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Introduction
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A disk defragmenter is a key toolkit element for keeping your PC running optimally. Disk fragmentation occurs through normal everyday use of your PC; over time your system becomes unable to store related data on your disk in a sequential (contiguous) manner, and must "fragment" files across different physical locations on your hard drive. This increases the number of times your hard drive must spin (or "seek"), which slows down the process of reading and writing files. Defragmentation software compresses files and free space back into contiguous blocks. Defragmenting your hard drive on a regular basis is a sound housekeeping habit; a chore that most home users should do once a month. |
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Discussion
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Another popular player in the commercial defragmentation space is DiskTrix which produces Ultimate Defrag. Fortunately, they also offer a freeware version - UltimateDefrag Freeware Edition. While the free version lacks many of the features of its commercial sibling, it still offers top defragmentation performance as well as the ability to allow users to place files and folders on sections of the disk for better performance.
If you want a simple, effective but resource-frugal option, try the open source JKDefrag. One of its nicest features is the ability to set it up as a screensaver ; that way your disks will always be defragged without getting in the way of your work. Unlike Diskeeper, it's compatible with Vista and also has a 64-bit version.
For more options you may want to consider these: Another company investing heavily in product development of late is Auslogics with its Auslogics Disk Defrag offering. The last few releases have seen the team add the ability to defragment single files and folders, schedule operations and update the program's algorithm for improved performance. We're excited by the prospect of what might come next. If your needs for a glossy graphical interface are not a driving factor, Contig from SysInternals is a robust command line utility which defrags one file at a time and results in excellent performance gains. It's fast and safe, but the command line can turn off users. Fortunately, eXcessive software has built an excellent user interface for Contig, called Power Defragmenter that turns Contig into a really usable product. The latest release of Power Defragmenter offers a very nice “TripleMode” option which runs Contig in three passes; defragmenting any remaining fragmented files with each pass. |
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Related Products and Link
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Enhanced Defraggler Shell for Defraggler from eXcessive Software. Desktop Utilities with Diskeeper Lite V9 from Intel. Instructions to remove nag screen from Diskeeper Lite. |
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1.20 
Unrestricted Freeware 
Windows 2000-Vista
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I have been using Smart Defrag on Vista and to my surprise PCPitstop kept flaging 50% data defragmentation even though 0 files were fragmented. I had to run Vistas own Defragmentor to remedy the problem! I still run Smart Defrag but am wary of the fact that it may not defragment the data on the files it is reorganising.
Smart Defrag does the defragmenting part ie. put the fragments of files back together, but doesn't fully compact all the files to the beginning of the hard disk that removes all the gaps (consolidate), the built-in defragmenter in Vista does to more of an extent, so Vista's defragmenter was just compating the files to the front of the hard disk that Smart Defrag doesn't do, it's silly that Vista defragmenter does not show any details and a visual display of what it's doing, only an old progress bar that we see too much of in Windows.
I don't think Smart Defrag is good for that reason, seek times are reduced if the data is consolidated, data access is significantly faster at the beginning of the hard disk, also if the data is consolidated, it slows down the rate of re-fragmentation so consolidating is important. Hope I haven't confused you.
I think JkDefrag is the best, it's the only defragmenter that I actually notice a performance improvement after using. You can read more about it here-
http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/05/great-defrag-shootout-viii-j...
If you want to give it a try, you can download the GUI here:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/JkDefrag-GUI.shtml
You don't need to download anything else, when you launch it, it will ask you to download everything that's needed and it will integrate it into the GUI program and its folder.
One thing I say to everyone, never pay for a defragmenter utility. There are free alternatives that do the job just fine such as JkDefrag.
Diskeeper Lite v9 via Intel download quite good. Had been using v7 from MajorGeeks. Thanks.
this is out dated
The analyze function of Auslogics Defrag 2.0.0.12 beta is dysfunctional. It shows a multitude of red clusters indicating fragmented files both before and AFTER defrag even though the count should be at or near zero after the defrag operation. It also doesn't include a report on which files are fragmented. Even the Windows defrag does that. This program seems to defrag the files ok, but the analysis before defrag seems to be window dressing with no real meaning. It is beta, so maybe improvements are on the way.
OK. Time to move Auslogics Defrag to the head of the class. With v2.0, it now has options for Schedule, Exclusions, variable size Skip Large Fragments, Analyze only, Remove Temp Files Before Defrag, and Turn off computer after defrag. It will analyze and defrag selected disk(s). It also has increased speed and an overhauled interface. It still doesn't have an optimization option, but my negative experiences with that option would preclude my using it anyhow.
In my humble opinion, this is now the best of the lot.
Better is to move JkDefrag to the head.
I have to agree, although I think this was rather inevitable, Auslogics programs are in a different class to most.
I have a problem with Smart Defrag too. I used it, started Deep Optimize and it started creating a lot more fragments! Now my drive went from a 10% fragmented to 90% fragmented! I'm serious! It finished, the report blank. I re-analysed, now it shows 1271 fragmented files and directories! You should have seen it creating loads more red blocks. Theres someting wrong with it!Smart Defrag has always being buggy and auto defrag never works and slows down the computer. I use Defraggler now, it does the job right, all software from Piriform just works. Just use all the software from Piriform, its all you need to maintain your computer.
I tried the Iobit SmartDefrag and it recommended a Fast Optimize. Yeah, right! Everything seemed to work fine until I rebooted. My boot time went from one minute to over four minutes. System Restore didn't help, so I did a complete reload. After several hours or updating, reinstalling, and restoring I am back to where I was, WITHOUT SmartDefrag. This is the second time this has happened (shame on me). There won't be a third. The first time was with JKDefrag. I'm not sure the optimize option is the right thing to do, so I'll stick with Auslogics Disk Defrag which an enhancement of the XP defrag but much faster and has never caused me a problem.
I'm using JkDefrag on Vista. It's great, just one problem, Sysinternals PageDefrag utility, it's not compatible with Vista! Any free program to defrag system files in Vista?
Take Perfect Disk hi make all !
No Freeware make pagefiles!
Can someone confirm PageDefrag doesn't work in Vista. I thought it did, but I'm not able to check right now. (No offence to OP, but we just like at least a couple of people to try; individual setups are so different.)
PageDefrag work just to XP...no Vista suport
I downloaded Diskeeper Lite and installed it with no problem, but how does one upgrade to the version 9 with the Intel Desktop Utilities? I downloaded that program(after installing the above Diskeeper), and the version in the Desktop Utilities will not install.
you have to uninstall the v7 version first & then from the zip install v9 setup.
Sorry, that link downloads "DirMS-S" which has a built-in GUI, you could download "DirMS-CL" which is a command line and then use the GUI I posted, sorry I've only realised they have a GUI version of their defrag on their website, I didn't know what "-CL" or "-S" meant, I thought there was just a command line. Either way will do the job.
The first link to download the application isn't working.
You can download it from the official website- www.dirms.com/home/download/dirms_service.asp
Install it and download the GUI (see last comment for the link) if you don't like the command line.
Dirms defragmenter- http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t433512.html
GUI (if you don't like the command line)-
http://web318.server168.star-server.info/node/89
It's now free, used to be shareware so it must be good!
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2242251.php
How does this "designed shareware program" that has become free compare to the designed as freeware defrag programs?
I have been using JkDefrag with the GUI before coming upon this site but I want to know if JkDefrag is as good as I thought, see this-
http://www.disktrix.com/ultimatedefrag_about_long.htm and http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html
First one is saying- "when your hard drive is optimized with UltimateDefrag, you will achieve file access performance up to 400% that of manufacturers quoted average performance for your hard drive." Really? Is this fase..just ignore and use JkDefrag?
Second is showing Smart Defrag ahead of JkDefrag in the disk performance comparison, but JkDefrag has a lot of different defrag alogaritms so how could this be an accurate test.
I was happy with JkDefrag but when I came upon this site and clicked the links to the homepages of other products, I was easily convinced by Distrix and IObits claims especially. Seeing other products claims, I just want to know if I should just ignore their (false?) claims and continue using JkDefrag. Isn't JkDefrag the best (for free) like I thought?
Jkdefrag it's very good. And you can use the screensaver mode.
Yeah its the best imo.
Auslogics Disk Defrag 2 is out!
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Auslogics-Disk-Defra...
Yes, that's what I've said...
Sorry, I didn't see your post.
jkDefrag does have disk optimization.
http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/
There´s also a GUI for the program, not for totally newbies!
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/JkDefrag-GUI.shtml
The GUI already includes jkDefrag and will also download, if you want, Pagedefrag.
I've just registered...
Pyotr K.
Yesterday (19 of May) - Auslogics Disk Defragmenter have had just updated to version 2.0.0.0.
It looks and works perfectly!
Pyotr K.
For me:Auslogic i use first and next i use Smart defragmenter with option deep and everything is OK.
disk free
In my opinion Defraggler and JKDefrag are simple, efficient and accurate.
I wonder if Smart Defrag really works, I've tried it and compared to Defraggler : before and after defragmentation de number of fragmented files and folders is closely the same.
Ultimate Defrag does it work but it's very very slow.
JKDefrag Starter is a simplke GUI (JkD 3.3x) with Commandline eg. Linkcreator - very smart!
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qr3lb8
salü
JkDefrag 3 is going to become MyDefrag 4. Check out this-http://www.mydefrag.com/
Im using the latest beta (beta 7) and I have no problems. It makes the best even better!
Yeah i'm using beta 9. Its gr8.
Hi there, I would suggest JkDefrag GUI 1.05, This is the best gui and uses jkdefrag as base. It feels like 1 program, and installs like 1 program. This must be at the top of the list, as this also includes a registry optimizer and all settings for clearing windows prefetch data and Temporary Folders. You can run it as a screen saver, and you can set it to run every day, will only take a minute and your hard drive will be at optimal performance when you run it every day.
You can get more information about this at http://jkdefrag.8qm.de
What freeware product (if any) do you guys recommend for a Registry Defragmenter?
Cheers!
You could try this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx
I saw this comparison on the Authors site of Smart Defrag and Im a bit confused- http://www.iobit.com/Images/isdcompare.gif
Its saying that Smart Defrag is better than JKDefrag and Diskeeper and on par with Perfect Disk in terme of disk perfromance! Does Smart Defrag really give you the highest disk speed out of all the programs they tested- I feel sorry for the people who bought Diskeeper if this is true! I think JKDefrag is way better than Smart Defrag. Are their claims true?
Should I continue using JKDefrag or use Smart Defrag? Should I believe IObits claims or use what I think is the best- JKDefarg? Which gives the highest disk performance? Any suggestions!
All mentioned apps are good and really there is no big difference between them, not for human eye. To really test these apps you need a benchmark test. Btw, didn't you read this article? If Andrew tested these apps then I believe him that Smart Defrag is the best freeware. Question is: Did he use the benchmark test?
How about DiskTune: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskTune.htm
dont you dare get diydisktune...that $#!t crashed my vista and i had to factory image restore my computer. Ill hate DIY till the day i die.
A new version of the open source Ultra Defrag is here-
http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/
Many improvements, its really good!
Jkdefrag, Completely automatic, optimizes file placement after defragging like SmartDefrag, portable, and can be set up as a screensaver! and easily scheduled in Task Scheduler as well, What's not to like?
Distrix DefragExpress has been released! http://www.disktrix.com/defragexpress_try.htm
14 day, no-obligation, test drive version lets you enjoy all the features of DefragExpress.
JkDefrag does not need any commandline interaction. It states in the documentation that it is completely automatic AND it does optimization automatically. If you wish to sort by any other algorithm method, just create a shortcut to the JkDefrag.exe file and put the proper switches on the end of the path to section. Anything requiring a GUI to do this is overkill and completely unnecessary disk space wasted. The documentation is great for explaining how it works and defragging in general. And the real kicker: NO INSTALLATION REQUIRED. Can't get better than that.
I use Auslogics and am happy with it :)
I came across this discussion about which defragger is the best..They have tested a few and compared them to the Windows degrager. Who uses the Windows disk defragger anyway? They have got screenshots to show the difference but they seem to conclude that jk defrag is the best???
Distrix Express Defrag is sounding very good. http://www.disktrix.com/
Hopefully it will have a trial run or free version.
I use Quicksys DiskDefrag.
It´s excellent software (BETA Version yet).