To access Boot-Time defragmentation controls, go to the system tab of the Basic Configuration Settings, click on the advanced button at the bottom of the screen, then expand the Defragmentation Options section. There you will find the Boot-Time defragmentation section where you may enable boot-time to run during the next system reboot. Additionally, when you enable boot-time to run during the next system reboot, you will be given the option to run the “CHKDSK” utility on the system volume before defragmentation. The activities that occur when you enable boot-time defragmentation and the "CHKDSK" utility are described below.
Regardless of which volume or volumes your metadata and paging files reside on, Boot-Time Defragmentation is a system-wide action that, when enabled, will automatically find these types of files and defragment them.
Boot-Time Defragmentation consists of the following activities:
Metadata File Defragmentation — defragments system metadata files that cannot be processed online. System metadata files are used by the file system to store internal information data.
Paging File Defragmentation — defragments the paging file. Fragmented paging files can slow Windows performance. They can also hurt the effectiveness of Diskeeper, since the unmovable paging file fragments break up the free space on the volume. By defragmenting your paging file, you can help maintain peak Windows performance, and help Diskeeper run better at the same time. After a paging file has been defragmented, it should remain contiguous unless its size is changed.
Boot-Time Defragmentation opens up larger areas of contiguous free space for new file creation and modification.
Important: For best results with Boot-Time Defragmentation, Condusiv Technologies strongly recommends:
Make sure you have sufficient contiguous free space. Delete unneeded files and perform one or more manual defragmentation runs to defragment the volume as much as possible.
Enable the Run the system "CHKDSK" utility before defragmentation option. This will help prevent vital files from being moved to bad disk sectors, which could make your computer unbootable.
Condusiv Technologies recommends rebooting your computer before running Boot-Time Defragmentation if there are any pending reboots requested, such as from installing new Microsoft updates. This ensures the installation or update is complete before any data is moved on the disk.
Boot-Time Defragmentation can take a long time, especially on very large disk volumes that are severely fragmented. Therefore, you should plan ahead before running it.
Several points about Boot-Time Defragmentation:
Since Boot-Time Defragmentation runs before USB and Firewire controllers are fully operational, it cannot be run on external USB or Firewire disks. For the same reason, you cannot specify a USB or Firewire external disk as the location for the summary log file described below.
Keep in mind that for maximum efficiency, the Boot-Time Defragmentation operation concentrates only on files that cannot be defragmented online. It is not intended to defragment all the files on your system.
Boot-Time Defragmentation relies on having a contiguous free space into which to move the directories and/or paging file on your volume. Therefore, it is beneficial to run Diskeeper in either the Automatic or Manual Defragmentation mode before running Boot-Time Defragmentation.
Boot-Time Defragmentation is a one-time operation. After it runs, it is not automatically set up to run again. You must set it each time you want it to run. It is usually not necessary to repeatedly run Boot-Time Defragmentation.
It is safe to restart your computer midway through the Boot-Time Defragmentation operation. However, if you do so, you should use the Error Checking option in Drive Properties | Tools on the volume that was being processed when you restarted your computer, and enable both the fix and the scan options, or (if you are running from the Windows Command Prompt) run CHKDSK, using the /F qualifier. This ensures the files and free space on the volume are correctly allocated.
After running Boot-Time Defragmentation, use Automatic Defragmentation to keep the volume defragmented.