I’m sorry, I know this is not related to Avast, but since you folks are really nice and helpfull on this board, I hope you will help me.
I’m thinking of getting some Defragmentation software. Do you think I need it? I was using the built-in Windows XP Defrag for now, but I read on the web about better Defragment tools. I’m looking for an effective one, but also one which will not eat on my system resources (I have an older PC: P4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, Windows XP). I’ve heard that Diskeeper and O&O Defrag are thr good ones… I will appreciate any suggestion or information! Thank you!
And what about Diskeeper and O&O Defrag? I’m thinking about O&O Defrag, it seems good. When it runs in the background, does it eat a lot of system resources?
No it doesn’t. It’s a fantastic defrag tool, actually they both are. Another one is PerfectDisk which is my personal favourite. These 3 are generally regarded to be the best defrag tools out there. That is out of the paid ones. The free defraggers out there are usually decent enough, but if you want features such as strong boot-time defrag, mft defragging, scheduling, layout.ini boot optimization, pagefile defragging, directory placement etc. etc. you need to go with one of the paid ones. Select the one which fits your needs best. There is no best one for everyone, just as there is no best looking girl or best looking car or best av or best fw etc. . It depends on the persons needs/views …
free defrag tools:
PageDefrag *
Contig
Auslogics Disk Defrag *
Defraggler *
IOBit SmartDefrag *
DiskTune
DefragMentor Lite CL
fragdown
HDiskDefrag
JkDefrag **
MyDefrag *** (write your own scripts and do whataver you want with the defrag engine, it also defrags the mft and has wicked boot optimization based on layout.ini)
Multiple Applicator
Partition Logic
Power Defragmenter GUI *
Quicksys DiskDefrag
Rapid File Defragmentor Lite
SpeeDefrag
SpeedItUp FREE
Ultimate Defrag 1.72 *
UltraDefrag * (has a boot-time defrag but was pretty buggy with the first version though i hear it’s quite stable now)
UnityPro Disk Idle Optimiser
WinContig
Windows PowerTools
Maybe i left some out but that should be enough for you to play with. ;D The ones that i put an * next to are my personal favourites.
Paid ones:
Too many to list i’ll just list the good ones !
Puran Defrag *
PerfectDisk *** (Defrags metadata files aswell which is something that i haven’t seen with others)
UltimateDefrag *
Diskeeper *
O&O Defrag **
Paragon Total Defrag * (Only defrag i know that actually defrags the ENTIRE partition and everything on it but you have to run it off the cd and it takes years to finish)
Vopt *
I use defraggler-after install you can copy the exe to another folder and then uninstall defraggler and run the exe from a usb drive or other removeable media.
I just love portable software!
I’ll go with smart defrag.Its free and its light weight.Iobit also made a comparison between their product and other popular disk defrag software. http://www.iobit.com/Images/isdcompare.gif
Defragler can defrag Multi-volumes and can be set to defrag with its scheduling function.
It has individual file defrag and Quick defrag that can be customized by number of fragments and file size plus move large files to end of volume to keep from having to defrag large files often. http://www.defraggler.com/download
Optimize Disk Performance
Smart Defrag doesn’t just use simple defragmentation. It also streamlines your file system, places the frequently used files and directories into the fastest area of the disk, enabling your computer to run at top speed with the most stability.
Yes, I’ve been using it for a long time. I don’t really know if I need an other defragmentation tool. Is Defragler easy to use? What about O&O Defrag, is it easy to use? Is O&O Defrag (commercial software) that much better than Defragler (free software)? Thank you all!
No offense but that comparison is BS. They don’t say what methods they used for testing and how they came to those results. Just some numbers that naturally show how good their OWN software is. Marketing BS. What when how why where ? Different file placement strategies have different advantages(eg. some are more appropriate for faster access, some for faster copying and so on) Understand what i am saying ?
The questions you should be asking when looking at defrag software:
Can it do MFT defragging ?
Can it do directory placement ?
Can it do a boot-time defrag ? (very important feature which none of the free defraggers have except for UltraDefrag and PageDefrag but it’s very basic)
Can it read the layout.ini file for placement of boot files in term making the boot faster ?
Does it have a scheduler ?
Does it offer a good file AND directory placement ? (and possibly different strategies for this)
Does it have free space consolidation ?
Can it defrag when space is very low ?
etc.
etc.
You see what is required depends from user to user like i said in my first post so you cannot go around claiming this one is the best and that one sucks guys. What works for you may not work for someone else. Best is to review the features each one has and then decide for yourself on which one is the most appropriate for you.
I can tell you that for me personally NONE of the free ones is good enough. Not even MyDefrag which has BY FAR the most features from all the free ones. Like i said it is scriptable and you can control the file and directory placement anyway you like but it is for advanced users obviously. Can even defrag the MFT and has support for layout.ini. The only thing it’s missing is continuous background defragging but for me that is a totally unnecessary feature and i never liked the idea of it. It increases the wear and tear on the hdd with constantly defragging the shit out of it. Since there is alot of copying on my hdd all the time i wouldn’t want that enabled but this is just my opinion. A weekly defrag is enough for me personally.
