Online vs. Offline Defragging???

Haven't defragged my PC (relatively new 500GB HD), but have installed Acronis ti11 and FD-ISR to protect my system.

1. What's the difference between some of the free options like JkDefrag, Defraggler, and Perfect Disk?

2. What is online vs. offline defragging, and why is it important?

3. Best to defrag before creating Acronis images and FDISR snapshots?

4. Can I / should I defragment my external hard drive (where I store my images and snapshots)?

Thanks,
Chamlin

 

1. PerfectDisk isnt free.

As for differences, Defraggler is a simple defragger; it doesnt optimize file placement and it doesnt have a boot defrag.

PerfectDisk's SmartPlacement arranges files based on their last modified date. It does have a boot defrag.

JkDefrag can arranges files based on size, name, last access, last modification, or creation time. It also doesnt have a boot defrag but they suggest using PageDefrag.

2. Offline defrag takes care of teh pagefile, MFT, and other files that Windows may be using. It runs during bootup before Windows is loaded.

3. Sure

4. No

 

Does offline defrag slow the system down when starting up? Generally how much if it does?

And how important is offline defragging?

Thanks!

 

Its runs before the desktop and all that. Its similar to running chkdsk.

 

See this

 

Yes you can defrag external harddrives with PerfectDisk, but you have to mark a special setting for this. You will find it somewhere in the settings of PerfectDisk.

I never defrag my external harddisk, it takes too much time and isn't really necessary either.
You better defrag BEFORE taking images and archives.

 

You guys are truly amazing. Thanks so much for the education!

Chamlin

 

IMHO, defragging an external drive may not be a very good idea since, like any drive activity for an extended period, it will generate a lot of heat. Ofcourse, if your external drive enclosure has adequate cooling, then it's not a problem. If it's not too much of a hassle, remove the drive from the enclosure, pop it into the PC as an internal IDE/SATA drive and defrag it from there. It ought to also complete defragging much faster.

 

It's an open question to defrag externals,sure they become heavy fragmented after some time ,what you think about big servers with their ongoing intense read/write operations,but i never defragged my ext. disks and sofar no errors or performance decline.