Over time, windows just runs slower. Fragmented files are often to blame, but time after time I feel like I see evidence that defragmenting the files doesn't help. I've been running defrag on each of the PC's I've used over the years (20y+), usually once they start acting sluggish (lengthy boot times, unexplained pauses in responsiveness). But never have I experienced any noticeable improvement due to a defrag operation; at times I've felt like it gets worse.
My current PC (of 1.5years) has reach that limit somewhat sooner/more sever than usual, ridiculous pauses while the HDD chunks away; and I just noticed that defrag is scheduled to run weekly, and fragmentation is 0%.
Knowing that defrag reassembles file fragments and puts them in the next available contiguous free space. Is it possible that scattering the files themselves causes an equally detrimental fragmentation? As the various processes and threads run on the OS, there is an inadvertent sequence of frequently read files; files with physical locations randomly scattered along the platter radius causing the physical accesses to be out of sequence
Does a utility exist that not only defrags files, but puts them in relatively similar order to the sequence in which they are typically accessed?
Is there any utility to spy/log the time of access of the files? To determine how often each file is access, or even a common sequence of files being accessed? To find out which files are being read/written in those times when the PC is frozen and the HDD is chunking away with file accesses. Process Explorer and Process Hacker don't indicate any particular process as a smoking gun (high I/O rates).
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