Defragmentation Software

I've seen numerous threads here talking about Utlimate Defrag, Perfect Disk, O&O, etc. But I must admit I am rather ignorant as to the differences between all these various products. I currently use MST and I have been happy with it. But, is there some reason why the above are better than MST, or shareware better than contig or JKDefrag?

 

Difference among defraggers is usually speed or file placement. And the GUI.

For example, PerfectDisk's SmartPlacement sorts files by their modification date, Diskeeper's iFaast sorts files by their access date, and UltimateDefrag can sort in many different ways as well as place files in different locations.

Im not familiar with MST so I dont know if it has any special file placement.

 

Hey n8chavez,

I'm with Raxco support (PerfectDisk) and I think I can answer your question without making a sales pitch.

"But, is there some reason why the above are better than MST, or shareware better than contig or JKDefrag?"

Sure there is - if you want to go by the book, I can talk about patents. Any commercial defragger should have a proven, and patented technology. Such patents are at the heart of the business case for commercializing the product in the first place.

Not everyone has something worth patenting, and some of us already have the "good" patents.

Again, no sales pitch here, just trying to be informative:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=qCInAAAAEBAJ&dq=5398142

And just because it proves my point:

http://www.raxco.com/new/pressreleases/USPTO_PR.pdf


So there is definitely a justification for commercializing a defrag utility, and the patents definitely set them apart as the only utilities that can use that technology.

And of course there are other things that also make a difference. For me, I know one of the things that sets PerfectDisk apart is that it goes beyond just defragmentation, and optimizes drives by intelligently placing files on the disk according to type and modified date.

So PerfectDisk doesn't just defrag the files on your disk. It optimizes the entire drive.

Another thing to consider is the support available to you in the event you need help, or just have a question. You have to ask yourself kind of help is available to you should you need it.

And you just won't get the same level of maturity in a freeware product that you'll get in a commercial one - since commercial products go under certification. (PerfectDisk is Gold Certified by Microsoft) They also get purchased and deployed to 10's of thousands of machines in corporate enterprises - the freeware tools just don't get that kind of exposure. So for example when you buy PerfectDisk you buy something that's been proven in a professional environment and that's something you can feel good about.


Are the freeware tools good enough? Some people are certainly satisfied with them. But if you know you can get a better product, and you want to reach for the absolute best results, then obviously you'll want to look at the commercial offerings.

 

I guess it is because my hardware is fast or something, or maybe it is because I restore FDISR and backup images quite frequently so that is why I have no use of defragmentation software.

I did use Perfectdisk for a couple of years or so and let it do its stuff. I never liked it having a process accessing the hard drive constantly so I uninstalled it and didnt use such software for a while. Then I read about Ultimate defrag and its ability to place files to the fastest places on the disk, that sounded logical and nice. I read the big manual and the explantaions why I have to do that to gain speed. I used it for the trial (maybe too short time?) but again I didnt notice any performance increase (other than the psychological I get with all new software ) I´ve used O&O defrag and diskkeeper too.

Nowdays I use some freeware stuff (currently Defraggler) once every three, four month or so just because, but I dont really notice any difference.

 

WOW.....Raxco Support,i would advice you to take some time reading through the Ultimate Defrag manual,i guess the ''apartness'' of PD is not that unique !!

 

I recently downloaded and installd UD.
I have no reason to bash t; it seems to work pretty well.
But it doesn't have offline defragmentation of the system files that are normally locked. That seems like a significant disadvantage.

 

Well, I *do* use a commercial defragger but wonder (quite often, actually) whether or not I really need one.

Assume all of the following are true:

1) You're in a non-server (exchange/database/whatever) environment.

2) Your primary drive has sufficient capacity such that you're using, at the most, 15% of that capacity (perhaps even 10% or less).

3) You have a separate, internal HDD on which you keep your paging file, data files, and any other files that can be contained (re-directed or otherwise) on a non-primary HDD.

4) You don't install/uninstall software on a regular and continuing basis.

5) You're reasonably diligent about deleting temp files/directories and performing similar cleanup-type maintenance.

Now, considering 1 through 5 above, are you going to see a significant benefit from using any one of the commercial defraggers? Even if some benefit does accrue but it is not readily observable (i.e. performance increase can only be demonstrated through benchmarking) , are any of them still worth paying for?

Sorry for the "inquiring minds" tone of this post......really just trying to get past the marketing fluff and to the hard facts.

 

today i downloaded a trial on perfectdisk,analysed my partitions and it said they where pretty much perfect condition. all i use to maintan my partitions are JK defrag using standard settings but only defrag C: and F: and not touch Z: whrre my backups are stored. so dont think i need to spend $40 on it.

 

I'm curious(bit OT tho) how the upcoming SSD drives will deal with fragmentation,in benchmark they are far superieur to tradional drives(no mech. parts),i guess the impact of fragmentation on performance will almost zero.
Anand Tech is a good source,they currently test some SSD disks.

The slowest part will become totally digital !! he he,entering at last speedheaven,ditch all your tweaking stuff,SSD is heralding a new age with blasingly fast starterkit rigs beating the ''old'' quadcore/raptor highends with ease !!

 

The basic idea of defragmentation is put each fragmented file back together. So that is essential and necessary, because you can't live without defragmentation forever.
I really wonder if all the rest of the options around defragmentation make a difference.

For instance : they are talking about replacing "most used" files.
When is a file considered as "most used", because I read or updated it one time incidently ? That's not a "most used" file.
Which parameters make a defragger decide that a file is "most used" ? I don't know, because I didn't write the program.

How many of the other gadgets are really useful ?
I never feel any difference after defragmentation and I can't measure nanoseconds.

 

Same here.

 

Analogy : If you always get used to drive speedwagons,driving one or the other make not much difference.
If you replace your old Subaru with a Ferrari,i guess you feel the difference,likewise defrag a heavily fragmented drive to zero fragments will give the same sensation.

Moral of the story,we can't judge,at least here on Wilders because most of us keeping their disks all the time optimised,so whats the difference between 4 % fragmented and zero fragments,you get it ?

 

Fragmentation will not cause any performance drop at all as every part of the memory takes approx same time to read and there is no moving head to worry about, which on a hdd causes delays between reading different parts of the disk that are not on the same cylinder and also no rotational delay to get to the right part of the cylinder.

 

I had experienced some issues with PerfectDisk before ut thats been months ago now, but i will say this in support of it even though right now UltimateDefrag has mu undivided attention from satisfactory results so far.

PerfectDisk was obviously a patented production and plenty of research had to have gone into it, because when i first started trying it out i was duly impressed how much quicker my overall disk responded to it's operations.

I was disappointed to have to pass it up at the time since it showed great promise above and beyond what any others i tried before.

So hopefully it's made enough positive strides to reclaim some confidence in it once again.

EASTER

 

100% agree with you like all the security software in the world are waste of time to us 2....point 1 d00d here which cant restore his system after a crash down in minuts? hehe

cheers

 

I couldn't find the word "d00d" in my dictionary, what does it mean ?

 

My translation of

would be

or something along those lines.

Actually, going through the threads, there are plenty who probably can't.

Blue

 

Thanks Blue, now I understand.

 

Too bad for UltimateDefrag; with SSD drives, file placement wont real matter

 

Yeah,I guess that prices will drop considerable within next year. Very promising.