I defragged my computer last night, and it looks like it didn't do that much. Are there any other (free) programs that can do a better job than the MS defragger?



I found this and will try it this weekend, but you guys tend to have better solutions than I do

- Joe

11/9/2007 7:31:26 AM

I think the program I use at home is called perfectdisk.

11/9/2007 7:35:46 AM

get a copy of diskeeper somewere, you can "find" it free
http://consumer.diskeeper.com/downloads/Downloads.aspx?RId=1&SId=1&CId=1&Aeid=0&Apid=0

This will work...but only for 30 days. look elsewhere

i think O&O makes a good defrag client too
http://www.oo-software.com/smb/en/download/

11/9/2007 7:41:18 AM

The problem is you don't have a lot of contiguous free space on the drive. It looks like those big red spots are probably a small number of large files. Move them to your other HD, defrag and move them back. Should be faster than trying to defrag as it is. PerfectDisk will do it, but it will take a while.

11/9/2007 7:42:48 AM

diskeeper is definitely the way to go imo

11/9/2007 8:50:09 AM

I forgot to mention that I have 2 HDDs in a RAID configuration, making 1 hard drive with two partitions (1 OS, 1 data)

Will the fact that the data is split up on two HDDs affect how it is defragged? Or will PerfectDisk/Diskeeper handle that for me?

11/9/2007 9:13:07 AM

the defrag tool built into norton systemworks is actually really good

11/9/2007 11:51:33 AM

defraggler, from the same people who do ccleaner and recuva:

http://www.defraggler.com/

it's in beta, but it worked just fine for me

11/9/2007 12:26:01 PM

joe17669 raises a good question that I've thought about, but never really looked into. How exactly do defragmentation programs work on RAID arrays like RAID 1 and RAID 5?

11/9/2007 12:30:57 PM

http://www.defraggler.com/
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

Diskeeper if you can afford it, is BY FAR the best defrag

11/9/2007 12:31:37 PM

O&O is fantastic

11/9/2007 1:25:03 PM

get PerfectDisk from Raxco
http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/

or JKDefrag

11/9/2007 1:34:49 PM

yeah ive always been satisfied with norton sys.works defrag tool

11/9/2007 2:52:27 PM

i usually just run it more than once and it clears up

11/9/2007 4:18:27 PM

I think I'm liking PerfectDisk. It's been running on this computer for about 3 hours now, and about 1/2 done. I can't say that it's doing a better job, but at least the little diagram is makes is starting to look clean

11/10/2007 2:00:32 PM

As far as multiple partitions and RAIDs with regards to defragmentation and the sort. As recommended above, get diskeeper, especially if you're doing defrag on a RAID. Or use PerfectDisk, I'm sure it's fine although I've never used it.

It doesn't matter to the OS if the drive is a RAID or not, for example...

One big drive, two partitions
|---------------------||------------------------------------------------------------|
... we all know when you put data into the first partition, it stays on that part of the hard drive ... that said ...

Five big drives (RAID5), two partitions
|---------------------||------------------------------------------------------------|
... yes, that's how the OS sees the drives! All that matters is that the files are logically contiguous.

Basically, the RAID controller needs to be told which files go together, once it knows it can move the files accordingly (ie, replicating and splitting the data between drives) ... it is very important to maintain defrag on a RAID to keep it at top performance, exactly like a normal drive.

[Edited on November 10, 2007 at 3:33 PM. Reason : I like illustrations, so get over it]

11/10/2007 3:31:22 PM