the machine says i need at 15% of space in order to run effectively. i only have 5% left, but is it really ok to defrag a HD with less than 15%?

I would suggest that you add another drive to your system and offload some of the stuff off your C: drive. Then if you still feel compelled to defrag, it shouldn't be a problem.
In my opinion, all desktop users should have 'at least' two hard drives.

Aha!
Ok so now we know whos been buying up all
the available software and leaving the stores shelfs empty. LOL LOL

I agree with aegis...a second drive is in order....and soon.

In the meantime some house cleaning would be in order before the hd becomes totaly maxed.

My answer to your question is no. 15% or better.

Info 1 2 and 3 does not help.

You should check how much hd space is set aside for internet files:-

tools/internet options/general/settings

Quite possible it is excessive and could be reduced (any recommendations folks?).

All these files are best deleted before defragging. Also empty recycle bin.

Disc housekeeping (hk) is all too often forgotten these days. It is worth checking every so often whether the disc requires defragging.

You should use add/delete programms to see if there is anything that can be removed.

Take a note of space available before hk, then afterwards to see what has been gained.
Advise how you get on.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

is it really ok to defrag a HD with less than 15%?

Yes it is OK. It just won't be able to do as good of a job.

Might start with the disk clean up. See properties of C: drive. See help and support pages.

"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

It will be very slow and the hd may not be as defragmented as with 15% recommended.

Try to empty Temp folder, Temporary Internet Files folder, consider burning data into dvds instead of buying new hard drives.

100M of TIF space is plenty and some folk have a good bit less than that. It all depends how often you go back to webpages.

If it is too small then you will have to wait until webpages build (not long with broadband and so forth). If it is too large then it will take longer to find webpages already on the machine than it would be going straight to them online.

some other bloke...

The 15% free space requirement was only for the antiquated manual/scheduled defragmenters. Apart from wasting time and using too many system resources to defrag, these older defraggers also demanded a lot of disk space in order to work properly. The XP defragger is one such example.

In contrast, the latest automatic defraggers use barely any resources and defrag in the background in real-time. Depending on the fragmented file size and actual disk space, auto defraggers can function properly even with less than 4 to 5% free disk space. Very effective in tackling fragmentation, and highly efficient at the same time. Google 'fully automatic defragmenter' for more info to get downloadable trial versions.

Defragmenting a drive is quite a nice thing to do. Having said that is has limited effect and certainly has no bearing on the free space available afterwards.

If you need more HD then you have to go and get it (or clear out the applications and data that you don't need).

some other bloke...

"The 15% free space requirement was only for the antiquated manual/scheduled"

Yet the 15% is still on the MS XP technet site.

"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

some of the third party defragmenters defrag with even 5% free space, you could google and check out trial versions.

I am with jefro. The reason is that defrag uses this space as a sorting area for file fragments. If your HD has less than fifteen percent free space, defrag will only partially defragments it.

i_Xp/VistaUser