Defrag?

With the speed of today's 7,200+rpm drives, better management by the OS, plus an overall average of PC's with better resources, the noticeable benefit of defragging isn't nearly as important as it once was.

Older PC's that are heavily fragmented with less resources and slower 5400 drives will show more of a 'noticeable' benefit than newer, quicker PC's.

I personally used to use 3rd party defrag apps, but I now just just stick with the built in one. Seven does a better job of handling fragmentation than older version of Windows. (Particularity XP and older)

It may not have as many 'bells and whistles', nor be as arguably effective as some 3rd party apps but from a day to day usage perception, I can't really spot any post-defrag performance difference between the built in vs 3rd party apps.


Like browser choice, it's really a case of 'each to their own'.



Although I do echo others sentiments when it comes to 'only use one and don't do it excessively'.

I'd still like to know what the dangers are from using two defragmentation applications. Is it the danger of them running simultaneously???

mjf said:

I'd still like to know what the dangers are from using two defragmentation applications. Is it the danger of them running simultaneously???

Probably because different defragmenters have somewhat different ideas (relocation algorithms) about where to place bits of data (although no one knows exactly what they are). Using 2 defraggers may cause each to undo the work of the other. Best to identify one then stick to it instead of trying to second guess it.

Commercial defrag makers tend to dole out a fair bit of snake oil, when it comes to "advanced" features. Greg was talking about "intelligent optimization" in Puran- great its working for him but what exactly IS intelligent optimization and how is it superior to what others are using? I remember a similar discussion about IOBIT's software on SF some time ago.

As for boot defrag, it can be done with the builtin defragger too using the -b switch.

Defrag from the Command-Line for More Complete Control

Bill2 said:

mjf said:

I'd still like to know what the dangers are from using two defragmentation applications. Is it the danger of them running simultaneously???

Probably because different defragmenters have somewhat different ideas (relocation algorithms) about where to place bits of data (although no one knows exactly what they are). Using 2 defraggers may cause each to undo the work of the other.

Yes but I'm surprised to see such a radical difference between Windows own and Defraggler.

I thought older Windows defrag programs gave more options and visual information via the GUI.
Maybe it's nostalgia but I like to see a picture of the cluster field.

Windows seems quite happy with a dispersed cluster field so when you use a partition manager (eg. Partition Wizard) to move a partition boundary it must move these dispersed clusters and perform what Defraggler calls "Defrag Freespace".

I'd like to see display of the cluster field also, but that's just my obsessive side talking.

I think earlier versions of the Windows tool defragged larger file fragments than the current version. With the current version, it leaves you with a small number of large fragments that Windows engineers have determined have no significant impact on performance, so they are deliberately left behind.

Layback Bear said:

What is the b switch and how do I get to it.

Click on Start/All Programs/Accessories/Right click on Cmd Prompt and select to Run as Administrator. At the Command Prompt: C:\Windows\system32>, type in defrag c: -b

It will look like this: C:\Windows\system32>defrag c: -b

The window will then look like this:

C:\Windows\system32>defrag -b C:
Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright © 2007 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking boot optimization on (C:)...

Pre-Defragmentation Report:

Volume Information:
Volume size = 49.99 GB
Free space = 21.12 GB
Total fragmented space = 2%
Largest free space size = 4.59 GB

Note: File fragments larger than 64MB are not included in the fragmentation statistics.

@Greg, the page Defrag from the Command-Line for More Complete Control doesnt list the -b switch.