disk defragmenter?

hi guys!
it's been a while, and my computer has been getting slow, due to the installing and uninstalling of programs over the days. I know...it's not a good thing to keep messing with programs, but I'm addicted to computer games. Ayway, I just saw in the control panel the disk defragmenter. So I searched it up on google. No one has a real opinion if it is really necessary for an average guy like me to defragment my disk. It has been getting a little slow lately...

Thanks guys, and cheers!

 

Yes. But it might take 5-30hrs the first time with Windows defrager. So I'd get O&O or PerfectDisk. Google is your friend.

 

PerfectDisk is a favourite among many here. Another one people talk of is Diskeeper - the Windows built-in defragger is actually a pared down version of that.

 

Even though imo O&O & PerfectDisk are the best by far. That other one & probably all defragers are much better than Windows'.

 

Before using a Defragmenter...first use a registry cleaner like EasyCleaner 2.0 by ToniArts (Fred Langa says it's one of the safest registry cleaner) to clean the left-overs of uninstalled programs, it also has a Unnecessesary File finder..but don't be tempted to use Duplicate file finder if you are not expert coz it's dangerous.

I just use Diskeeper Lite (free) to defragments my drive manually for at least once a week or when I install/uninstall program... but if you have some money to spare the latest Diskeeper 10 I think is great coz it has- a set it and forget it function w/c will derfragments your drive automatically.

I think defragmenting the drives helps a lot in improving the performance and speed of pc.

 

Go get RezJor's GUI for Power Defragmenter here and contig.exe at Systernals.

Drop both in your root directory and fire up PowerDefragmenter.exe. Choose the power defrag mode, and let it do it's thing. Should take 15-60 minutes.

You're done. And it's free.

 

yea, I'm already using the Reg seeker for my registry cleaner. It was a popular favorite here some days ago. So, I guess, I'll do the registry cleaning and go with one of the defragmenting software, instead of the windows default one.

thx for the replies

 

Theres been a few defrag threads recently, have a look.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=118836

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=119413

IMHO, disk placement strategies are overrated, pick a defragger on which suits you best feature wise, stability, defrag time, schedulability etc.

 

Be careful when using RegSeeker coz it's one of the most aggresive registry cleaners. Select carefully what you delete...and better leave alone those entries you're not sure about. Better safe than sorry.

 

Is it okay to use it with Diskeeper Lite and will not conflicts...? or it defragments differently and works differently w diskeeper?

 

Interestingly, Rollback Rx has it's own defragger, and Peter2150 was saying in another thread how incredibly quick it took to defrag after he removed two snapshots. The vendor says you can use other defraggers, but it's not needed. I'm intrigued as to how that one works.

 

@JimIT thanks. I am impressed with the Power Defragmenter GUI combined with contig.exe. Might replace O&O Defrag 2000 free as my defrag app.

 

You shouldn't have any issues using both. Contig will put all your data in (you guessed it) contiguous sectors.

 

I don't think defragmentation is absolutely necessary. the pic below is from a 1.5 years undefragmented laptop's hard disk. yet the owner says it is running smooth as ever and when tested it did.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8184/def7ym.jpg

 

My guess is red is the fragmented sections. And I strongly disagree with both of your assessments.

 

Defragging will help, especially when the drive is as fragmented as the one above.
I like O&O but all the others mentioned here are fine.

 

Right.I have used Diskeeper,PerfectDisk and O&O Defrag and i have noticed no real diference.
Try keeping the Page Files and MFT in one piece and your in good shape.

 

for a free defragger i like power defragmenter gui and contig (as mentioned by JimIT) and for paid i prefer perfectdisk. i personally do notice a slight speed improvement after a defragmentation but feel free to form ur own opinions.

 

PD has outperformed all I have tried . I like O&O but , PD gave more info , was a bit faster , and cleaned better . DK was not even close to those two

 

Yep . The red is fragmented and the white is empty . If THAT machine is running fast and smooth , it must be that it was crap when it was bought . Point being , based on the graph , there is no way that shows a good working machine . The user must be used to it . Tell him/her to defrag . it will probably take 4 days to do though . lol . But , I bet it runs alot better afterward

 

I came to the same conclusion after trying them all.

 

I love this quote. I really dislike dk. But a lot of that is my dislike of martian brainwashing.

 

Holy cow… this is F1 in defragmenting world. I have tried Power Defragmenter GUI w/ contig.exe (sysinternals.com) and it’s really fast. It only takes (more or less) 5 minutes to defragment my two drives using PowerMode option. After that I re-starts my pc and open Diskeeper Lite and analyze my drives… and it was amazing… no “red” fragmentation was found. It was almost perfectly looking good.

Thanks a lot JimIT

 

Heres some helpful observations I made, hope it can help in what to look for and choosing a defragger:

The trend I have noticed is diskeeper works faster for slight fragmentation (eg someone who does atleast daily defrags), perfect disc and O&O are much better at handling heavily fragmented drives.
This maybe why Diskeeper uses a seperate defrag engine for large terabyte drives. Diskeeper, though uses more ram than perfect disc or O&O, seems to use the least CPU and machine runs the smoothest whilst defragging. DK 10 is better than even MST Defrag at preventing slowdown during defrag (my current favourite due to sensible price).

On my servers, workstation and laptop I found file placement strategies made totally no difference to performance and refragmentation occured at similar rates no matter what order the files or spaces left (like diskeeper) to help reduce refragmentation.

I would mention that test a defragger not just based on an initial defrag, but how well it performs when defragging the next time round based on your chosen schedule, I found O&O's Name defrag strategy painfully slow ALL the time, when space strategy was used (and perfectdisk) they were slow first time defrag (nearly an hour) , but 2nd and 3rd times much quicker (around 10 minutes).
Too many reviews dont consider defrag performance with time/usage, just initial defrags.

The only defragger I have had major problems with is the built in 2k/xp one, that is slow and fails to defrag higly fragmented large files.