PC utilities forum: Best Free Disk Defragmenter

If free is paramount then use what the OS provides. There are a few that wanted absolute control over defragmenting such as optimizing big or small files at front or rear of drive or by placing more accessed filess at rear or front of the drive. But then again how could a defragmenter quess what would be best for you. For Windows, http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_defragmenter_utility.htm writes:
"For the majority of users, the Disk Defragmenter Utility included with XP is sufficient to keep the hard drives in relatively good condition, but it's actually what is known as a Lite or slightly crippled version of Diskeeper, a product made by Executive Software."

Bob

I use a free version of Diskeeper Lite and have for about one year. I am very satisfied with the free version though most I see purchase the full version. It cut my defrag time by about 80 percent over the windows defrag and if done regularly will run in less than 3 minutes on a 200 gig hd.

I have an MP3 player (Sansa e280)... 8GB flash... is it wise/possible to defrag flash storage? I deleted lots of files yesterday... I'd like to try it...
thanks.

Actually, defragging has more to do than just with head movement (i.e. hard drives). With hard drives it also has to do with file placement, file order, and, of course, the actual reintegration of each individual file. So defragging any "fragmented" medium, including a flash drive, would increase its performance based on how a given operating system looks for requested files.

Be sure whatever you do, or whatever the medium to be defragmented, you run the equivalent of chkdsk /f function before you defrag. This will clear up any file allocation problems before you try the other.

A good run of thumb, to make sure you defrag as many system files as possible is to run defrag for the first time in safe mode; make sure your networking is off (to protect your system from outside sources) and that your anti virus is not running. This will ensure the maximum number of critical files is defragmented along with your everyday data files.

Concerning defragging your flash drivethere is a performance improvement (scientifically) due to the process, regardless of having heads or not. But, due to the current construction of a flash drive, when you write to the drive, it tends to wear out a flash drive much more quickly than not. Reading a flash drive doesnt hurt it, but current tech is such (though it improves daily) that you want to write as little as possible. There are "good" flash drives and "bad" flash drive conditioned on how they utilize their own FAT file, or rather how they write to it.

Having said this, it might be smart to create what you want to place on your flash drive in a directory of your hard drive first; organize it the way you wantdefrag it there. Then write it to your flash drive. After that, if you keep your defrag down to once a month (for your flash drive), you should be fine.

Here is a good link to a relevant article: http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2008/01/flash-drive-defrag-warning.html.

Wikipedia also has a good list of defragmentation software/freeware (though not inclusive):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defragmentation_software

So far so good, it optimizes in addition to defragments. Applications are usually more responsive after optimization. Boot time is also shorter.

I downloaded the AusLogics Defrag program just to give it a try. I've used it ever since.

It's certainly is far faster than anything else I've ever used. And free. Took care of 200 gigs in about 10 minutes (after not defragging for about a month).

It's here:

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

iobit has just launched a free beta of their defrag utility. i have been using it for a couple of weeks and works fine. it will run in background as a "smart" utility unless you turn it off otherwise seeme just as effective as diskeepeer

DirMS-S which is available here: http://www.dirms.com/home/docs/dirms1.asp
It defrags your drives even if you have very little space left. It has a simple GUI with only three buttons; Defragment(does what it says on the tin), compact (defrags and moves files to one "end" of the drive leaving most of the free space at the other) and stop. It will also defrag files windows defrag considers too big. FYI: I found auslogics defrag didn't work as well as windows defrag.

I just purchased the Pro 2007 version. I simply love the proactive background defrag over the weekly or monthly scheduled tasks coz my HDD gets fragged real real fast. Noticed that none of the simultaneous operations which run seem to get affected. In my opinion, a great purchase.

Proactive defragmentation is where the defragger runs in the background monitoring the fragmentation levels and performs 'small' defragmentation cycles as deemed necessary to prevent fragmentation from increasing. While it does indeed keep fragmentation levels down, some have argued it causes more harm than good, defragmenting after and ever-so-slight change, potentially slowing down the computer and adding wear and tear to the hard drive.

Personally, I recommend launching your defragmentation utility once a week to once a month, depending on your usage, and choosing the Analyze option. Like with medication, you don't want too much or too little, so only defragment if it is recommended by the defragger.

Hope this helps,
John

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4545

That's the one I've been using, it's not too bad, it is old and meant for Windows 2000 but I've been running it problem free in XP for a while. However, I have heard many good things about Diskeeper and if the defragger in XP is simply a lite version of it, I may actually uninstall O&O and try XP. To be honest, I've never tried the XP one, I've just figured that, given Micro$oft's track record with defraggers, I would have to find a free one to replace the built in one. Thanks for the tip!

Matt Segstro

I've been using it for the last few years and it seems fine to me, or an I missing something? We have numerous construction clients and they all use it for their business computers and some of them are running some pretty hefty software including sql server!

Steve

Message was edited by: admin to remove sig

John, you are right about the windows defragger. I just googled and it appears that both the XP as well as Vista defraggers are highly watered down versions licensed from diskeeper.

Again, agree with you that MS has done **absolutely nothing** for all these years, while diskeeper has forged ahead with its own defragmentation solutions. The lack of options, and the lack of performance of the windows defragger is quite astonishing, considering it's part of the most widely used operating system on the planet. Even more ironic when you compare that to the features and improvements diskeeper has incorporated into *their* successive releases over the years. Lol I have no hope of MS doing anything more on that front, so forget about any sudden improvement updates to the windows defragger. That said,I am extremely satisfied with the performance of my Diskeeper installation, so I am in an okay situation as far as defragging is concerned.

First, I would avoid that download site at all costs...they are known for downloads packaged with malware, spamming, using browser exploits, and more. I'd stick to download.com, softpedia.com, and snapfiles.com, all of which are trustworthy.

As to Diskeeper itself, the Lite version is free and is actually what the Windows defragmenter is based on. The full version (7.0 is an old edition) comes in demo form (they list it as freeware but it's not) and offers all of the 'advanced features,' including less strain on system resources, faster completion, real-time fragmentation monitoring, automatic defragmentation, customer support, etc. Both are good, but the paid version is not necessary.

Hope this helps,
John

I always neglect to mention them as one of the trusted sites despite using majorgeeks.com on a regular basis and linking them them myself.

Good luck.
John