Can someone recommend a good defragmenter?

One off topic post removed, and one quoting the off topic post was also removed.

Let's get back on course please Ladies and Gentlemen.

Blackspear.

 

I have been reading the recent threads on defraggers here and thought I would try some out. I currently have O&O ver 6 and wondered if there had been any improvment.

Diskeeper failed with me. Set it defrag a 4.8 Gb partition and it stalled after getting to 58%. Sat like that for 2 hours - still appeared to be working.

Tried Perfect Disk and that managed it ok, but it cannot see USB drives. On the partition in questioned it reported fragmentation at .6%

Tried O&O ver 8 and that had no problems. It can see the USB drive but only the first partition. On the drive in question it reported fragmentation at 11%

Auslogic had no problems. Reports fragmentation somewhere between the two. Cannot see USB drives.
Edit
Oops - Just checked again and it can see the partitions on the USB drive.

I find it very difficult to compare these programs. In my case only PD and OO are candidates. Both of them have different methods and I cannot relate them. PD is certainly quick but if you then re-examine with OO you find that it has not fully defragged the disk. Certainly with OO it is a much more informative program to use since you can click on the disk picture and see which programs are occupying the space.

There is then another query which was brought up in another thread as to whether constant defragging shortens the life of the disk.

Can anyone throw any clarity at this?

 

Oh but it can!! . Go into Tools > Advanced Configuration, scroll across to the Removable Storage tab and check the Tick Box. See attached screenshot.

Regards

 

Ah - thanks did not look hard enough. Saw something about not being able to do it on their site but now see I misread that as well.

Still do not understand why they report fragmentation so differently.

 

Probably down to mere difference in design philosophy. There is usually a compromise made between speed and thoroughness of the defrag, with certain types of files requiring more of the latter. Personally, I'm hoping PD 8.0 has got the ratio about right.

Re your comment about file information. Whilst not as quick and dirty as OO's, the info available under Tools > Statistics should be enough to keep most people happy.

As for constant defragging wearing out the hard drive - I doubt it. Any wear on the head actuator caused by defragging will be compensated by less head movement during subsequent unfragmented file accesses. Anyway, if using NTFS there really is no need to defrag so often.

Regards