Win7 automatic defrag won't run

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JimmiG

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Apr 3, 2008
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Strangely, I'm having this issue on both my laptop and my desktop system. Both are running Win7 Pro final, 32-bit on the laptop and 64-bit on the desktop.

I've set them to defrag once a week at noon on sundays but neither system seems to actually run the defrag. When I look at the "Last Run" column, it says "Never" and the "Next scheduled run" is one week from now...

What might be preventing the defrag from running?
 
Exactly. If they are sleeping, did you disable wake events in the power configuration?
 
Nope, the desktop system is set to never sleep and the laptop is set to never sleep when plugged in...
 
Check the Task Scheduler under the Windows group and see if it is setup there to run.
 
heatlesssun said:
Check the Task Scheduler under the Windows group and see if it is setup there to run.
Click to expand...

Yup. Will the defrag as scheduled even if the volume is not fragmented (or only 1 or 2%)? Maybe it simply skips it because it isn't fragmented enough?
 
JimmiG said:
Yup. Will the defrag as scheduled even if the volume is not fragmented (or only 1 or 2%)? Maybe it simply skips it because it isn't fragmented enough?
Click to expand...
I have mine set to defrag every night and it still shows 'last defragmented' the next night, even if I didn't do anything on the PC the day before.
 
It's been three years+ (Vista's release date) since I've had to install a third-party defragger. Do you have any issues when you run a manual defrag?
 
DeaconFrost said:
It's been three years+ (Vista's release date) since I've had to install a third-party defragger. Do you have any issues when you run a manual defrag?
Click to expand...

No, if I manually force a defrag, it completes no problem. I'll try setting it to run every night for a while to see if it ever runs.

Is there some kind of log file I can view that might indicate why defrag didn't run? It might be some software I have installed on both my laptop and desktop systems, I guess.. although I've kept bloatware to a minimum on both so I can't think of anything that might interfere.
 
I could've sworn I read somewhere that Win 7's defrag uses a few services that are different from Vista's defrag. Sorry, but I am not sure what the specific services are :eek:; maybe one of these services is not starting up on a schedule, and this is preventing the defrag from running?

As for alternative defraggers, I use Diskeeper 2009 pro on automatic defrag and it's great. Haven't tried it on Win 7, but a new version (DK 2010) has just been released, and it states support for 32 as well as 64 bit 7 versions.
 
I was at my parent's place and decided to check their computer which is also running Win7 with the default settings (defrag automatically once a week).

Surprisingly it also shows a "Last Run" date of the last time when I was there and set their computer up.

So that's the third computer where defrag doesn't run automatically. The one thing they all have in common is that True Image is installed for backups. Could it be preventing Defrag from running, intentionally or not?

Edit: On my laptop, I temporarily uninstalled True Image, re-set the schedule and waited. This time Defrag ran on the "System Reserved" volume, but not on C:. The logs don't even show an attempt to run the defrag on that drive, even though it's selected in Defrag and appears as an argument in the actual command executed by the scheduler. :confused:
 
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FWIW- There's been folks on here purposefully fragment files, and defrag them with various tools- and the built-in one in Windows is just as efficient as anything else. But for those of you that like to waste system resources on third party crap, be my guest.

Here's my three Windows 7 systems that I'm able to look at ATM. These are vanilla installs... I haven't really jacked with any Windows settings, and I know I haven't touched the defrag settings. These are all 24/7 machines:
Laptop: Last run 12/23
Desktop: Last run 12/23
Media Center: Last run 12/23

I guess the next natural question: is what settings have you messed with? Obviously it works by default... (And, this is also a perfect example of why you leave Vista/7 alone... You start manually jacking with stuff and you have problems). Is this a vLite'd install?
 
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