Tests on Defragmenters...pls...

Gkweb has done a good job on presenting us some info's and ranking on software Firewalls. Even his site www.firewallleaktester.com contains one of the best advice for protecting and securing our pc's when connected to net. Thanks for that Gkweb.

I was now then wondering if anyone out there could also do the same by testing and ranking the different popular paid and free Defragmenters. Ordinary pc users like me couldn't really decides or choose what's really is the best for our needs and can be confusing since this was not a simple tool for us. Unlike Anti-virus or Anti-spywares...

Defragmenter was one of the most important system tools in our pc to keep it running faster and smoother isn't it?

Or, maybe, if you know some reliable sites that made some studies and ranking of different free and paid Defragmenters then pls gives us a links, we'll thank you for that.

A tests for Diskeeper 10, PerfectDisk 7, PowerDeragmenter GUI with contig, Dirms and Buzzsaw, O & O Defrag, DG-Defragmenter, etc...I don't know the others, and of course the built-in Windows defragmenter. How they differ, advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons, and of course some great advice for pc users.

 

The web sites of Diskeeper, PerfectDisk and O&O DEfrag, have papers describing their advantages over the crappy built-in windows defragger.

In addition, Perfect Disk has several white papers that show the clear superiority of Perfect Disk. See http://www.perfectdisk.com/products/perfectdisk2k/wp.cfm

Note that you can purchase Perfect Disk for $11.99 (USA), AFTER REBATE, at Amazon. However, my recollection is that the rebate offer ends soon (I think 6 April 2006).

 

Hi there,

this is the second thread where you advice about this offer, which is indeed quite appealing provided one could find it at Amazon. I can't. Would you be able to give me a link or some clue as where to find it ?

I also think PerfectDisk is great, but not for 40 $!

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...1/104-8899535-0028700?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance

Actually, that's April 30, 2006. Thanks for the pointer Howard. I have a new laptop on the road with UPS and I need to grab some essentials for it.

 

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006DNZBC/qid=1142945972/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_unbuck_1/102-2899290-2969761?v=glance&s=software&n=172282

 

If you are going to use perfect disk or any of the better defraggers that handle boot files make sure the that the inbuilt boot optimise fuction is turned off in XP.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

"N' to turn off.

 

Why ?

I left it alone when I created a fresh install of Win XP a few weeks ago and it's value is still "Y".

What's the potential problem ? Do they fight each other ?

Note: I have PD set to "Let PerfectDisk manage all the layout.ini files". I've never noticed a problem.

I can see why you might do that if you set PD to "disable".

 

I must have a prob.

If I do a smart placement defrag with PD then after a reboot with the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction] set to "Y" the boot files are rearranged.

I do have "let PD manage" ticked but two of the other options are greyed out.Only the the top and bottom options are available.

Any other users of PD have greyed out buttons and know a fix?

 

Options are greyed out if the options do not apply to the particular drive.

 

That's good to hear.Thanks for the reply.

 

hehe, not again...

Fragmentation does'nt slow down hdd performance as much as some people would like to make you think.

My hdd got 2% fragmented. Diskeeper claimed 10% performance loss on these files. 10% of 2% is 0.2% loss, assuming we read whole files in a sequential manner, but that simply does not happen.

OS system cache, disc caching help reduce any performance losses (by reading ahead and getting fragments of data into ram before they are needed, negating any peformance loss), including from fragmentated file, then you have the fact that disc access is random, reading PARTS of files (not even complete files) all over the drive, so exact file placement is not a significant factor in drive performance.

Also Win XP will defrag file (parts) for quicker execution and startup of applications and the operating system, this is where most performance gains are to be made (by defragging files that are used the most).

 

The papers you reference are written / edited by the company that wants to sell the solution...

 

So what.

The methodology and results are reproducible and Perfect Disk even provides the tests at their web site, not to mention that they are using well-known benchmark suites.

 

I'd have to agree with nickr and SSK that the papers in question are biased towards their own product. For example, in the comparison with O&O Defrag, they compare the SMARTPlacement method with O&O's STEALTH method which is completely unfair since STEALTH. A fairer comparison would be to compare it with one of O&O's more thorough methods.

I wouldn't believe everything you read in these so-called white-papers. You should test them out yourself and go with the solution that suits you.

BTW, no one seems to have mentioned mstDefrag. This is a well-written, lighweight and very configurable (currently only through registry) defragmenter, which also has pro-active capabilities.

 

I am waiting for the next version, hopefully they will bring out a fix for issues that I found whilst trying to defrag very large files(https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=120746), apart from that its perfect for me !