#11 UltraDefrag 4.4 is very slow
I am running UltraDefrag 4.4 on a 250MB NTFS filesystem, 57% of which is free. Defragmenting works, but is incredibly slow. Task manager doesn't show the CPU being maxed out (though UltraDefrag is regularly taking around 55-60% CPU), yet the hard drive activity light is almost never on. The 'fragmented files' count in the GUI ticks down at maybe a file every ten seconds.
Background:
This is a fresh install of Windows XP SP2 from a few days ago, upgraded with all Microsoft updates including SP3. I copied approximately 90GB of user data back onto the system from a backup using RichCopy. Running the Windows XP degragmentation tool showed a huge patch of red in the middle of the disc (sorry for the vague description, but what can I say?) - it looked like just about every file was fragmented. I started UltraDefrag 4.4 in optimize mode and left it running for approximately 12 hours, at which point it was about 40% complete. I stopped it at this point (using the Stop button in the GUI and waiting for it to stop neatly.)
The attached DebugView log was created by re-running UltraDefrag 4.4 and choosing 'Defragment'. The same slowness was observed, I left it running for about ten minutes before saving the log.
I appreciate this is probably impossible for you to fix without access to my system but I thought I should report it. I don't need any help as I will just use the XP defragmenter. I will avoid doing so for a few days In case you want me to try a newer version to see if that fixes the problem.
If you need any more details please let me know.
Thanks.
DebugView log
View and moderate all "support-requests Discussion" comments posted by this user
Mark all as spam, and block user from posting to "Support Requests"
I had a bit of a play around with Process Monitor to see if it could shed any light. For what it's worth, I have put a log file from Process Monitor at http://wald.lemma.co.uk/ultradefrag-4-4-slow-process-monitor-log.zip. (I would have liked to attach it, but I can't see any way to do that without raising a new support issue. I will leave the file on that web server for a while, if anyone is interested in it please copy it and ideally attach it to this ticket.)
I observe that explorer.exe is going mad trying to access registry keys relating to ultradefrag.exe. I have no idea why and a quick web search turned up nothing. I don't know if that accounts for the slowness or not.
Last edit: Anonymous 2015-12-25
You can add multiple files, just scroll down and select "Add a File", which does not look like a link, but it is ;-)
I think you meant 250GB.
I would not optimize the drive while Windows is actively running, but at boot time, so you can be sure there is nothing slowing the process down.
Stefan
If you really need to defrag while the system is fully running, then you must add the UD executables to the process exclusion list of MS Security Essentials, which you seem to use.
This will avoid the need to fully disable the anti-virus software, which is mentioned in the UD handbook.
Generally it is never good to defrag a fully running system, it is best to either do it in safe mode or at boot time.
Stefan
View and moderate all "support-requests Discussion" comments posted by this user
Mark all as spam, and block user from posting to "Support Requests"
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
You are absolutely right, the documentation does say the virus checker should be disabled and I missed it. Could I suggest you put that in the FAQ, as I double-checked that once I had problems?
I didn't get the impression from the documentation that the boot-time scan was so strongly recommended over the GUI scan, but that may just be me.
I added ultradefrag.exe to Microsoft Security Essentials' exclusion list just in case, then disabled the real-time checking completely. I then configured a boot-time scan and rebooted. Ultra Defrag started up fine, but the performance was just the same as before. I left it running for 35 minutes and it got to 0.68%, with the hard drive light hardly ever on. At that point I press Pause/Break and let it boot into Windows.
I next un-installed Microsoft Security Essentials completely and re-booted to ensure it was fully uninstalled, skipping the boot-time scan. I then rebooted again and let the boot-time scan take place. The defragmentation proceeded at the same apparently slow pace as before with little hard drive activity and showing well under 1% completed until, suddenly, after about 50 minutes it indicated it was 'Analyzing', shot up to 100% complete and Windows booted.
Starting up the Ultra Defrag GUI appeared to show the disc was still fragmented, though my judgement could be off here of course. I took a screenshot of the GUI at this point; you can see it at http://wald.lemma.co.uk/ultradefrag-gui-after-boot-time-defrag-completed.png. (I am sorry, but I just can't see the "Add a file" link you mention. I tried with Firefox on Linux and IE8 on XP in case it was a browser issue, but I just cannot find it.) In an attempt to get a second opinion I started the Windows XP defragmenter and it recommended defragmentation.
At this point I re-installed MSE - as I didn't like to be without it for long - but disabled it and did a GUI scan to generate another DebugView log. MSE seemed to do 'something' in the background, so I abandoned this attempt, stopped the defragmentation and un-installed MSE again, rebooting to ensure it was completely removed.
I then performed a GUI defragmentation with DebugView running (this time remembering to tick both 'Capture Kernel' and 'Capture Win32'; I forgot the former option on my previous log). The system was essentially idle apart from Ultra Defrag during this time, although I did run Task Manager and observed CPU use of around 70% for ultradefrag.exe, with the rest unused. (This is a dual core machine, by the way.) Hard drive access was sporadic, as usual, and when I stopped it after 30 minutes it had reached 2.07%. I stopped the defragmentation using the GUI and closed down UltraDefrag. You can find the DebugView log at http://wald.lemma.co.uk/ultra-defrag-no-mse-debugview.log.
I then rebooted and allowed the boot-time scan to proceed. It terminated less than three minutes later, although I caught this out of the corner of my eye and didn't get to read the display. Both of the fraglist files in the root had the correct timestamp and showed no fragmented files. Performing an analysis with the GUI produced a display pretty much identical to the screenshot mentioned above.
Any suggestions on how to proceed further with this would be appreciated. In the meantime I will re-install MSE but avoid running the XP defragmenter in an attempt to leave this reproducible.
Thanks.
P.S. Apologies for the excruciating detail in this report, but I am trying to make this as helpful as possible. If you need any more information please let me know.
EmQbSZ qepahyjmgkcn, [url=http://ujomtsjvidrl.com/]ujomtsjvidrl[/url], [link=http://cyepjuvdzvwr.com/]cyepjuvdzvwr[/link], http://dceughveqtmv.com/
Quick optimize in release 5.0.0 will be a much better choice to process system drives.