Defragmenters! Which do you recommend?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by hjlavery

I had thought that drive spin down was a function of the controller chip, which is why cheap raid cards can decrease the life of hard drives... I could be wrong though....

Drive spin down can be set in Windows or automatically done by the drive itself.

[sultan_emerr]

Windows XP Built-In

[Willieboy]

O&O defrag.

O&O Software - Creating Solutions

I've tried diskeeper and Perfect Disk, O&O is supreme.
5 modes of defragging,
From the help :-
Overview
O&O Defrag 10 offers you five different methods of defragmenting your computer:

· STEALTH

· SPACE

· COMPLETE/Access

· COMPLETE/Modified

· COMPLETE/Name

Each of these methods offers you an efficient and quick online defragmentation of your files, i.e., no service or application must be paused or stopped whilst the defragmentation takes place. STEALTH and SPACE are optimized for the fastest possible defragmentation of your files, whereas the COMPLETE methods provide a more thorough defragmentation. This requires more time and more free hard disk space. By re-arranging your files to use the available space as efficiently as possible, further fragmentation is avoided.

All methods can be used on all volumes, including volume sets, stripe sets with and without parity, etc., and are equipped for best possible data security. This is achieved by working together with the defragmentation routines integrated into Windows, and makes sure that data are not lost in your computer or network crashes, or if there is a power cut.

[g0tanks]

O&O Defrag

[acedriver]

right now I'm using JKDefrag

[graysky]

+1 for jkdefrag and jkdefrag64

[Zenphic]

Anybody tried Defraggler from the people that made CCleaner? Looks fairly decent

Defraggler - Defragment your files!

[Mac Daddy]

Originally Posted by Zenphic

Anybody tried Defraggler from the people that made CCleaner? Looks fairly decent

Defraggler - Defragment your files!

No haven't tried it

THX for the link

[Digerati]

I've used both O & O and Diskeeper, and I've liked Diskeeper more. I think it does the job more efficiently.

[mikegas]

Originally Posted by Rotarizer

I
Interesting, some of the more pricey laptops come with HDD shock-protection systems where the heads are parked in a 'safe' position away from the drive platter surface as soon as the built-in accelerometer detects sudden acceleration. I don't know if the platters spin down too, but I would guess not.

There is a general misconception that the HDD works like an old record player, but the read/write head actually floats a few nanometers or microns above the platter surface and never comes in contact with the magnetic media. Well, for any reason, if it buries itself on the platter, then you can kiss the HDD goodbye because the magnetic media is only a thin film on the platter substrate, and any physical contact with the head will irreparably damage it.

Hmm ... mobile drive are more robust then that of desktop. I know almost all mobile drives come with a feature where by the head would park off media during spin-up and idling. I do not think would cause you extra when buying laptop as now is a common feature. And Yes this would indeed help during non-operation shock that might causes head-slap and of course some power saving.

As in why mobile drive are more robust, because of the usage profile on notebook and external portable. They are design to have vibration sensors build into the board. If there is sudden vibration caused to the drive, then the write to media would be delay, this would prevent potential data corruption or weak magnetic signal written.

Yes you are correct when magnetic media is a thin film on the platter. Not only magnetic media is affect during head-slap, head degrade and debris would also shorten the life-span of drive.

So a little vibration to your drive is ok but a shock (drop) especially during operation is a no no ..