Repeated -a 3 on a defragmented drive constantly moves the same file

[_Rej_]

Hi all,

Using JKDefrag 3.33.

I've noticed that every time I defragment one of my already defragmented drive, the same step keeps repeating itself. 

What it does is move a 1.3gig file up the drive in 2 steps, then puts it back where it was in the first place.

I can repeat this anytime, meaning if I defrag 5 times, it will move back and forth the same file every time before saying it is finished.

Bug?

If you need a debug report, let me know (and which flags to use), I'll be happy to provide it.

[schitzn]

If your doing a -3 pass, you'll find the zone space is contingent.  Thus if there is a change in used space, it will move it out to the top of the screen, then shift it back to the same space minus/plus the change in used space.

On a regularly accessed drive such as your %systemroot% (windows drive), repetitive passes will see this occur nearly every time due to changes in the file system being constant.

[_Rej_]

Should have mentioned this on my previous post, but the drive I'm using isn't being used at all most of the time (it's a storage drive for my CD/DVD images). 

Also, the 5 previous tests were done at the same time, meaning one after the other, no activity other than those 5 defrags.

Note that the drive in question isn't part of System Restore, and the recycle bin isn't used on any of my drives either.

[schitzn]

Im not sure then what may be causing the data to variate on your drive.  Perhaps there is metadata on the drive that is changing (part of the NTFS file system)

[jeroen]

If you need a debug report, let me know (and which flags to use), I'll be happy to provide it.

Perhaps you can run the program with the "-d 5" commandline option and post the logfile here on the forum.

[_Rej_]

Sure thing.  Here they are (did the JKDefrag -a 3 -d 5 V: twice in a row so I included both reports).

While doing this, I noticed that my MFTZone was a *lot* smaller than my other 125gig partition.. around 1/100th instead of the usual 1/8th.

Not sure if this is related or not.

The drive seems to be working properly though.  Might be because most of the files on the drive are big ones (fewer files than usual for the total space taken).

Thanks for checking into this

_Rej_

Oh, the file that keeps being moved back and forth is SI_KOTN.iso.

[jeroen]

I have taken a look. The program moves the v:\Images\SI_KOTN.iso file away during fixup because it's a spacehog in zone 2. After that the program tries to move some system files, but finds that it cannot move them, and recalculates the beginning of the zones. The program continues, and in phase 3 it sees an opportunity to fill a gap. Yes, you guessed it, it's the gap that was left by that file, and JkDefrag finds it can perfectly fill the gap with yes, you guessed it again, the same file.

You are the victim of a very special situation. It's not a bug, but simply a special situation caused by interaction of all the different algorithms. I will stick it in my hat and think about it some, but I think preventing it will be very difficult.

[_Rej_]

Got it.  I came to a similar conclusion.

What I'll do is either use -a 2 on the V: Drive or just exclude the file itself (SI_KOTN.iso).

Worse comes to worst, I'll just recopy the entire drive to another one then copy it back to rescramble the locations so it doesn't happen again. (Note that this is the first time I notice this phenomena -- rare indeed ).

Thanks much for checking it out btw.

Have a good one..

_Rej_

[byblo]

You are the victim of a very special situation. It's not a bug, but simply a special situation caused by interaction of all the different algorithms. I will stick it in my hat and think about it some, but I think preventing it will be very difficult.

I have also the same problem, sometimes.