Piriform Defraggler

[Den]

I installed this program yesterday on my desktop and my laptop. On the desktop it said I was 56% defragged  and the laptop 26%.

It defragged the laptop in about 3hrs but it is still working on my desktop 12hrs later and is now up to 48%. This is the first time I have used a 3rd party version so is this normal?

[Steve]

I've never used the program Den,I'm a fan of Perfectdisk for my Windows machines. The level of fragmentation reported is very high,which if correct will take a while to shuffle things around. It certainly will take ages if its defragging the free space as well. I normally would just set the program to check files and directories, I've never been particularly interested in sorting the commonly used files for even quicker access as todays hard drives are so quick.

[Gary]

I always use Perfect disk on windows boxes as well Den, they are a Microsoft gold partner and the program always did me proud, boot time defrag being particularly good for metadata as well. You used to be able to get a free trial of perfectdisc, it may be worth checking it out. http://www.perfectdisk.com/products/public-sector-perfectdisk10-professional/learn-more there is a free download there so you can try it Den. I always used the pro version of some of the extra features.

[Rik]

Another vote for PD here, just a few minutes does the job.

[Ray]

And another one for PD here as well.

[Glenn]

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ does a good job too, and it's free. As recommended by Q

[Den]

I got fed up of letting it run as it had not finnished after 18 hours  So I downloaded auslogics version and it finished in 3 minutes. Now the question is why did the Piriform version say I was still 50% fragged and the auslogics say I was 1% fragmented. 

[Rik]

Good program vs bad program I guess, Den.

[Steve]

I think it was looking at the total fragmentation of files and free space whereas the latter program has just defragged the files.You can defrag until all the free space is in one continuous block

[Rik]

I do that with PD, Steve, but it still only takes a few minutes.

[Steve]

True, I suppose if I look back at some of the MS defraggers they took an age too.

[Glenn]

More work PC is defragging at the moment, 23 mins and counting.

[Rik]

True, I suppose if I look back at some of the MS defraggers they took an age too.

Weren't they based on the Norton defragger?

[Steve]

Possibly, but how can the reports of defragmentation be so different i.e 1% and 50% obviously they're not looking at the same thing.

[Rik]

Indeed. One has to be looking at files and folders, the other the entire disk.

[Steve]

Its not an issue I am supposed to worry about anymore

[Rik]

 

[wecpcs]

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ does a good job too, and it's free. As recommended by Q

I use Diskeeper 2008 Home Server Edition on my server and Diskeeper 2010 Home Edition on my PC and on my wife's laptop. Using Diskeeper it continually keeps your drives fragmentation free and does use very little PC resources. The Home edition is fairly cheap, especially at the moment, but the Home Server version is a bit pricier, which is why I have not upgraded it to the 2010 version as the only advantage is that it supports single drives larger than 1TB. My largest drive in my server is only 1Tb. I have been using Diskeeper now for a couple of years and the only reason I upgraded the Home Edition versions to the 2010 one, was for Windows 7 support.

Colin

[Niall]

O&O Defrag pro 12. I tried the trial of this and as far as I can tell the only difference between it and the version 11 I own is a different UI and windows 7 support. It's VERY good though, and well worth buying.

[quandam]

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ does a good job too, and it's free. As recommended by Q

Glenn, thanks for the plug. Auslogics is great and as you say is free, has sorted many a PC laptop out quickly and efficiently top whack 10 mins. Simply enter 'Auslogics Freeware Defrag' into Google and Bob's your Auntie!

[JB]

Will any of these defraggers work on an external HD connected via USB or are the purely for internal drives?

[Ray]

Perfect Disk does, don't know about any of the others though as I haven't used them.

[Rik]

As Ray says, JB, PD does and I can see no reason why the others shouldn't.

[Gary]

Weren't they based on the Norton defragger?

The defragger in Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows 2000 was made by Diskeeper, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;130539

[Rik]

Thanks, Gary, perhaps I'm thinking back to 98 and earlier.