FreeDOS Defrag

[Sylvander]

1.
(a) Trying to find some program that will TOTALLY DEFRAG all of the contents of chosen partitions.
I have 4 internal & 2 external FAT32 partitions, and 1 internal NTFS partition.
The various defrag programs I'm using leave folders/directories untouched, therefore scattered all over the free space at the end of a partition.

DEFRAG PROG'S I have:

INSTALLED:
[B]Ashampoo Magical Defrag [Constantly runs/defrags in the background]
O&O Defrag 2000 [Nice display gives info on the present defrag state]
Auslogics Disk Defrag

PORTABLE:
Piriform Defraggler

On UBCD4Win:
Auslogics Disk Defrag
Piriform Defraggler
DIRMS

(b) NTFS
Already have Avira NTFS4DOS Personal 1.9 Free Download (http://www.softlow.com/windows/utilities/misc/free/avira-ntfs4dos-personal.html) used to make a bootable floppy that can access partitions that are using the NTFS file system.

(c) Don't remember how I did it, but I've added to Avira NTFS4DOS bootable floppy:
1) chkdsk.exe
And more to the point of this thread:
2) dfrgntfs.exe
I've tried this, and it lists non-NTFS partitions with a ? instead of a letter, and these cannot be defragged.
The NTFS partitions are bold and CAN be defragged.

Note this well-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Tried downloading and unzipping defrag131.zip (http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/free-defrag/) got to from the FreeDOS Defrag main page (http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/free-defrag/), but I don't know what to do with the files and there are no instructions supplied. :(
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3.
Tried the version of DIRMS (http://www.dirms.com/) included within the UBCD4Win (http://www.ubcd4win.com/) environment, and that worked OK, but still left those scattered folders.

4.
Have installed, and ran PageDefrag (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx), and that reduced the pagefile fragments from 77 to 5, but didn't touch those pesky folders.

[Sylvander]

Finally found a defrag program that defrags E-VER-Y-THING. :)

Got a FREE copy of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 SE given out by the Computeractive magazine website.
Looks REALLY GOOD.
Unfortunately it seems to have its Recovery Media disabled [it can be made, but doesn't boot].

However...
Among the many things it does is DEFRAG.
Chose the C: partition and [after choosing to have all folders moved; options = end, or (I chose)->beginning of partition] it reports that because some files on the partition are locked it needs to reboot, and do I wish to do that.

Give it the OK and it defrag's at reboot.
Does a very thorough job.
Checks folders, files, FAT table in memory and on HDD.
Defragments everything, gives useful statistics of number of folders and files and free-space fragmented, and then when complete repeats the whole exercise. [As a check?]

This is the only program I've tried so far that has consolidated all of the free space into a single empty block.
Here's a screenshot to illustrate.
.

[Sylvander]

"Recovery Media disabled [it can be made, but doesn't boot]"
I was wrong about that!
Turns out this bootable disk, just like some of the other such disks [UBCD4Win, BartPE], needs the RAID driver loaded for the PCI to ATA Controller Card to which my internal HDD is attached.

I guess without that it's unable to see the HDD, and therefore refuses/fails to load the OS.

Once loaded, the display image isn't great, but all the features are on offer, and what a lot it can do!

[Sylvander]

...But although I managed to get this Recovery Media to load its [DOS?] OS and program...
This is unable to work with USB devices [doesn't see any].

Apparently there's another version of the Recovery Media that includes a Linux OS [the normal/primary OS to load] that DOES work with USB...
Or the DOS "Safe Mode" OS that loads minimal drivers, has less trouble with hardware, and doesn't work with USB.

I believe this is supplied with the paid versions of the various programs.