What's your disk Defragmenter?

I see your point. DK makes XP defrag eh, I love it. Happy St. Patrick's day.

Hum... in view of this piece of news, I'll just let the DK 30 days run out.

What doesn't compute though is win xp saying all is well and then DK finding many defragged files, maybe xp is using an older/lite version... no way of knowing.

 

Yeah Windows has a stripped-down licensed version of Diskeeper Corporation's Diskeeper.
They have also used Defrag, Norton, back in MSDOS6

I use PerfectDisk normally (and Diskeepers tool to expand the mst)

PerfectDisk is slower but in my opinion alot more thorough initially and also I dont like defrag in the background although you dont have to have that option on in say DK.
In my opinion and on my machines I notice better performance using PD.

 

I'll run the trial on DK til it runs out. Then I'll try perfect disk, in the poll it is #1 so how could so many voters be wrong on Perfect!

I think it is either funny or pathetic that M$ has to farm out for defrag programs.

What else did they not provide with their own staff?

 

Hi Escalader. I have to ask myself if Windows picked DK as their defragger, it can't be all that bad. On the other hand, I noticed at Perfect Disk, they'll give you 20% off if you switch over from DK, and if you do it today, you can get PD for $26. At this point I really don't think defraggers are worth alot of concern, at least for my needs.

 

Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premier! Great piece of software!

TH

 

Thanks for the hint. I have a "rule" these sales where they say act today and save, means you don't have time to research best of breed. The sale will come again me thinks.

As to being defrag concerned yes, agreed, AV's are a concern as is they deal with security and PC invasions.

But to me when I find files smashed into fragments and then the PC has to make multiple reads to find it and re assemble it, that has to impact performance. So if we can run a simple defrag from time to time well do it!

Have a good one!

 

I use Diskeeper 2007 Pro.Mostly because of it's speed.

 

win32nmn, I use the home addition, which defraggs on a need basis in the background so that the occasional clickity click is barely noticable. How do you determin speed unless you're defragging manually? On the few times I did a manual defrag, it took maybe a minute to do a 80GB HD. I think the pro version is for gamers and power pcs right?

 

Hi twl845:

Sorry, I was unclear I meant speed of PC after defrag versus before.
I don't know about everybody else but speed of defrag process itself is less NB to me. I can always get best of breed product (maybe it is slow) and set it running and go for dinner!

DK seems very fast and I have large partitions! So that is good!

 

Why would it funny or pathetic? Have you ever looked at various components of an operating system?

Hyperterminal? (Hilgraeve)
Microsoft Backup? (Veritas)
Internet Explorer (based on Mosaic)

There are many linux distros out there....a collection of tools, utilities, suites...does that make them pathetic?

 

As I mentioned before, I'm using Diskeeper. However, I just downloaded the trial copy of Perfect Disk 8 and I'm checking it out. So far I like the layout better. It's nicely put together. I did a defrag and see how it re-arranges files according to need. I see my bootup files nicely lined up in the beginning. I didn't really need a defrag so I'm not seeing any improvement in speed. More later.

 

@TWL,
do you mean diskeeper 2007?
have you noticed how diskeeper 2007 now just uses the dkservice to do all the defragging?
and how perfectdisk still uses around 5 processes?
also does perfectdisk close most of those processes off if not defragging?
i tried both products before upgrading diskeeper 10 pro to 2007 pro.
lodore

 

Both Diskeeper and Perfect Disk are good. It’s just a matter which one you prefer.

 

Hi Lodore, The curiousity got to me, and I need to at least check PD out. I have only had it installed since last night so haven't had a chance to pick it apart. You mentioned 5 processes. Can you tell me what they are and where I can look to see if they're active? Thanks.

 

Can someone explain to me exactly what a boot-time defrag does, and why that is advantageous? I presume that it speeds up the boot process, but anything else?

I have used the MS Disc Defragmenter that came with my Windows XP for several years now. I have to admit that the defrag results are sometimes puzzling. After a defrag is complete, the red color-coded bars suggest that something is not still not defragmented. If I run several defrags in a row, it appears that files are continuing to get packed, and sometimes the red fragmented files will disappear, and sometimes come back.

The up side for me is that I have never had any system problems as a result of defragging the hard drive; some defraggers can cause problems I believe. I don't have any partitions, and only about 11G of data on a 150G drive. I don't run games, and most of the new data on the drive is just daily security updates. Most of my computing is relatively unsophisticated. I will also note that I run Window Washer (Webroot) before a defrag to eliminate temp files and other junk.

Given my system and computer habits, does it make any sense to go for another defrag application, free or otherwise? I know some do an optimization of file placement on the drive, but would I reasonably expect to see anything worthwhile?

 

Hey cat!

You have an interesting point there for sure.

I was trying to say (poorly) IMHO M$ should have enough programming IQ to build the worlds very best defragger thats all. You are pointing out that it was a better business decision for them to use DK , on that I'm sure you are correct based on how my DK trial is going so far.

On the IE story well, that's too long for this post. A whole industry has grown up to make up for it's deficiencies.


To answer your other question yes, I have not only looked, but supported the internals for IBM's original DOS OS. That was the one Mr Gates bought to the license copy for $50,000 when he started out. In those days big blue didn't think software was NB...boy were they wrong.

Have a good one!

 

dcdc, First as a newbie to the commercial defragging apps, I think that the boot defrag or system defrag does just about what you said, if it was fragmented to begin with. I have noticed a slight crispy end to the bootup process after doing it with Perfect Disk 8. No big deal.
I have pretty much the same set up as you with an 80GB HD, and if I read it right, you get a more thorough defrag with a commercial defragger. This I believe to be true. As to whether you NEED one as opposed to the default defragger in XP, probably not. I have one because I like to tinker and see better results, however minor. I am still in the experimental learning phase, and will probably be able to give a better opinion later. Right now I am using Diskeeper 2007, which I have on manual at the moment so I can check out Perfect Disk 8.

 

Hi twl845!

You and I are doing exactly the same thing! Testing DK now and going to test Perfect later! How can we best compare notes? Have you given any thoughts to how one can compare them? I'm thinking that by the time I get to Perfect trial my drives will be in a much better condition than they were when I started DK test.

Maybe it will be decided on ease of use or speed of the defrag process or footprint these 2 take?

What factors will you consider?

 

Hi Escalader, As I mentioned I am new to the commercial Defrag concept so I'm learning on multiple fronts. When I installed DK my drive was in pretty good shape already according to the default XP defragger. I've been using DK for about a month and it has worked OK. The continuos defragging in the background works OK too. The only thing I don't like although, (it's not an issue) is that a few seconds after bootup DK does a defrag and I have to wait about 30 seconds or so before I can proceed. I didn't wait one day and it must have passed my Mailwasher just as I clicked it, and Mailwasher dumped. The other thing is that I have updated twice, and had an issue both times. The first time it was a bug which DK took care of immediately, and the second time DK dislodged (for lack of a better word) a left in Spysweeper file in Windows, and every time I booted I got a program not found message during bootup.
I have just installed Perfect Disk and did a Smartdefrag where it lines up all your ducks in a row and does a system defrag too. It's too soon to tell anything yet, so far so good. I think it has a better organized setup page than DK. I will use it for the 30 days and then make a final choice.

 

I'm surprised that DK did not provide a setup option that would allow you to skip defragging on startup, especially since defragging is not such a critical function every time you boot.

I'm much more familiar with other types of applications like antispyware, and many of them will allow you to select options at startup like whether or not to do a quick scan, show the splash screen, check for updates, and so on.

 

On DK, I set it up via properties, which gives 2 options.

Clicking on those, you can turn off autodfrag and boottime defrag.

On boot time turn off it applies of course to all partitions, whereas on partitioning you can do it selectively. I do it only on an ongoing basis for the C drive.

On the updates did you mean DK updates? or something else? I can't see DK trial allows me updates? Maybe I'm going blind!

 

Escalader, I bought DK 2007. On the configuration page there's an option to check for DK updates. I don't know if it's in the trial copy. Just because I paid for it doesn't mean I wouldn't shelve it and get PD8 if it turns out I like it better. Time will tell. If you turn off autodefrag, you defeat the DK defrag in the background purpose and have a basic manual defrag. Not that there's anything wrong with that. That's how my DK is set while I'm checking out PD8.

 

twl845:

Okay! Good information! I'll look for the updates.

Yes, it would be turned off for PD8 tests for sure. The idea of 2 defraggers at the same time is pretty scary! if anybody did that it may force them to get out their DVD backup image! (that is in the top left hand drawer!)

My last post on turning off the boottime defrag on DK was for dcdc.

What did you do with boottime defrag on DK? Does PD8 have that wrinkle?

Let me know when you have time...

 

Hi Escalader, I ran the boot time defrag in DK on my initial defrag day. If I read it right it says if you're using NTFS you don't need the boot defrag. I did it anyway. PD does an offline defrag of your system files that can't be moved. You can configure it to do it on a reboot. I did it OK.

 

use process exploerer, sort by company name and find all the processes by raxco when its defragging.
and then see if the processes are still active when its not defragging.
it has been a few months since ive tryed out perfectdisk 8 so i dont know the name of the processes used in perfectdisk 8.
but checking the ones with the company raxco is the easy way. i know what processes are running on my machine so when i test software i can spot the new processes right away.
since it is meant to run say e.g. once a week i wondered if the processes still ran in the background if it wasnt defragging.
it would be annoying if they ran all the time doing nothing.
lodore