What disk Defragmenter do you use? Also please specify which defragmentation method you choose. Thanks,
O&O Defrag Pro (v10) here. I use Name Defrag Method for my system partition and for my data partitions.
Have tried several of the major players. Trying several different suggested layouts. Never made a difference in performance that I noticed. I also dislike redundancy and bloat. Always went back to the built in MS offering.
I've tried different ones but never really noticed any earth shattering difference so stay with the built in Windows one now.
Latest PerfectDisk PD10 build 119 SMARTPlacement for all drives, only manual, don't use the AutoPilot Scheduler. Pre-boot defrag is run manually, weekly. It does make a difference, quicker boot and quicker execute. I've been satisfied so haven't tested others although I did have DiskKeeper on my work laptop and found that I liked the PD GUI more. I'm sure all defragers do the job just about the same. A side benefit to buying PD was that I also found FD-ISR which I still use and PD was tweaked by Raxco to make it work seamlessly with FD, couldn't ask for more. I've used PD since Feb. 2002, I pay the annual subscription fee to always keep it current and have never had a problem with it.
PerfectDisk. One reason I like to shrink .vmdk files and keep them defragged, PD for VMWare does this automatically.
Pirisoft Defraggler. (maker of Crap Cleaner) Does everything one needs, fast and complete. No background, HDD lifetime trashing crap for me. Stable and supersmooth system.
Same answer as recent past defragmenter polls....the one built into Windows. Been a firm believer for years that many of the 3rd party utils are hyped up, another recent thread like this from another forum brought a link to a good comparison which pretty much sums up what I've felt all along. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/the_disk_defrag_difference?page=0,0
It seems that the comments are more interestings than the article... From Donn Edwards comment: i have come to the conclusion that your article is bollocks. the "results" in the article are completely meaningless because the HDD tests don't measure the placement of actual files on the actual test system at all Interesting also to see that the author recommend Auslogic - that doesn't perform an optimizacion even... It seems he likes too much their interface... the eyes... 3rd party utils could be very good - but anyone can to think always that is better to use MS built-in tools than externals tools. Like to use their DiskCleanup tool instead a 3rd party tool like CCleaner or Eusing Washer. Or IE instead Firefox or Opera. And so on... And the proof is: MS improved their built-in defrag in Vista and Windows 7, e.g. auto-defrag in background and consolidation...
Defraggler from Piriform, of cause. What else is there? And why is Defraggler not on the list? It would be a clear winner! No doubt about it! Link: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download
Always used PerfectDisk and probably always will as it's Smart Placement seems to always slightly improve my machine's performance.
Over the years I've tired them all. This JkDefrag seems interesting just click on go. Smart Defrag is okay it does defrag for free and can be scheduled. Windows Defrag takes forever to defrag since that is slow.
Have tried many different defraggers and went back to the OS built in one MS offers. Works fine for me.