Windows 7: Should I defrag manually or not

Reading and searching for information about defragmenting has only caused me more confusion. I have been reading a lot about Win 7 automatic defrag etc. My old Vista PC has also an option where you set up a schedule for automatic defragmenting, so I don't see how Win 7 is different in that aspect...

I have built this gaming PC just a month ago. I have looked at the defrag schedule for both my boot drive and other drive and twice I have seen the boot drive say 4% defrag. Other times, it always shows as 0%.

- What does the above mean?
- I have the defrag set to a monthly schedule for 1st day of the month at midnight. Will I have to leave my PC fully powered on for this to take effect?
- Some people say defragging is not necessary for modern hard drives any more. So is it or is it not?
- I do have about 50GB of data on the boot drive (Velociraptor) and 500 GB of pictures, movies, music, games on the other drive. Is it necessary to defrag them?
- Should I do this manually because my computer is not always on during the "scheduled" defrag time?

Thank you.

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250gb WD Velociraptor - 2tb WE Black - Gigabyte z77x-ud3h - Gigabyte GTX 660 - Corsair GS700 - Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb - CM storm enforcer

Windows 7 is a way more efficient running OS than the old XP or Vista.
I have Perfect Disk 12.5 and every time I'm curious to how defraged my drives are and analyze them they are @ 1% defraged but I still defrag every so often just for chits and giggles cause the system doesn't need to be defraged I just do it cause I started the program and may as well use it.
Having scheduled defrags is not neccessary IMO on a Windows 7 machine

Honestly, the built in Windows defragger is crap, in comparison to all of the better defraggers out there. Defraggler gets high recommendations across the board and it's free. I'm using it and have had no problems with it at all. Defraggler

Schedule it to run once a week or so when you know your PC will be on, but you won't be using it and you'll be fine.

xerxesaria,
Only defrag the spinners and leave the SSD drive in your spec's the heck alone.

I have had over 20 different computers running Windows 7 since it's Beta Trial days. I have never defragged any of them, & never had any major problems because I have not defragged.

It's not mandatory, it's a matter of preventative maintenance. Stuff gets cluttered up over time, especially if you put a lot of data on the drive. Defragging to me is like dusting, and if I can schedule it automatically, why not?

Thank you. So one more question: Can I be using the computer and the automatic defragmenter comes on automatically? Can it work in the back ground or should I not be using the computer then?

It won't hurt anything, but it may slow your system down a little bit.

I only manually defrag after uninstalling/re-installing/updating many applications and OS. For instance, after applying a Service Pack...

The Windows 7 defragmenter works well and runs in the background. You will not notice it running.