I am miffed at how long microcrap’s defrag seems to take, and i miss the little graphics of the blocks moving around … anything free and easy and decent available?
I use JKDefrag JkDefrag - Wikipedia
It’s small, free, can run happily in the background (you get a better defrag running it in Windows safemode but that’s only for the anal) and easy to use.
The GUI version has a nice interface for all the options you can muck around with http://www.emro.nl/freeware/
Or the basic version just starts defragging when you run it (you can change options with the command line but if you intend to do that just use the GUI version) http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
Well, I’ve never seen anything improved by using a defrag since Windows came along (and even the experts say you don’t need to defrag unless you’re up to something like 90% disk usage).
But if you want one, Defraggler is pretty good.
I like this free one: Best Free Defrag Software [Download] — Auslogics Disk Defrag
do any of these have graphics indicators showing they are actually doing something, my other laptop has been sitting there defragging a 100 gig hdd that is at about 75% full for 7 hours now … and this piece of vista crap has no indicator anything is happening. Is it hung up? is it half done? is it 90% done? is it jerking my chain and saving the last byte of data for 3 hours from now?
AARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
If you never defragged a hard drive, the initial time you do will be long and painful. The files and file pointers are in such a mess it just takes time. Subsequent, regular defragging reduces the wait substantially.
For example, I’m in the process of creating several O/S installation ISO files so I can automate Windows O/S installation for several machines. I’m testing all sorts of scenarios, drives, base utility applications, etc. I made sure my base hard drive was already defragged before starting this work. Still, creating a single 4.7 GB ISO file means maybe ten times that size moving files, deleting files, copying files, etc. That kind of file activity often means a two-three hour defrag session just to clean up 50 GB of work. Now that I’ve fine-tuned the process, a defrag session might last an hour, but that still include defragging several 4.7 GB ISO files.
BTW, forget Vista’s defrag app. It’s crap. I’ve used Defraggler, Disk Defrag and JkDefrag. Defraggler is my favorite while Disk Defrag is also crap. I’ve also used the pro version of Diskeeper, and sometime a combination of two or all three in one session. YMMV.
but it was defragged less than a month ago, i set it up and went away for the weekend …
and i want pretty pictures to let me know anything is happening … and I am trying to get away from the vista piece of shite defragger… but I want one like wincrap used to have - with some sort of visual indicator SOMETHING was actually happening.
[keeping in mind my idea of what goes on in a repair shop includes sacrificing a live chicken and reading its entrails to get the correct wincrap settings … ]
As I mentioned in the post above, try auslogics. It not only gives you a box showing what is happening, but it constantly gives you the percentage of completion.
I loved the (very) old Norton program. It was like Pac Man, little things eating the files, moving them somewhere, then going back to eat up more. Fun to watch.
The OP is looking for informed opinions, so let’s move this to IMHO.
samclem Moderator
General Questions
The Cadillac is Diskeeper. Worth every penny and then some.
Defraggler is good, too, if you don’t want to pay DK’s price.
Make sure that you delete all the .tmp and .log files that you can before starting a defrag of any kind. It’s amazing how much that will help.
I’m using a MacBook. The drive is getting pretty full. Do I need to defrag? if so, how?
thanks for the advice, I went with Auslogistics. Oddly enough, according to auslogistics I really didn’t need defragging, so [rhetorical microrant here] why the fuck did windows churn through the analysis and not tell me it DIDN’T need a defrag?