How do I defrag free space (Vista)

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calvincoetzee

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Hi everyone

I was wondering if anybody could help me out.

I'm using Windows Vista and need to defragment the free space on my hard disk so that I can shrink the partition.

How does one do that using Vista defrag.exe in command prompt?
OR
Is there another method in which I can defrag the free space on my hard disk, I prefer not using 3rd party defragment tools but any suggestions on them will be helpful if it cannot be done using defrag.exe

Thanks
 
I didnt have much success defragging the free space to shrink the partition.

I think i managed to free up about 30gb free space and the largest i should shrink by was about 6 Gigs.

Maybe look at third party stuff, the vista disk management tool was crap.
 
Try CCleaner first & then IO Smart Defrag...
 
catweasel said:
I didnt have much success defragging the free space to shrink the partition.

I think i managed to free up about 30gb free space and the largest i should shrink by was about 6 Gigs.

Maybe look at third party stuff, the vista disk management tool was crap.
Click to expand...

Same problem here, freed up 50Gb and was able to shrink 63Mb, then after defrag 11GB which also couldn't be obtained.

I will try those other utilites now.
 
defragging freespace? how the hell does one defrag Free-space?
 
Keeper said:
defragging freespace? how the hell does one defrag Free-space?
Click to expand...

that's exactly what i thought but i figured i would just keep quiet coz it might be something that i havent learnt about yet :confused:
 
catweasel said:
Maybe look at third party stuff, the vista disk management tool was crap.
Click to expand...
general_koffi said:
The defragging utilities built into Windows are rubbish.
Click to expand...
Really? And how are you evaluating this? What criteria? Just curious.

You can't defrag empty space. It's files that are fragmented, not your disk. File fragmentation is when files are spread across non-contiguous sectors & tracks. Empty space is just that - empty, so there's nothing that gets fragmented.

Perhaps the experts who already know so much about Vista/Windows defrag 'crap' can explain how they defrag space using third party tools. I'm sure those who actually know something would love understand a bit more.
 
Defrag free space, in other words, packing all the files neatly so that there is a large amount of free space open in sequence.

Imagine that # is data and * is free space
currently this is the case

#######
##*####
###***
######
######

What I want is
######
######
######
##****
******

Then I can take that free space, shrink the volume and create a new partition.
 
calvin, that's just regular defragmenting mate, when you defrag your files they will move to the beginning of your drive - you can't defrag emtpy clusters.

basically, when you look at a box full of lego - you can move the bricks around to one side, to make more succesive space on the other side - but you certainly can NOT move the air around to make more succesive space lol.
 
Last edited:
Keeper said:
calvin, that's just regular defragmenting mate, when you defrag your files they will move to the beginning of your drive - you can't defrag emtpy clusters.

basically, when you look at a box full of lego - you can move the bricks around to one side, to make space on the other side - but you certainly can NOT move the air around to make more space lol.
Click to expand...

Im not talking about making more free space, im talking about packing all the data closely so that i have more space available in sequence.

I'm trying to shrink my partition.
Got 120GB free, after Vista defrag, the largest quantity of succesive free space was 11GB
Im trying to get more free space, hopefully around 60GB so that I can use that space to create a new partition to install another OS.
 
i wasn't talking about more space, as-in get an extra 10GB free, i referred to "succesive free space".

try getting O&O Defrag - works great, very fast.

I wouldn't go around creating partitions after an OS is installed though - more things to go wrong. make sure you back-up critical data before playing around with this....
 
Keeper said:
i wasn't talking about more space, as-in get an extra 10GB free, i referred to "succesive free space".

try getting O&O Defrag - works great, very fast.

I wouldn't go around creating partitions after an OS is installed though - more things to go wrong. make sure you back-up critical data before playing around with this....
Click to expand...

It's okay don't worry I have been creating partitions and installing multiple different OS's and reverting back to them completely for years.
It's just now with my notebook running Vista, I only have one hard drive. In the past it was much simpler with multiple hard drives.
 
Ah, ok. You mean recover some space by deleting unnecessary stuff?

There's whole ton of stuff you can do. Vista has a lot of smarts built in to improve overall system performance and integrity, like system restore, various preloads, caches and critical file and config shadows.

One thing you should use is the bullt-in Disk Cleanup utility. Simply r-click the drive > Properties > Disk Cleanup and tick the file types you want to delete (tip: avoid deleting temp internet files if you have automated password entry for websites). Before clicking OK, click the More Options tab at the top and below "System Restore and Shadow Copies" click OK to delete all but the last sysrestsore shadows. Depending on what you've done before, this can free up from a few to a dozen gigs.

I have the cleanups automated through a batch command file and scheduled run. And if you're familiar with command line direction, you can take much more granular control of VSS.

BTW, you can expose more options in the Windows Disk Cleanup tool, using the cleanmgr command. See my post here for more.

Important: Once you've cleaned out the stuff, defrag the drive (using the command line: "defrag c:" <enter>, or the GUI-based built-in front-end) and then run CHKDSK /R (either from the command line, or r-click drive > Properties > Tools > "Error Checking" click Check Now. You'll have to reboot so that files on the system drive are unlocked and the checking and repair can happen automatically. A little while after the Win splash screen the system will enter CHKDSK mode and begin the check and repair.

Unless you know and understand registry entries, I'd avoid reg cleaning tools like the plague. CCleaner is widely used, and generally does a pretty reasonable job, but be aware of the serious problems some people encounter after a CCleaner cleanout.(google will uncover this).

Good luck.
 
Arthur, i don't think he needed extra space, just needed the used space on one half, and clean space on the other, in order to create a partition.

I would also like to add, do not use diskeeper, as it stops defragging when "optimised enough". O&O defrags till there is nothing more.
 
If you don't like watching the boring Windows defrag gui, just open a command prompt and issue the command:

Code: 
defrag x: <Enter>
where x is the hdd letter, eg c for drive c.

And then do yourself a favour and google a serious technical article (not doofus "it's crap" comments, of which there are zillions) on Windows defrag and check for yourself how the various defrag tools actually work in the real world. You'll be surprised and astonished.
 
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