What is a Defrag?

New* Fast Pc Secrets – Eliminate Slow Computer Problems 13 Vids. Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video: Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes Related Content:External Hard DriveWhat is a Defrag?Matthew Hull of Seagate on Perpendicular Data StorageMeeting in MeatspaceNew Seagate Hard Drives Ruined My Week Sat, 9 Feb 2008 10:36:20 EST Iraq is inching toward attracting the billions of dollars needed to

I second the Diskeeper recommendation. I too use it on my custom built gaming rig, and it does a great job with its autodefragmentation mode. The nice thing about this feature is that I dont need to bother with manually setting defrag schedules; instead I enable autodefrag for both my drives. Diskeeper automatically defragments them when it detects that fragmentation is becoming a problem. And, it does so without hogging system resources- other apps are always given preference for system cycles. This I confirmed by monitoring its activity patterns for the first few days after I installed it because I wanted to ensure that it would run without bogging down my PC. Slick piece of software.

I second the Diskeeper recommendation. I too use it on my custom built gaming rig, and it does a great job with its autodefragmentation mode. The nice thing about this feature is that I dont need to bother with manually setting defrag schedules; instead I enable autodefrag for both my drives. Diskeeper automatically defragments them when it detects that fragmentation is becoming a problem. And, it does so without hogging system resources- other apps are always given preference for system cycles. This I confirmed by monitoring its activity patterns for the first few days after I installed it because I wanted to ensure that it would run without bogging down my PC. Slick piece of software.

Ashampoo Magical Defrag is very, very good & it is free!

Tony

Ashampoo Magical Defrag is very, very good & it is free!

Tony

I have used Perfect Disk and am very satisfied with it

You are absolutely right. I feel that the optimum speed of the HDD is limited by the disarray caused due to drive fragmentation when we download so many files ( and boy! there is no dearth for the stuff you can download from the net these days!). It can actually be a huge dampner to the high speed coputing experience and over a sustained period can also lead to headaches like freezes. I discovered this disease on my drive when my virus scan was taking much longer than usual.

Auslogics Disk Defrag works good too. And has a free version

I use PerfectDisk. FYI – dumbed-down versions of Diskeeper were in previous Windows versions, but NOT Vista. Also, Diskeeper does not optimize a drive – it defrags files, but does not consolidate free space, nor does it report on free space consolidation. It also does not defragment all system files. So it ends up doing extra work, in my experience. I don’t work for them, just like the product.

Chris, you haven’t heard of the Great Defrag Shootout yet. I have reviewed over a dozen defrag utilities, both freeware and commercial.

Diskeeper didn’t get a Thumbs Up because it is over-priced and over-hyped, and the engineering is not good, especially once the drive gets over 80% full.

I can recommend PerfectDisk 8 and JkDefrag, and use both.

I use IOBit SmartDefrag which is automatic (continually defrags as you work) or can be scheduled to defrag. It’s free and you can get a companion program called Advanced Windows Care for free that provides most of the utilities you’ll ever need (spyware checker, system optimizer, registry checker, start up checker, temp file remover, etc. In less than a minute it will do all this and more. One caveat-don’t over clean your registry and back it up before you do.

PerfectDisk works well. Defragments free space.

PerfectDisk works well. Defragments free space.

Jon Adams wrote:
“Also, Diskeeper does not optimize a drive – it defrags files, but does not consolidate free space, nor does it report on free space consolidation.”

I think you are wrong. See the feature list here:

http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/professional/features.asp

“Free-space consolidation so new files are created contiguously (in the shortest possible time) and thereafter can be read in a single operation.”

Anyway, I think the benefits of the disk optimization done by perfectdisk are simply overhyped. I have tried out PD8, O&O 10 and DK2007 (trial versions of the first two, although I doubt that matters). I never felt any performance increase from the ‘disk optimization’ done by Perfectdisk, so I doubt if it gives as much benefit as advertised. I also question the work that the drive has to do if the files are modified after the initial ‘optimization’ run. Does PD move things all over the drive again? Every time?

O&O would be my second choice, but it defragged a bit slower than DK. Diskeeper’s excellent automatic mode was what sealed the deal for me. I want my files defragged with the minimum of fuss and save for the occasional boot-time defrag, i cannot be bothered to fiddle around with defrag programs.

Jon Adams wrote:
“Also, Diskeeper does not optimize a drive – it defrags files, but does not consolidate free space, nor does it report on free space consolidation.”

I think you are wrong. See the feature list here:

http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/professional/features.asp

“Free-space consolidation so new files are created contiguously (in the shortest possible time) and thereafter can be read in a single operation.”

Anyway, I think the benefits of the disk optimization done by perfectdisk are simply overhyped. I have tried out PD8, O&O 10 and DK2007 (trial versions of the first two, although I doubt that matters). I never felt any performance increase from the ‘disk optimization’ done by Perfectdisk, so I doubt if it gives as much benefit as advertised. I also question the work that the drive has to do if the files are modified after the initial ‘optimization’ run. Does PD move things all over the drive again? Every time?

O&O would be my second choice, but it defragged a bit slower than DK. Diskeeper’s excellent automatic mode was what sealed the deal for me. I want my files defragged with the minimum of fuss and save for the occasional boot-time defrag, i cannot be bothered to fiddle around with defrag programs.

Auslogics Disk Defrag has worked PERFECTLY for me, and it’s very fast, too (unlike Windows Defrag). Plus, you can get it for free XD

the computers at my school run so slowly for their specs (p4 2.8ghz 1gb ram) cus their hdds are so heavily fragmented. And then we cant defrag them with our limited useraccounts…. they seem to get slower and slower by the day