Can I defrag a scan disk?

15 years ago

I have a little Scandisk cruzer mini 1.0 GB

I use it to transfer MP3 files created on one computer to a different computer. After trnsfering I also delete the files on it and reuse it.

Tonight I transferred 2 files and followed the routine then checked the properties on the disk and it read 931MB used and 45MB free space

The pie chart shows just a tiny sliver of free space. Is ther a lot of hidden stuff I need to get off of it?

TIA

I read someplace you shouldn't defrag these things

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Comments (10)

mikie_gw
15 years ago
I have defraged flash drives occasionally. One hidden/plugged in drive in my laptop is an express card drive bought on sale for low bucks which turned out in fact really to be nothing more than just a usb flash drive in the express card form - it is constantly defragged by my automatic Perfect Disk program.
minnie_tx
Original Author
15 years ago
I was wrong I have a San)disk that I use not a ScanDisk
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Hi owbist, Thrdfrt what each poster above has noted is good advice but as you have seen they all use different methods. Unlike any other home user item a computer offers so many ways to accomplish a task. None need be wrong, it is simply a personal preference. OK, so from what you are saying is that, you can defrag in safe mode if you want or you can just use the other programs without using safe mode if you wish. That makes total sense to me. So it is as simple as that. That's good to know and now I can make my decision as to what I want to do without fear of messing up. Thanks for the great explanation. BTW, I hope that you all know that I wasn't thinking in the terms of right or wrong here, it was all about me being able to understand it. Sometimes I see things more complicated than what it actually is and my focus is, there is only one way to fix this problem. In this case, I don't need to stay on that one way track, I understand now that I can choose a different route that still gets me to the same place. Thank you, I appreciate everyones help in this matter. You all are great. "Smiles" thirdfrt!!!
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minnie_tx
Original Author
15 years ago
I tried o defrag it but it said not enough room to do it and remove files. There are no files showing on the disk weird
mikie_gw
15 years ago
Might go to folder options in control panel, choose the view tab.. unhide 3 or 4 things there. Varied by computer... mine= the picture below.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://prntscr.com/27gxu
owbist
15 years ago
If Mikie's method above does not give you the fix you could always reformat the thumb drive. To do so
click start
click My computer
right click on the thumb drive
click Format in the pop up window
select Fat32 or NTFS

MAKE SURE you have selected the right drive because everything gets erased!!!
minnie_tx
Original Author
15 years ago
Wow That was fast thanks !!

? someone said to hit eject when removing drives do I hve to? or just pull it out? TIA
owbist
15 years ago
DO NOT pull it out Minnie.

If you have XP there is a small icon near the clock with a left facing arrow on it. Hover over and the info will appear. Click this then click the pop up to remove, wait till it says it is good to remove

Windows 7. Right click on Start
right click on the thumb drive on the left side of your screen
in the pop up click to eject.
minnie_tx
Original Author
15 years ago
I have xp If I right click on the drive numbe there is place to hit eject which I do but no notice about ok It will jump down to a lower drive and my control panel shows up so then I take it out figuring that is the thing to do
DA_Mccoy
15 years ago
Minnie,

Obviously if you are using a thumb drive the data on it is important to you. To not remove the drive "safely" places this data in harms way. The most common drive failures caused by unsafe removal are loss of data, data converted to read only, and loss of space on drive.

DA
minnie_tx
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone for your help right now I'm using the thumb drive for transferring into from one to the other .
Happy 4th !!!

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Can I defrag a scan disk?

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Can I defrag a scan disk?

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