Best Defragment Software

tw33k said:

I don't use it anymore because I use SSDs now but O&O was my choice.

fyi you are still suppose to degfrag sdd's just rarly though like once a year. file fragmentation is not physical its virtual so sdds still get fragmented but since they are non mechanical the seek times are not really affected much so thats why ur suppose to only do it very very rarely

O&O Defra is good, I think version 10 is better than version 12.

tw33k said:

I don't use it anymore because I use SSDs now but O&O was my choice.

I'm no student of (certainly no expert on) defragging, but I've been pondering the choice of a routine defragger for a while and would add some musings (a bit long-winded perhaps, but difficult to cut down): they might not help anyone, but on the other hand .......

To start with, my choice (which means commercial cos you're free to switch freeware) is also O&O Defrag - v12 - helped by current 40% discount and even better 2nd license deal (will make a fine birthday pressie for a friend, although I might hold onto it until I've proven Defrag 12's ability to sort my networked PCs as advertised). It was almost a toss-up between Perfect Disk 11 - latter is clearly capable and informative - but I didn't like the UI (despite it's many plaudits) and decided I'd rarely use it's specific file defrag capability. I will, however, continue to play with freeware to see if there is anything that compliments (rather than complicates) O&O defrags - this is obviously a trial and error thing to be done over time. Why bother? Because my personal conclusion is that defrag perfection depends on how you use your computer. Plus, there are so many good defraggers, with nuances on method, that something else (that is tunable) might just fill the gaps in another app's capability - I shall see anyway, whenever an idle moment occurs.

Of the freebies: I found Smart Defrag very satisfactory and produced a very fast boot (not timed - it's a body-clock thing), while Puran (out of the box) definitely resulted in a comparatively sluggish boot after defrag. However, Smart Defrag doesn't offer off-line (boot) defrag while Puran does. Much more difficult to determine their comparative effect on general ops and I wouldn't like to offer a hard opinion. MyDefrag (aka JKDefrag) is an app I have tried to get on with many times and it is clearly very capable, but just doesn't resonate with me (one of those I shall definitely keep in the back pocket though, along with Smart Defrag). I've also tried early versions of UltimateDefrag and again it is clearly very capable, but again the "resonate" factor applies.

In summary, for what mho's worth: it seems fairly clear to me, they all kinda work and a good defragger is one that makes a difference to you. It is equally clear that trialling many (over a period of time) is no bad thing. After doing so, I found I liked using my O&O (trial) install and stopped worrying whether it was so much better or worse than the competition (commercial or free). It's extremely capable, produces good results on my laptop and the 40% discount + cheapy 2nd license clinched it.

Oh, and O&O Defrag v12 does do folder and file defrags - via the Win Explorer context menu. Didn't notice before - neat. I probably still won't use that much.