Acer Laptop.

[TWR]

A friend has a Acer L/Top, he does not download music or anything like that, the unit is very slow, I went to check, went into tools & stated the DE-Frac process, how long should this take, when I left it was still Defragging 6hrs, would this be the norm? In the end he just switched it off thinking that the system was not doing the job! you views would be appreciated.

[WyeDyed]

The windows defragger can be very slow, it depends on how large the HDD is and how full. The more it has to do the longer it takes. There are a couple of good free defrag programs available including "Defraggler".
I would also recommend running Ccleaner to clear out all the useless files that build up over time. (do this before the defrag)
I'll find some links and get back to you...

[TWR]

Thank you WyeDyed

[WyeDyed]

Ccleaner:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Defraggler:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_defraggler/
The defrag does have a progress bar and a nice interface, so you can see if it's still working.

[VHG]

A defrag can take a long time, particularly if it has not been done for a while. Just turning it off was not a great idea though, defrag should be stopped properly.

A defrag wont speed up a laptop very much anyway.

[WyeDyed]

( psst VHG I wasn't going to mention the turning off thing, what's done is done and if it reboots then, all's good).
One thing with Ccleaner that can speed things up is the Start up feature where you can stop background programs from starting in the first place.

[daffy654]

Why are you even bothering to defrag? None of the 4 PCs in my house have ever been defragged and they never will be, it's pretty pointless doing it as it will start to fragment again immediately.

[WyeDyed]

Daffy - isn't that a bit like saying it's pointless tidying the house because it's it's just going to get messy again?

[TWR]

Thanks for all your replies. TWR.