defrag program questions / thoughts

i was using perfectdisk and while i really do like it it just seems a bit much for what i feel a defragger should be meaning the install is very large it installs a ton of reg entries and has running process' all the time unless set to manual then you cant use the scheduler. it seemed to use a good amount of cpu when running etc. also now i have switched my main systems back to eset there is a conflict with one of the perfectdisk files that i either have to turn off all auto features or make the exception for it.

i am not just ranting about perfectdisk my thoughts go out to all "auto" defraggers including diskeeper and O&O etc.. while i feel perfectdisk is the best of those though.

i now have switched back to small fast non intrusive defraggers with a couple issues i did not have with perfectdisk though. the major problem i see with either puran or disktrix is the VERY FAST re-fragmentation of the drive. i did a defrag with ultimatedefrag and tried both consolidate and auto and within 10-15 reboots over maybe 2 days and VERY little file deletion or addition it was up to almost 7% from starting at 0%. though i really like ultimate defrag this and the lack of support i get are its 2 downfalls imo.although i love its boot time because it moves EVERYTHING normally locked and does it well. disktrix gave the FASTEST boot time i used a program to clock boot times and ran 10 boot ups with each defragger and with disktrix and a auto run it consistantly gave me between 29-38 seconds each time.

puran is my fav small app (i think) but again it seems to suffer the problem of very fast fragmentation of the drive. i can defrag to 0% and again it rises quickly (though not reported as fast as disktrix depending on how they both report) i like purans boot time for moving all files not just locked ones BUT THE PROBLEM i have with its boot time is it does not really do much for the mft or registry etc IF they start of fragmented on this system i was testing again on the mft had 19 fragments (? very high) no matter how many times i did a boot time they remained at 19 with no changes. i have seen this more than a few times with puran and while its for sure my fav free app it does have its issues. after a run with puran including a boot time without pizor my boot times were up almost 10 seconds over disktrix to 39-47 seconds?? and a run with pizor made it even longer??

then i went for mydefrag it did a great job at consolidating but for some reason the system was so slow after it ran it took forever to boot fully to the desktop / working. it also has limited options and no boot time unless im wrong.

i guess my rants are to prove there is no one perfect defrag program (no pun intended) my top fav is still perfectdisk because of the fact if nothing else even with optwrite and all auto features TURNED OFF somehow the system just does not get fragmented as fast and im not sure why. in the end perfectdisk for me out of the programs tested had the WORST boot time with a near 55-1:05 time each run. and if i ran disktrix on auto times dropped back to mid 30 seconds on the very next bootup. and then running again with perfectdisk went back up near 50+seconds.



these are just some thoughts and observations i am seeing nothing more and not official tests in any way. but i guess this leaves me to ask which do you use and do you observe the same things i do? does the drive fragment faster with the likes of puran and disktrix than pd12 NOT ON AUTO DEFRAG just running it manually?? i know people have mixed thoughts on defrag programs but lets keep this thread to those of us who believe and use them i just dont want people bashing defraggers and saying simply dont use one not what i am looking for here.

i know i kinda went in all different directions here i was simply typing my thoughts as they came to me. and i know we have a poll but i would really like to get responses of what you use and more specific reasons why you choose that program other than because "its the best" since i my self am even torn as to what to use as a every day defrag program this may help others as well to decide.

thanks everyone for reading my thoughts.

 

zfactor,

Just a few comments, hopefully on topic.

Some years ago I used Diskeeper and Ghost with incremental images. Diskeeper wasn't set to do auto defragging. Every week or so the incrementals would jump in size. When I checked the Diskeeper graphic I found a large chunk of data had been moved but no defragging had taken place. Since Ghost does sector based incrementals this explains the jump in size of the incrementals. Others have reported this issue, even in the last year.

I use Perfect Disk (not for performance) as it seems to prevent fragmentation in my situation. I don't use it on auto and I just defrag monthly prior to a full image with IFW. I do daily differentials and today the differential image size is only 35 MB and that is a month since the last full image. So not many sectors have changed.

 

yeah i see the same kind of thing with perfectdisk

 

I've used Perfect Disk and O&O.
From freeware, I've used MyDefrag, and Puran.
For a while, I've stayed with the Windows 7 built-in Defrag tool.

Currently, I'm trying Defraggler
Amazing App! Greatly improved!