UltimateDefrag v3 - is THIS the very best defragger ever?

i turn off system restore. i agree its crap. i use macrium myself so i dont worry about it

 

The only good thing I see MS's built-in function is the whole ability to restore a "previous version" of a file

Simple as right clicking and seeing the entire list of available previous versions - takes seconds and no need to reboot, search through huge image files, etc.

That's the function I want - having to go and install an entire massive 3rd party application just to go back to yesterday's TXT file or something is kind of crazy

System backup and creating images and so on is one thing - but the basic function of previous version of files in the system restore function in Windows 7 is another

So irked now - everything was just great until a few days ago

So much more than I need (installing 3rd party apps and so on)

uggggggggggggg

Massive undertaking (in the big picture) just to do a 4 second restoring of a previous version of a 20 kb system file or 5 kb text file etc etc

 

There are other solutions to handle file history : AJC Backup and HistoryExplorer are such examples. Granted, they are not free (HE was on GOTD last week) but they are quite reliable.

It's not as convenient as Windows restore, but I find the latter so unpredictable (you never know when you can count on it) that I prefer not to use it.

 

personally i have found the ms restore previous version to hardly ever work right anyway.

 

When my Restore Points weren't wiped out by something to simple as a damn defrag by programs like UD and others - EVEN THOUGH I have 16KB clusters, the previous versions file restore worked perfectly

 

History Explorer is useless as it only does things for text files, doc files, etc ... nothing for ALL files - only your standard editable files - txt, doc, xls, etc. Nothing for photos, music, system files, directories, anything at all.

As for AJC, I"ll have to look it up

 

I think you can add other filetypes if wished, and select folders where they are.

 

As much as this issue is bugging, me, the whole point of System Restore and Previous Version files restoration is that it does all files - rather than having to add file types etc.

Too annoying to have to add anything - - -

So simple to just right click and go back to ANY file or folder that has changed

I GIVE UP - this is a waste of time and is only pissing me off

 

Using version 3.0.100.19

It's kind of useless to complain

But ...

This is what I did ... need to resolve

Defragged with Auto to move directories close to MFT

Then did a boot time and moved the entire boot-time set of files to the middle of the drive completely - at reboot, did analyze and could see the set of files there in the middle

Rebooted and within Windows did another defrag with auto mode and with move directories close to MFT - directories were moved to the middle of the drive near the newly placed MFT

Rebooted with boot-time defrag again to move the entire set of boot time files back to the start of the disk - cluster 32

Rebooted and did a defrag again in Windows to move the directories to the MFT

But now, the directories continue to be STUCK AND UNMOVABLE at the center of the disk - they will not get moved back to the beginning of the drive near the MFT

Help? Suggestions?

 

TraumaDoc,

Sorry about restore points, but they often have unpredictable behavior and it's impossible to guarantee their consistency when defragging.

As for moving directories close to MFT - it doesn't get moved because you moved MFT to the beginning of the disk, and there is no space left for directories. Try to move MFT a bit further from the beginnning so there is some room for directories.

 

Thanks, I assumed that.

But, I have always moved the boot-time files to the beginning, cluster 32, and never had this problem before.

Is there any advantage to using your default settings for the location of boot-time files?

I moved them to the front of the disk with the thought that they would be quicker to access based on location on the disk. Should they be at the center of the disk, end of the disk, etc. What is best, just the default?

How much room am I going to need for my directories - in a high end system with a massive number of folders of course - now my 500 GB disk has more than 40,000 folder.

I did another boot-time defrag setting cluster 100 as the start point, but folders weren't moved, so I guess that's not enough hehe

Hope you can input on this - I want to optimize things now that I clearly can't use restore points anymore with your product - I like UD more than I like restore points in Windows - consider it a compliment despite the issues hehe

Also, I'm seeing now that on my C system disk, when I use auto mode, the slide bar for performance does not make any changes to the percentage of files moved to the specific location for optimum performance ... .it remains 100% and 0 %. But, my D and E disks, which contain only stored data, they adjust %'s based on sliding the bar.

Yesterday, I ran a scheduled defrag in Auto mode with the same conditions above, but the auto defrag actually moved my frequently used files/etc. to the end of the disk (center of the UD display image of course). But running in Windows mode, manual defrag, in Auto mode, the files are all moved back to the start of the disk.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Suggestions on this?

Sorry for the work work work

 

Also, just passing along

But it seems to me there is a problem with the PDF help file. Clicking on a page to jump to in the left side bookmark menu - on a link topic, not a thumbnail page, it does not take you to the correct page or topic. Clicking on a link takes you ONE PAGE ahead/forward of the wanted link.

For example, clicking on "Let's Start Using UltimateDefrag" (on page 25) actually takes you to the top of page 26

I'm using Foxit Reader, but have noticed this in Adobe as well, all for quite some time now.

Is it only a problem on my end?

Maybe this can be fixed too.

 

Everyone gave up on this thread?

 

Actually, I haven't. I am waiting for the next bug fix release.
Honestly, I don't use things like scheduled defrag, restore points, auto mode and that stuff. I like to fully control what UD is doing, so no automatic things. That's why I use UD after all.

Concerning your directories: If you have 40,000 folders, guess how many clusters you need for them (hint: each folder needs 1 cluster minimum).

 

Observations about UltimateDefrag 3.0.100.19:

1. I'm a fan of this program despite some bugs and problems identified below. It has the best user interface and feature set of any defragger I've tried (and I've tried a crapload of them). That said, I don't notice a significant change in performance compared to my second favorite defragger (MyDefrag by Jereon Kessels) - obviously your mileage may vary.

2. The "Shutdown PC when finished" feature (button next to Start and Pause/Resume buttons) doesn't work for me; I get a message box with the message "GAGO!" instead of a shutdown.

3. UD3 now works fine (as far as I can tell) when I run it from BartPE or WinPE 3.0 boot disk. I just copy the UltimateDefrag folder from 'C:\Program Files\Disktrix' to another location after booting to BartPE or another boot environment and run udefrag.exe from there. Note: I copy the whole folder in order to preserve the true file usage database and settings files. Also, I keep the Respect Layout.ini option unchecked when doing this as it would probably use the boot environments layout stats otherwise. The idea is of course to defrag the system partition when it's offline so that none of the files are locked, although I doubt there is much to be gained in performance by doing this.

4. UD3 has a problem defragging drives with very large files on partitions with limited space (unless large files are excluded).
Example: My laptop has a 45GB system partition and another 60GB partition (both NTFS, both about two-thirds full). I keep some virtual machine (vmware) files on the non-system partition, in fact they take up about half of it and include individual vmdk-files upto 6GB in size. Since I use VMware a lot I decided to move these files to the high performance area of that partition along with some portable (or semi-portable) programs I keep there. I set data files (documents, backups, etc.) to archive files. The result was a snail paced defrag - I actually let it run for 14 hours, but UD3 was clearly stuck on the large vmdk-files, so I had to abort. I then moved all the non-vmware and non-program files off to an external hard drive, used MyDefrag to optimize the the VM and program files left on that partition, copied the rest of the data back and then let UD3 sort it out, which it did in a timely fashion now that the large files had already been moved to the high performance area and made contiguous.
Suggestion: Isso, please improve the way UD3 handles large files when space is limited. Maybe add a feature that would identify a possible defrag slowdown because of large files and limited space and warn the user to exclude these files or to temporarily move some of the other files off to another location. Better yet, if UD3 detects a partition or (external) hard drive with sufficient free space, please enable it to move some of the files there during the defrag process if it doesn't have sufficient space to maneuver and defrag quickly otherwise.


5. This is probably a bug with Rollback Rx, but I'll mention it here for completeness: After I compressed my C:\Program Files folder per Disktrix's guide (i.e. ran "compact /c /s /i" from command prompt on it), Rollback Rx failed to (re-)install (it said it couldn't update the MBR anymore). After decompressing the folder, I was able to install Rollback Rx again.

 

Hi Isso,

I have a license of DefragExpress... I see there is a new version 1.50 but it seems it use a new license

How can I update my DefragExpress (v1.49) to use that new version ?

Regards.

 

Not sure where yo are seeing this as when I loook on the website all I see is:

"DefragExpress Support

Current Version is: DefragExpress 1.0.0.49. (Revision History)"

Checking the version history does not reveal any new release.

 

But exist! Try this link and see

http://www.disktrix.com/downloads/DefragExpressSetUp.exe

 

Yes, I can confirm the link works and installs the newer version 1.50 but it now says it's an unregistered copy with 30 days left. If I try to unlock and enter my licence details the ok box remains inactive.

Please can we have some details on this as I also bought a licence for 1.49 fully expecting that any future updates would be included.

 

Maybe it's just because Disktrix changed their registration system, so this build would only differs by the way it registers. Just an hypothesis !

 

That's possible, but those that bought a 1.49 licence will need to be given the new registration details to enable us to keep using the new version.

Do the Distrix guys come here regulary to advise on things like this or would we need to contact them directly. It would also be nice to know when things like this happen via notification in email as it was only pure chance I happened to see this thread today.

 

Have you thought of contacting them directly as per the following detailed on the web site:

"CONTACT DISKTRIX

You can contact us via the following e-mail address: support@disktrix.com"



From my experience Robert usually responds to emails relatively quickly and Isso who regularly attends this forum is a developer and so has no input to commercial issues...which is what this is!

Hope that helps?

 

Hi Baldrick, I'll probably wait to see if any info gets posted here first as it has a 30 day trial period for now. Seems to work pretty much as the previous version so would be nice to know if there are any significant improvements.

Thanks to psi2003 for the heads up on this and also for providing the link to the download.

 

No problem. I used to use DefragExpress but recently switched to the new UltimateDefrag 3 (reasonable upgrade price paid for the privilege) as it now includes the DefragExpress functionality, ie, is as easy to use but has the advantage of having more options.

Good luck with your quest!

 

That's very interesting you upgraded for a reasonable price, I would possibly like to do the same. What is the method you used to do this, can it be done automatically or do I have to request this to be done via email.