Recommended Defragging software

[HackSore]

Ok, i'll admit it, i have never (as far as i can remember) defragged a hard drive!

Never really felt the need to until now, one of my storage drives is really slow, hangs when i'm clicking around ect, so i thought i would defrag and see if it improves.

So what do people recommend as far as defragging software goes?

[mtekk]

You may want to check out this review by X-Bit labs it's on Raxco's PerfectDisk 8. You can use the results in it and compare them to the built in Windows utility from their first defragmentation drive benchmark. I couldn't find a review comparing performance of the defragmenation jobs (everyone seem to just care about the time it takes to defrag). I've used PerfectDisk 7 and it is much better than the built in Windows one.

Also, if your drives seem to run slower when full, like directory listing takes forever. Then you may want to make sure you are using NTFS (or some other journaling file system) as FAT32 does slow down more and more with more files on the drive due to the way it works.

[.Maleficus.]

I like AusLogics Disk Defrag.

[HackSore]

Thanks for the help guys, i will give them both a try!

[crenn]

There is a free version of AusLogic Disk Defrag, but Raxco's PerfectDisk works great!

[J-Roc]

Im surprised no one has mentioned that he check to see if his drive needs to be defraged in the first place.

The windows defrag program has an analyzer. It'll tell you all the info you need. It even shows what files are fragmented.

[.Maleficus.]

Im surprised no one has mentioned that he check to see if his drive needs to be defraged in the first place.

The windows defrag program has an analyzer. It'll tell you all the info you need. It even shows what files are fragmented.

If he's never defragged it, chances are he needs to.

[J-Roc]

I've never defraged this computer or my last computer that i had for 3 years. If you check the fragmented file list it might show that only your media files, video's pictures ect are fragmented. Its only files that get edited and changed that become fragmented. Most system files never change. With smarter programs that pre-allocate space, the need to defrag is very rare.

I know some of thoes programs use a process to monitor disk usage and forcfully pre-alocate files. Which in my opinon would cause an decrease in performance. Its has been some time since i used DiskKeeper though. If your system seems to be suffering, i would strongly recomend a registry cleaner over a disk defragmentor. Allthough in thoes rare cases where a defragment is actually required, it might speed up the process a bit.