Seven Best Disk Defragmenters
There’s nothing more important than defragmenting your hard drive to keep it running smooth. Daily operation of your computer means that your hard drive becomes disorganized, which leads to system slowdowns, crashes, slow start-ups and sometimes hard drive failure.
For those of you unfamiliar with the problem of file fragmentation and why it’s so important to your computer’s maintenance schedule, a brief explanation follows. First off defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmented files on your computer’s hard drive. The process performs this operation by physically organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file close together and contiguously. It also attempts to create larger areas of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation.
Basically, your files on your hard drive are stored in blocks of data. The larger the file the more blocks of space is needed for storage. As you store, move, and delete data on your hard drive it becomes disorganized. As you move and delete data on your hard drive the process leaves blank pockets of space, over time your hard drive begins to fill those blank pockets of space with data. Data gets scattered all over the place. It’s like having a messy dysfunctional filing cabinet, folders are scattered all over the place, and it takes a good deal of time to locate that information. In order to make the process of finding that information quickly, you need to reorganize the filing system and your hard drive needs the same from time to time. Depending on usage once a week is fine for most users, if your a power moving and deleting data dailythen once a day may be your game.
The below listed defragmentation software are all specialized applications which will help you restores, optimize and maintains your computer’s performance. I have used each and recommend each of them.
1. Auslogics Disk Defrag is a simple and power disk defragmentation program and my favorite. The freeware software has a three steps wizard which makes it extremely easy to use. The operation is fast and comprehensive enough to make the results visible in the read/write access time. You can to set the priority of the application and have it shut your computer down when the defragmentation process is over, which is a nice feature to have when you have gone to bed.
2. Once installed, Diskeeper defragments your hard drive in the background, when idle it repairs any issues that your hard drive may be suffering from. Because it runs in the background when idle it doesn’t require defragmentation scheduling nor uses a lot of resources to perform it’s task. Just install it and forget it, Diskeeper does the rest. You’ll discover the change in your computer’s performance in no time. Diskeeper is idea for heavily used servers as it will perform defragmentation only when the server is idle (normally around midnight which is typically non-peak hours) thus not creating any load issues. Diskeeper can also perform a quick defragmentation of system files on boot to keep your operating system running as efficiently as possible.
3. Defraggler is a freeware defragmentation tool from Piriform Ltd, the same company that brought you two popular software applications, CCleaner and Recuva. It can scan multiple disks, individual disks, folders, or individual files for some quick, pin pointing defragging. When Defraggler scans a disk, it displays all the fragmented files and lets you either select sets to be defragmented or a batch. All you need to do is run a analysis and it will list down all the fragmented files on the drive so you can select the files that you want to defrag. It’s easy to use and the latest version includes 64-bit support.
4. In addition to it’s standard defragmentation abilities, PerfectDisk’s claim to fame is what they call “SmartPlacement option”, which analyzes usage patterns and organizes data to minimize future fragmentation. It also analyzes your usage and creates optimization patterns best suited for your style of data operations. PerfectDisk offers statistical analysis, can be scheduled or toggled to run when the computer is idle for continuous defragmentation. Another feature it has that I like is the ability to defragment remote computers running another copy of PerfectDisk. Currently PerfectDisk costs $29.00 US Dollars and well worth it.
5. SmartDefrag is freeware and features an automated defragger that continually defrags the files used most while your computer is idle, the program utilizes 14MB of RAM and is a great application for making older machines run better. It includes a scheduler allowing you to defrag whenever you wish and has features to defrag at start-up or just before shut-down. You can also have it to secure your computer when it’s done defragging your hard drives and partitions while you get some rest.
6. O&O Defrag 12 is another defragmenter which offers flexibility. It can operate in stealth mode, has a scheduler, can defrag during moments your computer is idle. It comes with 5 defrag methods, each one achieving optimal results for the range of applications on each of your systems. O&O Defrag is a solid choice for its target audience the home-office user. It’s everything a superior defragmentation application should be: it gives you fully automatic defragmentation for the home user as well as expert-level professional setting options and will cost you $49.00 US Dollars.
7. JkDefrag is a disk defragmenting utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/X64. Completely automatic and simple to use; fast, low load, several optimization methjods, and works with floppies, USB flash drives, memory sticks, or anything that looks like a disk to Windows.
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Another great defragger is this technique
http://www.techtwist.net/defrag.html
it reduces the defrag time, its great. Good article.