defragmenter what is the best?

one issue i have with o&o is the drive tends to get fragmented very quickly afterwards without the auto defrag turned on, where as perfectdisk while of course things get fragmented but not nearly as fast as others.

 

HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC?

 

@hawki Thanks for the link to the video about System Mechanic. The Program Accelerator has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, but the video explained it quite well. After reading your praise of System Mechanic I installed it on my laptop I use for DJing, and ran Program Accelerator which was suggested after doing a deep scan. Beforehand, my DJ software (Mixvibes Cross) took one minute and 13 seconds to complete loading. After the System Mechanic has done had finished and I rebooted this dropped to 38 seconds - nearly twice as fast.

I only remembered to time the program launch, after the Program Accelerator had started running, and having that working at the same time as launching Cross, may have increased the launch time. But, I doubt it would have had too much of an impact, so the result is very impressive.

 

After visiting the benchmark site you posted ,i revisited warpdisk, and was pleasantly suprisd to see theres an updated version 1.4.21.0.I cant remember why i uninstalled it first time round ,but was quite pleased with the speed performance on boot up and general snappiness of my system after installing it again.

 

@ellison64 I was very impressed with increase in speed of boot times when I first tried WarpDisk. I uninstalled it due to it causing BSODs. However I don't think I had that problem with a more recent build I tried.

 

Yes, Warpdisk is very efficient but after a while I got filesystem corruption, so I stopped using it, too bad. Even with latest build (in April/May 2015).

 

Been using the free MyDefrag since it won the freeware Great Defrag Shootout years ago. Check the test link in post #2 of this thread.
http://www.mydefrag.com

 

(1) MyDefrag has been an abandon-ware since May 21, 2010.

(2) Is MyDefrag Windows 8.1 and 10 compatible?

 

@ArchiveX It is compatible becuase it uses the Windows defragmentation API.

 

Still, it should probably not be used on SSD...

 

http://www.mydefrag.com/forum/index.php?topic=80646.0

 

As can be seen in my sig. I use Rollback Rx for continuous snapshots. While I value this program it needs to be uninstalled in order to run system utilities including file defraggers. So once every month (or two) I uninstall Rollback Rx and do a file & reg cleanup with CCleaner and a boot-time defrag-optimization with Puran Defrag. I then re-install Rollback Rx and I see a definite performance improvement in system bootup time and application loading (esp.Photoshop)!

Before settling on Puran Defrag I tried Auslogics Disk Defrag, Defraggler, and Smart Defrag (using their boot-time optimizing options) . My subjective belief was that Puran did a better job than those three insofar as optimizing file placement and therefore resulting in better overall performance. While there 'may' be more effective paid defraggers than Puran, for a free defragger it is truly outstanding.

 

MyDefrag has not been abandoned and it works perfectly on Win10. MyDefrag has performed better for me than even Diskkeeper out-of-the-box, let alone the fine-tuning one can do with it. Read JK's write-up on why he made the defrag scripts the way he did, using Microsoft's research.

You can get MyDefrag to do pretty much anything you want to fit your needs, which isn't something any other defragmenter lets you do.

Regularly defragmenting an SSD is a great way to get zero performance gain and kill its longevity.

 

Rolo, I never tried MyDefrag. Does it offer a boot-time option - with file placement optimization?

 

It does not have boot-time defrag but it does have file-placement optimization (uses prefetch, defrags MFT, etc.). To get around the lack of boot-time defrag (usually only once for pagefile) is after I build the system, I:
- move the pagefile to another volume (or disable it entirely), reboot
- run my "SwapPrep" defrag script that crates a large blank zone at the beginning of the disk
- create a fixed-size pagefile on the system disk and run "analyze only" to ensure it went to the beginning and it isn't fragmented

I haven't found a non-defunct utility to do that for me (can't remember if Diskkeeper did that or not...that thing was always churning my drives).

It is really lightweight and uninstalls completely; try it (there's probably a portable version). It uses Win API and Task Scheduler, not its own drivers or scheduler or anything.

 

I do not worry about fragmentation as much nowadays given the advancement in hardware and how modern system utilize resources.

Instead of obsessing over file placement optimization, you can:

1. Separate system and data with its own partitions
2. Set a fixed page-file (make sure it is large enough for your virtual memory needs), if you are concerned about page-file fragmentation

In terms of cost to benefit, Windows defrag is actually a pretty decent option given:

a) it is free with Windows license
b) time saved (as compared to a defrag that is longer yet only increase performance by a small margin)
c) reduced complexity (no need for updates/upgrades to fix bugs & incompatibilities)
d) the algorithm has been optimized to minimize I/O

It lags in boot optimization but there's the top 3 picks here (MyDefrag, O&O Defrag, Puran Defrag) for that.

 

Why is caring about it, "obsessing"? File placement has noticeable, measurable results, particularly on a gaming machine, which mine is.

Separating system and data is a great way to kill performance by having the head fling to-and-fro between partitions.

MyDefrag, et. al. are also free.

Windows Defrag was designed to be minimal for your reason b) above. I don't know what time is saved as 1) defrags generally occur when we're sleeping, and 2) doesn't tie up the computer anyway. As your quote shows, Windows Defrag will do nothing for most game's performance (namely, eliminate hitching when textures and map data are being loaded).

If one spent 10 minutes installing MyDefrag and just let it do its thing, one would notice a performance benefit.

If one "obsesses" over boot optimization, here's one: http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/en/index.html (I'm still testing it)

 

Hey guys, if you read my sig. you would see that I'm running WinXP (where defragging-optimizing makes a big difference)! And fwiw, my data files are on a separate partition.

 

Defragmenting/optimizing makes a difference on any machine using a platter disk; it's a physical limitation, not a file system/OS one.

 

IMHO the best defragmenter is currently WarpDisk, alas it is not stable enough and I always get filesystem corruption after a few weeks/months, but when it works, it is impressive, boot time is reduced and regular operation as well. Too bad it is too risky...

 

What?
MyDefrag was lastly updated FIVE (5) years ago: May 21, 2010.
Certainly, an abandon-ware rather than a software with active development...

 

"Not updated" doesn't mean "abandoned". It does what it was designed to do; what is there to "update"? Hardware, file systems, etc. haven't changed.

The forum is active, until 01 Oct 2015 anyway: http://www.mydefrag.com/forum/index.php?topic=80646.0

Better grab it before the download sites bundle it with malware...

 

LOL, did you even read that notice? It's not the forum will be shutdown, it's the main website will be. So that means mydefrag is officially abandoned, dead on Oct 2015.

Look at DAMN NFO Viewer. It was abandoned more than 10 years ago, although you can still download it from other hosting websites.

 

No need to be a jerk. Did you even look around?

The forum has been active this entire time; see how the author has been posting today: http://www.mydefrag.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2

Here is a list of the author's 7,270 posts since Oct 2006, with 8 of them this month: http://www.mydefrag.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2;sa=showPosts

Hardly "abandoned"...unless you want useless bells and whistles and pretty graphs and twitter and facebook integration and other nonsense...

You don't want to use downloads sites as they all bundle malware...well, I don't and I don't recommend it; you do what you want.

 

i don't use any defrag tools on my computer. At this age and day, it's a waste of resources to install it. I coulnd;t care less whether it's abandoned or not.