I want to keep my disks defragmented, with these constraints:

·         Don’t consume the disk IO resources while I’m working

·         Don’t make me remember to launch defrag before I go home

·         Defrag all my disks, not just one (Windows defragger only does one at a time)

·         Work correctly even if I run as normal user

 

 

To support this, I wrote a small script to run the defragger.  Here it is:

 

 

I’m known for writing confusing batch files, so let’s go through it:

 

 

Turn off echo by default.  If you want to see echo output, ‘set _echo=1’.

 

 

The ‘/d’ option means change the current drive, too.  (Should be the default, but hard to change now.)

 

 

Run the defragger.  ‘-v’ means generate verbose output about the number of fragmented files before & after, etc.  Redirect it all to defrag.log, which will be (normally) be written to the root of the drive.

 

 

Repeat for each parameter.

 

 

exit the batch script.  (If you use ‘call :label’ then just exit this instance).

 

 

%~n0 means ‘just the base name of the current batch file’.

 

Next, add a scheduled task:

 

1. Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks
2. File->New->Scheduled Task (Don’t use the Add Scheduled Task wizard)
3. Give it a name (“defrag”).
4. RClick, Properties:

 

5. Set the schedule as it suits you.  I told it to abort my job after 1 hour, just in case something is really broken. 
6. OK.  You’ll be prompted for local admin credentials

 

Now you’ll have a new task in the scheduled tasks list.  Time to verify it.

 

7. RClick on the task, Run
8. Watch its ‘Status’ change.  You want it to say ‘Running’ for at least a minute.  Anything else & something is broken.  Take a look at Advanced->ViewLog for clues.

 

The first time this ran, it was aborted after an hour. The next night it ran again & completed.  I think I’ll leave it like that.