry thinks a foreign computer might have mapped a share of the HDD by sector addresses, that the registory would lock those sectors down. and thus the defrag API returns a no-can-do.

I haven't tried it yet, but one suggest is to recreate the files and dirs, and then delete them by deleting the shares first.

what a MESS they make!!!

where's the second screen shot from? ... that looks like a useful program

[Darlis]

The Windows Defragmentation API refuses to move directories on FAT formatted volumes.
It is also possible that the programs are still running and locking the files. Sometimes, a simple restart helps too.

@molecule: The second screen shot is from Piriform Defraggler and it is unlikely to be useful in your scenario.

[Erixtu]

hey>>

What is $$ type ?
I like win98, but I never tryed to adapt it (modify) to support all my needs as win xp. I would try win98 for a better computer performance

It is Deflaggler, I use it for better seeing of files and file list fragments and file position on the disk. And free space percent display

The only idea I had is to copy the folders/files and delete the source ones.
But now there is too many places to look on, I think it would take too much time to browse and copy/delete it.

Is it possible to survive with only Win 98 at these days ?
I even found a web page in my language that should make it possible as much as possible with tools and utilities. But I can not find it now, I do not know if it existst.

[Erixtu]

It is also possible that the programs are still running and locking the files. Sometimes>>

This one is a case of move lock by system. Restart did not help

//edit: Can I make scipt to analyse and get list of locked folders ?
Will shrink partition delete the folders ? (it will cut its position)

[Darlis]

A list of unmovable files/folders can be found in the MyDefrag.dat file in the MyDefrag directory. The list is created when MyDefrag actually tries to move a file but fails do to so.

If shrinking the partition would delete data, why not formatting the drive instead and copy all files back again (directories first)? There are some scripts on this forum for consolidating directories on FAT volumes.

[Erixtu]

A list of>>

thanks that list will help.
can I format system drive without reinstalling the system ?
I think that would be the why not, to format drive,> because there is operating system.

[Darlis]

If you format the drive you will loose all data on it. Hence, you'll have to reinstall the OS (but this time with NTFS file system).

[jeroen]

can I format system drive without reinstalling the system ?

It is possible to convert a FAT disk to NTFS without formatting it. Don't have the info handy right now, but it's not difficult.

[Psycogeek]

Nuts and bolts "DiskTune" was capable of sorting and defragging FAT and Fat32 directories , back in the days of win98.
it is now completly obsolete, but i have still defragged with it via a win98 USB boot, to fix this exact problem in XP.
http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&biw=1452&bih=901&source=hp&q=%22nuts+and+bolts%22+disktune&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1

i have not seen any defragger other than DiskTune ever do it, even back in its day.

for me the need for FAT, to access the system (via dos) was no longer nessiary, and I switched my last partitions to NTFS.

other methods, would be Imaging or cloning, back and forth. sending the whole thing to a backup image, then "recover" it all back (sector based imagers will clear the disk first) , as the defragmentation method.  or just doing that manually from one disk to another (which would require clearing the disk before re-copy).  it wont nessiarily sort the Directories to the front, but it will fix them being all wrong, and spaced out all over the disk. 

[Kasuha]

There were multiple defraggers for Windows 95 and 98 which were able to move directories. However - the situation with Windows 95 and 98 was different - there was no defragmentation API, those applications just stole the disk from the system and did the defragmentation on their own using direct drive access. It was safe with Windows 98 but I am definitely not sure whether it is still safe with Windows XP. The structure of the FAT filesystem was changed slightly between W98 and WXP, for instance support for long filenames has changed and I can remember I got my filenames messed up once after using certain W98 utility under W2000 - fortunately at that time system itself was still using 8.3 so there was no damage to that.
In general I definitely consider using these old utilities on any system they weren't built for unsafe.

[Psycogeek]

if you want to try it i have one i could post, (for testing)  i doubt that the company would have a big stink over it.
I used it for 6+ years to defrag the XP system partition, when it was fat32, on 2 computers, and I didnt have any problems. could do a full reorder, and pagefile placement too, when run off a seperate disk.  and it worked on 3 different raid systems (as they changed in the computers).

many things way back then did use Cheap Tricks, and non-certified microsoft methods, and most of it turned out ok :-)  some of it , like a game not playing by the rules, thinking they could talk to the hardware without MS, after some MS update , things would go badly :-)
If we go back WAY far, the only way to do anything well was to dangerously bypass microsoft,  but now MS has everyone under control.  and everything works without a single bug or problem.

[Kasuha]

if you want to try it i have one i could post, (for testing)  i doubt that the company would have a big stink over it.

I don't want to try it, I think it is unsafe. It may work for you and all your friends and it still can destroy the filesystem for someone else. MS always had undocumented features in their system which were changing between versions.

In my opinion, much better way to go is to convert the partition to NTFS.

[Erixtu]

Thank very much for reminding me of fat to ntfs converting. That should help.