Is W7 defrag tool enough?

[MilesAhead]

Is the included W7 derfag tool enough?
I am using perfectdisk 10 but it is always moving files about when using smartplacement.
And I see no real benefit to this smartplacement.

Enough for what?

It's sort of like beauty in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone uses their systems for the same things. For surfing the web you might find it fine not to defrag for a month or 2. If you routinely mux video files you might defrag every day.

That said, I like Puran Defrag. It's free and has some nice options without getting "too thorough." I don't want to spend 4 days defragging my drive when 15 minutes is good enough(for my usage.)

 

[techcal]

IMHO, the 7 defrag is a step up from the horrible mess that was the Vista defragger but still lags well behind the better third party utilities in speed, thoroughness of defrag, options,customization, file placement algorithms, reporting etc. Ofcourse, the best commercial utilities are not free, so depends on what your priorities are. Some of the high end utilities even have interesting features like auto fragmentation prevention thus obviating the need for most defrags in the first place.

 

[Maxxwire]

To my knowledge MyDefrag has a wider variety of Scripts to choose from than any other Defragmentation program free or paid plus the ability to create your own custom Scripts which unique to MyDefrag...

Sometimes the best things in life are Free!

~Maxx~

 

[Digerati]

Sometimes the best things in life are Free!

Ah, like the native defragger in Window 7, which is free, very effective, and does not consume additional disk space like 3rd party defrag programs you must download and install.

I remind folks again that the minute you start to use your computer after defragging, fragmentation starts again. So it really makes little sense to put so much concern in trying to an eek every last bit of defragging out of a drive. It is like washing a your car when rain is predicted.

 

[Maxxwire]

I do not refrain from eating knowing I will only become hungry again and neither do I neglect to defrag my Hard Disk simply because it will start to defragment again because while it is in a highly defragmented state the optical reader will have much less ware thus prolonging the life of my Hard Drive.

This is not just about defragmentation it is also about Optimization of the Hard drive which if done well can yield improvements in computer performance far beyond any possible benefits that defragmentation can.

For example after the first time I used MyDefrag to Optimize my computer's Hard Drive by using the Sorting According To Last Access Script it took a full 30 seconds off of its boot time which is far and away more than simple defragmentation can accomplish!

~Maxx~

 

[logicearth]

For example after the first time I used MyDefrag to Optimize my computer's Hard Drive by using the Sorting According To Last Access Script it took a full 30 seconds off of its boot time which is far and away more than simple defragmentation can accomplish!

~Maxx~

I found a better solution that nets even better results. Seagate's Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive. It uses 4 GBs of solid state memory to cache frequently access files (regardless of OS in use) this includes most bootup files. Making fragmentation and position less of an issue is this regard.

I just so happen to got one a few weeks ago.

 

[gregrocker]

The best things in life are free.

 

[Wishmaster]

For example after the first time I used MyDefrag to Optimize my computer's Hard Drive by using the Sorting According To Last Access Script it took a full 30 seconds off of its boot time which is far and away more than simple defragmentation can accomplish!

~Maxx~

I found a better solution that nets even better results. Seagate's Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive. It uses 4 GBs of solid state memory to cache frequently access files (regardless of OS in use) this includes most bootup files. Making fragmentation and position less of an issue is this regard.

I just so happen to got one a few weeks ago.

Slightly off topic but, I was actually curious about these.
Not for the OS, but as a drive for Games only.

I'm wondering if it would help any there. I'm guessing it would only have benefits as a OS drive though.

Seeing as you have one, what do think of it and do you think it may help as a Games only drive?

 

[Maxxwire]

Seagate's Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive.

Very nice and only $149

~Maxx~

 

[Wishmaster]

Seagate's Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive.

Very nice and only $149

~Maxx~

$129 at NewEgg
Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

 

[Maxxwire]

With all due respect the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive's read and write times aren't even as fast as the 1TB OEM Hitachi HDD in my Win 7 desktop which has a 132 MBps read and 126 MBps write time according to Crystal Disk Mark and it is the bottleneck that is keeping my WEI at 5.9 instead of 7.5.

~Maxx~

 

[Layback Bear]

Very nice cluberti that was full of information. Thank you! I think it would make a nice Sticky.
Microsoft uses their own.

 

[cluberti]

Thanks! I'll be here all week - try the veal!

//queue bad 70s music//

 

[logicearth]

Seeing as you have one, what do think of it and do you think it may help as a Games only drive?

Very much so esp., when it is a game you play multiple times. A lot of the stuff that has to remain on the HDD gets cached in the SSD portion so the loading the screens come and go just as quickly. Now it is not as fast as a say a full SSD drive and the cache is for frequently read items only.

This caching to SSD is completely independent of the OS you are using.
It is maintained and monitored by the drive itself.

 

[logicearth]

With all due respect the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive's read and write times aren't even as fast as the 1TB OEM Hitachi HDD in my Win 7 desktop which has a 132 MBps read and 126 MBps write time according to Crystal Disk Mark and it is the bottleneck that is keeping my WEI at 5.9 instead of 7.5.

~Maxx~

You are going have to get a full SSD drive if you are wanting 7.5.
The Momentus XT is not a full SSD drive, merely a middle ground between the two.

 

[Wishmaster]

Seeing as you have one, what do think of it and do you think it may help as a Games only drive?

Very much so esp., when it is a game you play multiple times. A lot of the stuff that has to remain on the HDD gets cached in the SSD portion so the loading the screens come and go just as quickly. Now it is not as fast as a say a full SSD drive and the cache is for frequently read items only.

This caching to SSD is completely independent of the OS you are using.
It is maintained and monitored by the drive itself.

Im thinking I may try one. I would like to have a SSD for a Game drive, but I have a lot of Games installed. So I certainly want something that performs decent with plenty of space.

Or maybe even 2 spinners in RAID, or 2 of these even


Think I may give one a try.

The entire hybrid concept seems like it may be a good idea.

 

[Maxxwire]

You are going have to get a full SSD drive if you are wanting 7.5.
The Momentus XT is not a full SSD drive, merely a middle ground between the two.

logicearth- I was just commenting on the suggestion of using a Hybrid SSD. As for myself l do believe that SSD is definitely the way to go and 2 Intel SSD's in RAID 0 simply fly...

~Maxx~