Whats the best Defragmentation Software

[saugatak]

I have O&O. Tried PerfectDisk. They're both good, but I prefer O&O.

O&O allows you to set and forget. Based on your usage, it'll track most often used files and move 'em around. If you leave computer on all the time, O&O will just stay in background and defrag for you.

Also, O&O does boot time defrag. Couldn't find that option in PerfectDisk.

If you do occasional manual defrag, and don't need to defrag boot files, maybe PerfectDisk is better for you.

Edited November 27, 2005 by saugatak

[Jeremy]

Is there another name people use to refer to boot files?

[keytotime]

Perfect disk

[Zxian]

I have O&O. Tried PerfectDisk. They're both good, but I prefer O&O.

O&O allows you to set and forget. Based on your usage, it'll track most often used files and move 'em around. If you leave computer on all the time, O&O will just stay in background and defrag for you.

Also, O&O does boot time defrag. Couldn't find that option in PerfectDisk.

If you do occasional manual defrag, and don't need to defrag boot files, maybe PerfectDisk is better for you.

The Set&Forget feature is almost matched by the PerfectDisk scheduler. I haven't tried O&O in a while, but for me with Diskeeper's Set&Forget, there isn't really much difference in terms of fragmentation in that and the weekly scheduled defrag with PerfectDisk at 3AM on Monday morning.

As for boot time defrag, look at "Offline Defrag" in PerfectDisk. For the most part, you should only have to do this once per year or so. Anything more is excessive.

The reason why I prefer PerfectDisk is that it organizes the files based on Usage. Diskeeper doesn't seem to do this (I've never noticed it doing this), and O&O's organization methods seem overly complicated and take a long time to perform.

[Crash&Burn]

Yes it would seem that PerfectDisk picked up the ball when Symantec's SpeedDisk dropped it.

[Jeremy]

Just switched to DK10.

[Zxian]

We've got a convert among us!!! *points at Jeremy*

[Jeremy]

*Switches back to PerfectDisk*

Sorry, but 65% CPU usage (which slows everything down) just so stuff can be defragged on the fly, isn't my cup of tea. The idea aroused me for a moment, but experiencing it turned me off.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Jeremy

[liquidguru]

*Switches back to PerfectDisk*

thanks...i had been reading the whole thread with interest and had switched to perfectdisk a while back, after slight disapointment with diskeeper 9 (it severely impacted on system performance when running, which was doubly annoying when i had set it to 'set and forget' and then promptly forgot i had set it, so when watching a movie it would start defragging, then the movie would stop playing correctly)

i wondered about switching back when diskeeper 10 came out, but now i'll stick with perfectdisk, which seems to be running great on my system...i love it freeing up contiguous free space on my drives.....

[Zxian]

*Switches back to PerfectDisk*

Sorry, but 65% CPU usage (which slows everything down) just so stuff can be defragged on the fly, isn't my cup of tea. The idea aroused me for a moment, but experiencing it turned me off.

thanks...i had been reading the whole thread with interest and had switched to perfectdisk a while back, after slight disapointment with diskeeper 9 (it severely impacted on system performance when running, which was doubly annoying when i had set it to 'set and forget' and then promptly forgot i had set it, so when watching a movie it would start defragging, then the movie would stop playing correctly)

i wondered about switching back when diskeeper 10 came out, but now i'll stick with perfectdisk, which seems to be running great on my system...i love it freeing up contiguous free space on my drives.....

Hmm... something's not right here. I've never noticed Diskeeper running on my desktop. I use my desktop as my server, so it's got files coming and going to/from it all the time. Diskeeper has the Smart I/O feature, which is meant to give your actions priority over the defrag engine. I've never had any problems with the defragger running in the background while I'm doing things. Sure it's a little bit slower, but not to the point where movies stutter or the system slows to a crawl.

Also, it's not that files are defragged on the fly. It's that the DK system is constantly monitoring (or at least periodically) your hard drives for fragmentation. When fragmentation levels get to the point where they would hurt performance, it kicks in and defrags your drive.

Oh... and Diskeeper 9 and 10 have the option to consolidate free space as well...

For the record, I use Diskeeper on my desktop, and PerfectDisk on my laptop (Have been for the past 3 months now). Both do what I want them to, so I've got every right to point out the pros and cons of each....

[liquidguru]

i'm not for or against either prog, just going by what i see on my system...very interesting to hear your views, thank you Zxian...maybe i'll have to give diskeeper a go after all....from all the answers in this thread, it really seems there is very little to choose from apart from personal preference...same with most software, i suppose...i mean, people still use IE....go figure...

[Zxian]

True that personal preference plays a role in the choice here. Both are excellent programs.

I think the problem with Jeremy's situation is that he only left DK on his system for a few hours. I remember when testing out O&O vs PerfectDisk ages ago, O&O would completely reorganize the order of the files on my computer. Subsequent defrags with O&O were indeed faster, but the first defrag when going back to PerfectDisk was horribly slow. It could be that DK and PerfectDisk organize files differently on the surface of the disk so that the next defrag passes are quicker for each program.

[CPower]

I got flamed for even posting my opinion on that "other" tech forum, you know the big one.

Anyway, I think that Diskeeper 10 really takes the cake now.

They improved the interface, they added some new technology (I-FAAST, dumb name, but it's certainly sped my computer up so far using it) so it's got pretty much everything PerfectDisk does, which in my opinion, is the other really good defragger.

[jacob]

Diskeeper 8 Pro. Love that defrag on startup

Apparently there is such a thing as defragging too much.

Should only be done when your computer is fragmented bad.

Read on majorgeeks (a thread) that too much defragging) will reduce your HD's life.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, but if you don't defrag often enough, the drive heads have to go to and from more than they would if you had defragmented often. If you only use the PC to chat, download and listen to music, defrag once a month. If you download games, play games, edit video, compress/decompress archives, etc, defrag once a week. I defrag once a week.