What is the best free defragger?

[BuzWeaver]

After a reboot, the Icon Image is gone, bummer. The program still works though.

 

[FullyLoadedMan]

I'm using Smart Defrag by iobit. Works well. Has all the options you could want, schedule, work all the time in the background etc.

The main advantage that can be offered by Defraggers is if they move most frequently used files and directories into the fastest area of the disk. Smart defrag does that (as does PerfectDisk mentioned above).That can noticeably improve speed on your rig (when you first do it at least).

Defragmentation itself really isn't a big deal. Forking out money for a Defragger is almost certainly a complete waste, and the built in Defragmentation routine in Win 7 is probably plenty good enough!

Defragging the registry is IMO complete snake oil and absolutely unneccesary. Much more dangerous than any claimed benifits you might get. But really there are no benefits, just as there are no benefits from a registry cleanup tool. Removing a few hundred lines from a Registry Hive will have absolutely NO effect on speed or efficiency. None has ever been reported because it doesn't work.

I agree with this guy.
I also use smart Defrag

 

[XceptOne]

defraggler for me here

 

[Jacee]

I've been using AusLogics, downloaded and just used 'Quicksys DiskDefrag'... it kind of reminds me of O&O (in a way), slow, but I'll try it with Vista and XP just to make sure I like it.

 

[TheTemplai]

Windows Defragger only consolidate the Hard Driver, in other words just put the files all together. (Don't no really about Windows 7 Defragger)

The difference in Windows Defragger and others third part defraggers it is because the other defraggers can do another methods like Volatility, Recency, by folder or file name, etc..

There are many many horrible and useless defraggers out there so be careful..

And about defragger the registry, that is a little bit stupid, don't do that.

Bye bye.

 

[Generator]

I prefer to stick with Microsoft programs for this department... I use one called Contig which has done me well for many years...

Contig

A bit of a contradiction there....



Windows Defrag FTW!, it's designed by MS for their very own Win 7... Who knows their own OS better?
Don't forget it's still a beta, and the rest of the world is mainly still guessing what might work (or even 'seem to')...

As far as system tools go, as long as 7 is Beta, everything else claiming to be Win7 compatible is still just a guess (or 'Beta' if you prefer lol!). Nothings set in concrete 'till the final arrives.

EDIT: and +1 to the above post.

 

[bankerrahul]

I have been using only windows defragger for sometime and today I installed auslogics defragger program and its showing a lot of spaces. So whats the best?

windows has its own ms-dos command to defrag the drives
it is "defrag c: -w"
it will defrag the c drive....you can replace it with the location you want....believe me..it is the best
rep. me if you find it helpful
thanks,

 

[screwballl]

yes MS does have their own built in Defrag programs which do work well in and of itself... but the Contig I mentioned is one that not only just moves files together... but it actually looks at individual files to see if they are split into more than one place on the hard drive, then places them together, then moves everything back together.... excellent program!
There is also a front side GUI that uses the contig for the defragmentation called Power Defragmenter GUI...
but it does help after installing/unzipping this program, that you go to my previous link at Microsoft and download the latest contig program and replace the contig that comes with the Power Defragmenter program.... especially with W7

 

[holo88]

is there freeby that defrags the MFT files on boot up? like Perfect Disk does? my "trial" of that has expired. i've been using Defragler (i like it). but it cant get to those stubborn system files.

 

[Charles Kane]

Thanks to screwball for drawing attention to Mark Russinovich's Contig file defragmenter which seems to play a very particular role in Defragmentation - in a word to make particular files contiguous on disk.

Wikipedia describes what it does as follows

Contig is designed to defragment individual files and does not attempt to move files to the beginning of the partition. Contig has advantages over the Windows built in defragementor tool in that it can target individual files, individual directories, and subsets of the file system using wildcards.


Contig does not move any data except that belonging to the file in the question, so the amount it can defrag a file is limited to the largest contiguous block of free space on a system. Use of contig exchanges decreased file fragmentation for increased free space fragmentation.

Given that Russinovich is the SysInternals guy at Technet and one of the leading public faces as an MS systems engineer and architect you gotta give respect there. BTW pretty well all SysInternal tools, including Contig can be run online now! (Still, i have, Process Explorer and Autoruns installed, excellent programs)

I'm wondering whether using Contig first, then a defragmenter (like SmartDefrag or Perfect Disk) which moves frequently used files to the front of the disk - would give the best of both worlds?

As I originally said, all this is probably overkill but ....

 

[SIW2]

For Contig fans - there is a free GUI available - here:

PowerDefragmenter.zip - Windows Live

 

[Uber Philf]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Diskeeper '09, im using that, it does the job for me

 

[Charles Kane]

For Contig fans - there is a free GUI available - here:

PowerDefragmenter.zip - Windows Live

Thanks for your link - I'm running it now, then i think I'll put away defraggers for a cpl of months!

 

[SIW2]

LOL. You're welcome.

 

[techcal]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Diskeeper '09, im using that, it does the job for me

Yeah, Diskeeper 2009 is a fantastic utility -fast, thorough and automatic
Although it's not free (since the OP specifically asked for a free app), it's a great investment for long term use...well worth the price.

 

[TheTeZ]

I'm using Smart Defrag by iobit. Works well. Has all the options you could want, schedule, work all the time in the background etc.

The main advantage that can be offered by Defraggers is if they move most frequently used files and directories into the fastest area of the disk. Smart defrag does that (as does PerfectDisk mentioned above).That can noticeably improve speed on your rig (when you first do it at least).

Defragmentation itself really isn't a big deal. Forking out money for a Defragger is almost certainly a complete waste, and the built in Defragmentation routine in Win 7 is probably plenty good enough!

Defragging the registry is IMO complete snake oil and absolutely unneccesary. Much more dangerous than any claimed benifits you might get. But really there are no benefits, just as there are no benefits from a registry cleanup tool. Removing a few hundred lines from a Registry Hive will have absolutely NO effect on speed or efficiency. None has ever been reported because it doesn't work.

smart defrag is my recommendation!

 

[Uber Philf]

Very true, but back when all the different releases were dished out, this was great with the trial, you wouldn't have our release any longer then 30days, hence the trial being very very handy

 

[Cindy]

Im using Smart Defrag, works great and is complete free for home, organisation, and business > http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

 

[Scotteq]

My understanding is that a standalone defragmentation utility is not desired, and that the best thing you can do is nothing:

Engineering Windows 7 : Disk Defragmentation – Background and Engineering the Windows 7 Improvements

Best practices for using defragmentation in Windows 7 are simple – you do not need to do anything! Defragmentation is scheduled to automatically run periodically and in the background with minimal impact to foreground activity. This ensures that data on your hard disk drives is efficiently placed so the system can provide optimal responsiveness

 

[Victek]

My understanding is that a standalone defragmentation utility is not desired, and that the best thing you can do is nothing:

Engineering Windows 7 : Disk Defragmentation – Background and Engineering the Windows 7 Improvements

.
I read the article linked above, and then I tried the Windows 7 defragger. Although I would agree that it is somewhat improved compared with Vista I don't think that adding "percentage complete" status constitutes "listening" to all the feedback given about Vista defrag. The disk map implemented in XP has an important function - it is not simply entertainment. For instance I recently ran defrag on an XP machine which only had 25% free space. Although the process completed without error and did not give a low disk space warning, the disk map showed that fragmentation was still very bad. I then installed PerfectDisk and did both a boot-time defrag and a couple of passes in Windows. When it was done the data was fully defragged and moved to front edge of the drive. Without the disk map there would be no way to determine this. Ideally you want to not only defrag the files, you also want to defrag the free space by consolidating the data, which slows the process of fragmentation going forward.