The other day I defrag my primary 20GB partition for the first time in a year I think with Diskkeeper. Checked my friend's hdd with diskkeeper, so thought of defrag mine as well. One OT question, what should I use to check for bad sector or the hdd's integrity, etc.?
OT : You can always use Windows' Error Checking Tool. Or you can try Norton's Scandisk. Works the same, I think.
O....like that i have to get one for my notebook! Since you guys say that it is good to defrag, i guess i will do it too... There is no complicated procedures to defrag, right?
Diskkeeper of course. I don't trust Micro$oft,... but wait then why am I using XP?.... damnit! Ah well Diskkeeper works great.
Ok, i will try to download it when i get back to my hometown. Will let you guys know bout it after i defrag my HD.
It depends on what you defragged. Did you just defrag the partition where you stored MP3s or small files? Or did you defrag the partition containing the operating system or large media files?
I defragged my whole HD.... Well, there is a difference that I din't notice earlier. Seems like my free space increased from 35% to 37% after i defragged it overnight.
Microsofts defrag is actually a stripped version of Diskkeeper. I downloaded the diskkeeper trial, but found it doesn't do much to prevent fragmentation short of running their Set it and Forget it thing (which just slowed my access times). With the XP built-in it would re arrange the files on the hard drive to open up big spaces, but diskkeeper would just remove fragments but never bunch up the data. Don't know if what I am saying makes sense so I will do a make shift example. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::: Windows built in after defrag ::::::: ::::::: : : :: : :::::::::: ::::::::::: :: Windows after diskkeeper defrag. If you have a big lets say 2GB file and you need to put it on that drive it is going to get fragmented right away on the one using diskkeeper where the windows will not. I haven't tried any of the others except for speeddisk (which actually made things worse), but I will have to check out the other programs. If I can get something that works as good or better then the microsoft one... then great one less piece of M$ crap I have to use. Have Fun Jeremy
That is what I do. There are some programs that state they can organize your hard drive better by monitoring what files are being used more often and stick them on the outside of the hard drive, but I have never seen any performance increase with these. Only a drop because their is a program in the back monitoring what files are being used. For a free scanner the one that is built into XP works great. Just defrag every couple of weeks or every month to prevent really long defrag sessions. Just an FYI... your hard drive gets fragmented almost any time you put on a file (really small files are usually exempt). So if you install a game or copy a lot of stuff onto the computer it would be beneficial to run it before and after. Sometimes you may not have time to run it before but at least run it after. The two benefits I can see to running 3rd party defragers is that some are faster, and some can defrag when there is little space on the hard drive left. I know that Diskkeeper was able to defrag the drive faster then the built in one, but I don't think it did as good of a job. Norton Speeddisk seemed to take about the same time as windows. But the biggest benefit I see (at least for me) is that some defragers can run when there is very little space left on the hard drive. I constantly fill my hard drives and I am usually left with under the 15% that is recommended free by windows. Usually I ignore the warning but it doesn't defrag some of my larger files. With both speeddisk and diskkeeper they were able to defrag some (not all) of those larger files. Most people, however, do not fill their hard drives like I do so the second point could be pointless. The first one, though, I think is pointless also because diskkeeper may have been able to defrag faster but you ran into the problems I stated in my above post. So to sum everything up, I think the windows defrager works fine for most people and they will not see any difference in performance between any of the softwares as long as they keep the hard drive defraged (at least once a month if not more). Good Luck Jeremy
OK after reading this comparison I think I will give perfect disk a shot. Perfect Disk vs Disk Keeper I will keep people informed of my observations. Good Luck Jeremy
OK, so far I am extremely impressed with Perfect Disk. I defragged my laptop hard drive with all options except Aggressive Free Space Consolodation. My hard drive was a 45.4GB partition C: drive with 626MB free or about 1.3% free. (I know it is really filled.) Before Defrag: Code: 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Statistics for Volume C: 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Percent completed: 100 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Elapsed Time: 00:00:00 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM CPU Time: 00:00:00 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Total Files Scanned: 54875 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Number of Fragmented Files: 3427 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Number of Fragmented Directories: 120 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Number of Excess Fragments: 13469 10/4/2005 12:33:32 AM Percent Fragmented: 6.9 10/4/2005 12:34:48 AM SmartPlacement Optimization starting for Volume C: After Defrag: Code: 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Statistics for Volume C: 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Percent completed: 100 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Elapsed Time: 03:46:41 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM CPU Time: 00:04:39 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Total Files Scanned: 54871 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Number of Fragmented Files: 76 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Number of Fragmented Directories: 0 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Number of Excess Fragments: 151 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM Percent Fragmented: 0.2 10/4/2005 4:21:29 AM SmartPlacement Optimization completed for Volume C:. So the big thing here is Fragmented files went from 3427 to 76 and excess fragments went from 13469 to 151. This is incredible considering I had slightly over 1% of free space. I have never seen a scanner do this well. And there is an option I love where it consolidates all free space. So now the test will be the general performance after defraging. Unfortunately this process will take a while to determine. But so far I am extremely impressed with this software. I may even purchase it if it pans out. Have Fun Jeremy
So far it is good, although I haven't had a whole lot of time to test it. Website is here http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/ Just click on the free evaluation link and you get a 30 day trial. Good Luck Jeremy
