Windows 7 forum: Poll: How often do you defrag your hard drive?

I use a third party app to determine percent fragmentation. I have it set to 15%. At that point it goes into an auto defrag.

It depends on what you do! If you download and try out different utility programs alot, which I do often, because I'm not always happy with the first utility function I come across. Doing this leaves a lot of garbage on your system hard drive because not all program modules delete completely and the bits and pieces let behind take up space. I run my cleanup utility then run a module called smart-defrag. About every 2 weeks works for me and I'm not stuck to my computer screen for Loooong periods of time watching the defrag process. I don't like automatic processes either. In fact I don't like Windows 7 automatic update feature at all, but that's another story!

Pretty much every day.
But I'm constantly dealing with large video files and photo scans, so it's necessary.
I use IOBit Smart Defrag. Works great.

it does the job as needed in the background - means for my 3 HDDs it's a few minutes defragmenting every day.

I don't like *scheduled* defrags coz it usually takes too long to finish.

I will give a partial answer but I defer to someone else who is much more knowledgeable than I about operating systems.
Fragmentation occurs on all disks all the time regardless of OS. The OS, whatever it may be, says to some DRIVER 'I want to write something to the HD you control'. The driver says 'ok, give it to me and I'll decide how to put it on disk. The disk is already formatted and I have a copy of the map and I'll keep track of where everything is so when you ask me next time I'll know where to get it for you. Also, I may write your file in several smaller places on the disk that are unused. Don't worry, I'm very fast at finding all those pieces of your file later but I'd really be much faster if the file were contiguous' (this all done at 7200 rpm).
So, fragmentation is not peculiar to some OS, it's how a driver decides to use the disk it controls and possibly some could have better methods of reusing space. As for all those other OSs I would assume they all have a utility to defrag and clean up hard drives.

I just use a paid automatic defragger that runs in the background and prevents fragmentation (most of it anyway) on all 4 drives, and silently defrags whenever the need arises. Works brilliantly and I've never have had to bother with defragmentation.

I found that weekly defragging has really improved the performance of my laptop greatly.I use PerfectDisk as my defragger, and it has worked extremely well for me. Personally I love the features, it's ease of use and just overall quality. When the new version comes out, you can count me in, it's a fantastic product.

it was biggest pain in * when I was win user.
Now modern fs and no defrag hurah

I ignore Windows Defrag, and use two freeware products for this; Auslogic and Ultimate Defrag. Windows Defrag doesn't allow me to control or know what it does, it just does something that consumes a lot of time and resources.

Ultimate Defrag allows me to re-set the hard disc architecture and file distribution to my liking, and can be set to do a boot defrag on start up to clean out the accumulated junk in the boot cache and registry; and pack it efficiently. This will speed start up more than the vast majority of packaged start up fixers, without requiring the removal or delay of programs you want in start up to achieve an effect. It is "relatively" safe, but it can really screw things up if you pick the wrong options. Until you get to know Ultimate Defrag, set a good restore point and be ready to use it. The "defragmented files only" (or "lite") defrag setting is pretty good, too; and useful for initiating the boot defrag, which is quite fast. It's not the boot defrag that causes crashes, at least not in my experience. Ultimate Defrag also allows for manual adjustment of system resource allocation, should it get too invasive in wisely restrained use of other tasks.

Auslogic is the defrag most people will ever need. The lite option is as fast as it gets for what it does, and it allows you to set it to delete unnecessary files first before defragging. It doesn't tell what files it picks, but I've never missed them. By the time it is queued up, the files are probably gone anyway. If you pick defrag with optimization, it really packs it down without confusing or delaying explorer; and blows Windows defrag out of the water in speed and effect for the long, thorough one. It just doesn't let you decide where the data resides on the disk, but it will preserve the architecture already established. It also has a defrag on the go option that automatically puts some things back in the tool box instead of leaving them on the workbench. I haven't a need to use this, and can't claim as to it's value.

I do a lite defrag (after an additional manual scan and thorough cleaning) a few times a week, mostly to kill hidden worms in unlabeled sectors; and to frustrate big brother (however impotent and futile). It doesn't cause the wear and tear on the hard drive that a good wipe or a big defrag does when over used. I do a thorough defrag about once a month or so for speed and efficiency, depending on how my computer is acting; and deciding if repacking or resetting is in order. I haven't done a wipe, or bombed free space in years.

Why schedule defragmentation with these options? The lite ones usually take a lot less than 5 minutes (depending mostly on diligence and computer use), and the big ones can be started before going to bed or to town.

One additional disclaimer: the first defrag is normally longer than it will end up being in future ones, until the program gets used to your system and you get used to the program. It gets faster after that, usually a lot faster.

My drive went kaput and I reset it from scratch, so starting 6 weeks ago it was as good as new, that's what I meant.

That's why I posted the clarification. I only mentioned the kaput because that's when my drive (as it currently is) first "started".

Basically this is what I see happening, your average person who uses his computer during the day and sleeps at night (and who doesn't know anything about defragging) will never have his computer defrag. Even if he's on a nice shiny new Windows 7 system that's supposed to have everything automated. This is because they set it by default to defrag at 1 am. And even IF for some reason the guy happens to leave his computer on one night (like I did due to the download) it probably won't defrag because he has 1 in 7 chances of leaving it on on the night that Windows has scheduled it. Most likely, he'll leave it on when it's not scheduled.

Thankfully I was able to dig around, and find out how to reset the schedule to a more reasonable time, like 10 pm on a Friday. When I know my computer will actually be turned on and able to do it's thing. But the greater majority of people DON'T know how defrag works. That's why they first thought, "Hey! Let's automate the process." But they wound up setting it at a ridiculous default time!

Ask this question. LOL
I am running Windows 7 Home Premium.
It is automatically scheduled to check the hard drives once a week and defrag as needed.
Sometimes I leave the computer on, sometimes it is turned off. Quite honestly, I check the fragmentation probably every couple of months and not really give it much thought.

I don't understand, isn't "C:" the default internal hard drive? When it asks me to defrag I select C, and I understand it to mean it's going to defrag all of C. My internal is about 500 GB. He also offers to defrag my other drives (externals connected via USBs). How might I defrag only certain "partitions" of my main drive?

What is the difference between partitions for data and applications, and 'folders' for data and applications?

How does partitioning for those make it any easier for the OS?

If a 500 GB "C" partition is going to " fill up quickly", how will reducing it to 80GB prevent that?

Don't forget, the user still has 500GB in total, regardless of how many partitions there are on the drive.

Mark

Actually, I would suggest that if you are unsure about defragmentation then leave on automatic and forget about it. There is no need to use any third party products, Microsoft's built-in one works fine. It does not cause errors as I have read somewhere. Partitioning you disk is up to you. There are pluses and minuses. I do not partition disks as I find it a royal pain. My desktop has one 600 gigabyte partition, my wife's notebook has one 500 gigabyte partition, and my server has two (?) disks. C drive is a 300 gigabyte partitioned drive, and D is a 2.9 terra byte RAID 5 array. P.S. The correct terms are extended drive, and logical disk, not virtual sub-disk. P.P.S. I have been running this way since the days of NT 4.0 with no problems.