Frequently Asked Questions

Chances are, others have the same questions that you do. Therefore, we have taken the common questions for Diskeeper, Sitekeeper and Undelete and provided the answers (and the questions) below in our Frequently Asked Questions section. Simply select the product below that you have questions about. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can submit a tech support question here.

Diskeeper | Sitekeeper | Undelete

Question
Diskeeper does not consolidate all of the files in one place on the partition.
Answer
There are files on the system that may be locked, or they may be excluded from defragmenting. LOCKED: There are times when certain files are locked in such a way that Diskeeper is denied access to them. Usually these are system files, but it can happen with other files such as Outlook .PST files. If this should happen, the files will most likely be defragmented during a later Diskeeper pass. EXCLUDED: Diskeeper has built-in lists of files that it will not move under any circumstances. The most common reason for a file existing on Diskeeper's internal exclusion list is safety: the file cannot or should not be moved in order to maintain the integrity of your system. For example, the file "memory.dmp" is on Diskeeper's internal, unchangeable exclusion list. This file is on the exclusion list because the disk locations where this file is stored are loaded by the kernel when the system boots and stored in memory. These disk locations are then used to write the dump file should it need writing. If Diskeeper were to move this file, then the system bug-checked, the dump would be written over other files or in space considered "free space"...resulting in a very corrupted disk. The same situation applies to "hiberfil.sys". When your system goes into hibernation mode, the pre-fetched disk locations are overwritten with the hibernation data. If Diskeeper moved "hiberfil.sys" out and moved other files into those disk locations, then disk corruption would occur. The files "boot.ini", "NTdetect.com", "NTLDR", and "NTOSKRNL.EXE" are not moved or defragmented to ensure that your system remains bootable (moving these files to higher locations on a disk can render a system unbootable). There is information in the Microsoft Knowledge Base about why the location of these files is critical. These are the files excluded by the various pieces of Diskeeper: NTFS boot-time engine BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE FAT boot-time engine BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE, \RECYCLER, \RECYCLER\, \RECYCLED, \RECYCLED\ Fat/NTFS online engines BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE, hiberfil.sys, memory.dmp, pad.esi

Question

Diskeeper does not consolidate all of the files in one place on the partition.

Answer

There are files on the system that may be locked, or they may be excluded from defragmenting.

LOCKED:
There are times when certain files are locked in such a way that Diskeeper is denied access to them. Usually these are system files, but it can happen with other files such as Outlook .PST files. If this should happen, the files will most likely be defragmented during a later Diskeeper pass.

EXCLUDED:
Diskeeper has built-in lists of files that it will not move under any circumstances.

The most common reason for a file existing on Diskeeper's internal exclusion list is safety: the file cannot or should not be moved in order to maintain the integrity of your system.

For example, the file "memory.dmp" is on Diskeeper's internal, unchangeable exclusion list. This file is on the exclusion list because the disk locations where this file is stored are loaded by the kernel when the system boots and stored in memory. These disk locations are then used to write the dump file should it need writing.

If Diskeeper were to move this file, then the system bug-checked, the dump would be written over other files or in space considered "free space"...resulting in a very corrupted disk.

The same situation applies to "hiberfil.sys". When your system goes into hibernation mode, the pre-fetched disk locations are overwritten with the hibernation data. If Diskeeper moved "hiberfil.sys" out and moved other files into those disk locations, then disk corruption would occur.

The files "boot.ini", "NTdetect.com", "NTLDR", and "NTOSKRNL.EXE" are not moved or defragmented to ensure that your system remains bootable (moving these files to higher locations on a disk can render a system unbootable). There is information in the Microsoft Knowledge Base about why the location of these files is critical.

These are the files excluded by the various pieces of Diskeeper:

NTFS boot-time engine
BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE

FAT boot-time engine
BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE, \RECYCLER, \RECYCLER\*, \RECYCLED, \RECYCLED\*

Fat/NTFS online engines
BOOTSECT.DOS, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, safeboot.rsv, boot.ini, NTdetect.com, NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE, hiberfil.sys, memory.dmp, pad.esi

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