Definitive Best Defragmenter 2012

[Lee G. Veteran]

An updated "Best Defragmenter" poll for 2012. Please use this as a reference when researching Defrag utilities. As time goes on, the poll can be updated to add further options.

Happy Voting!

[johnporter29]

Other.

Not really neccessary these days with evolution of SSDs

[stereopixels]

Defraggler - it's free/donationware, it's quick, it's simple and it seems to do about as good a job as anything else I've tried.

[yowanvista]

Defraggler

[deactivated_]

I don't really use one anymore, but when I did it was PerfectDisk, which surprisingly isn't on the list.

[Lee G. Veteran]

Defraggler - it's free/donationware, it's quick, it's simple and it seems to do about as good a job as anything else I've tried.

I voted for Defraggler for the same reasons.

[Miuku.]

Not really neccessary these days with evolution of SSDs

Yes and we all know how EVERYBODY has an SSD. Oh wait, in fact a mind bogglingly superior majority of people DON'T run on one.

[HawkMan]

It's not really necessary with regular disks either. even if another one is better than the windows built in one, it's not gonna matter one iota.

I don't see why these threads are made, it just keeps the illusion alive that people still need to defrag and use third party tools for it.

[sorlag]

The best defrager is MyDefrag which is the successor of JKDefrag:

Most defragers even slow down the disk...

Benchmark of all Defragers:

http://hofmannc.de/defragxp/benchmarks_en.html

MyDefrag:

http://www.mydefrag.com/

[xendrome]

The best defrager is MyDefrag which is the successor of JKDefrag:

Most defragers even slow down the disk...

Benchmark of all Defragers:

http://hofmannc.de/d...chmarks_en.html

MyDefrag:

http://www.mydefrag.com/

MyDefrag is extremely solid because it is based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft, a system library that is included in Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, and Win7. Most defragmenters are based on this API, including the free defragmenter that comes with Windows and many commercial defragmenters. Basically all MyDefrag does is send "move this file to that location" commands to the API. The API is part of the operating system and can safely move almost any file on the disk, without risk and while the computer is in full use.

Right from the MyDefrag site, basically I've seen this statement before and what it seems to say is, no matter what Defrag app you are using it still uses the API from Windows, essentially comes down to how efficient the APP is at sending the commands and how fast it is at doing so. Otherwise you are getting the same result from all defrag apps, except the real-time ones like DIskeeper which prevent the fragmentation on regular HDD's from happening in the first place.

[sorlag]

Right from the MyDefrag site, basically I've seen this statement before and what it seems to say is, no matter what Defrag app you are using it still uses the API from Windows, essentially comes down to how efficient the APP is at sending the commands and how fast it is at doing so. Otherwise you are getting the same result from all defrag apps, except the real-time ones like DIskeeper which prevent the fragmentation on regular HDD's from happening in the first place.

Not exactly.

The API's expose different routines and not one like "DefragTheDrive" or "DefragTheFile".

Youre able to get the fragmentlocations and place the file on another location or defragment it.

What MyDefrag is doing is, it reads the prefetchdata to know what libraries an app is loading and the lastaccesstimes and even defrags files in a folder to be next to each other.

Also MyDefrag lets you modify/create scripts to defrag the things you want, in your way, or simply share/download good scripts.

[Cast Iron Leader]

I know it shouldn't enter into it, but having just installed MyDefrag and after it finished defragging I was faced with a screen looking like this http://www.mydefrag.com/img/Snapshot2.gif - sorry but that is just plain butt ugly and even from a defragger I expect something on my screen which 1) looks good and 2) just from its visual display I can see whether or not my drive needs degragging and on those account5s MyDefrag is a fail.

[Miuku.]

Otherwise you are getting the same result from all defrag apps, except the real-time ones like DIskeeper which prevent the fragmentation on regular HDD's from happening in the first place.

It's not quite that simple - something a lot of people are forgetting is that you can never properly defragment a Windows (or any other OS with the exception of Linux) properly on the fly - the only way to get a full defragment including OS files+hiber+page is to either do it from an external boot source (DVD/CD/USB/Another OS) or by doing it pre-boot which for example O&O Defrag offers.

Also you can select various optimization methods which can boost your gaming performance quite a bit (Complete Name/Access/Modified for example - especially useful in games that have massive number of small files).

[leo_the_lion]

Wheres PerfectDisk?

[cork1958]

Been using Puran. Whether it's best or not, who knows?!

http://www.puransoftware.com/Puran-Defrag-Download.html

[BrainDedd]

PerfectDisk 12.5 ... not fond of the bloat they've put in, but it has features I miss in other defraggers (including an SSD defrag) and the interface is decently free of clutter.

[Miuku.]

You really, really should not defrag an SSD. You're simply wearing down the drive for no reasonable benefit of any kind - defragmenters were designed for mechanical drives for a good reason, with a solid storage drive it has none.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I used to use perfectdisk but i come to recently realize that the windows defrag has been much optimized since the days of XP (go figure (derp) :p) and now that works just fine for me :)

[Lee G. Veteran]

Wheres PerfectDisk?

I accidentally missed it out. I've added it now. Thanks.

[coridan7701]

+1 Defraggler. I've used the default Windows program and Auslogics, I have found both slow and ineffective. I have been using Defraggler for a while and it is much better.

[PGHammer]

It's not really necessary with regular disks either. even if another one is better than the windows built in one, it's not gonna matter one iota.

I don't see why these threads are made, it just keeps the illusion alive that people still need to defrag and use third party tools for it.

Even NTFS still fragments, and with large HDDs and partitions, defragmentation still matters. (Seriously - how many of you with what were considered *midsized* HDDs back just two years ago - 250GB and larger - broke them up into multiple partitions? Given the small default cluster size of even large NTFS prtitions, there's far less reason to have a multi-partition large drive.)

I actually still don't have an SSD yet (primarily because I haven't finished my Sandy Bridge-based build; I still have, at minimum, CPU and motherboard left to purchase), and an SSD is extremely far down on the list of priority purchases even *after* the build gets done. Further, I've moved from a 500GB (467GB formatted capacity) boot drive to a 1TB (931GB formatted capacity) boot drive - I wouldn't have multiple *partitions* except that 7 x64 has a System Reserved partition by default. Due to the new drive having a far larger on-drive cache (32MB vs. 8MB), I've actually gained in terms of performance, despite the far larger partition size.

Because I have multiple file-types on a single drive/partition, fragmentation affects some file-types more than others - therefore, defragmentation is still a necessary. That's why Diskeeper remains part of my utility arsenal.

That said, looking at the future of Windows, Diskeeper (in fact, all third-party defragmenters) are under siege - Disk Optimizer (in the Windows 8 Developer Preview) is a massive game-changer in that it takes one feature that has been unique to third-party tools (defragmentation of the swapfile and MFT) and brings it back into the main set of options; even more surprising, Disk Optimizer includes multi-pass no-reboot defragmentation - which no third-party degragmentation utility - including Diskeeper - does today.

[jesseinsf]

Other.

Not really neccessary these days with evolution of SSDs

There is a benefit when you consolidate free space because some cells that are only half filled can not be "trimmed". If you use PerfectDisk it will fill in all the half filled cells in a unique way that enhances speed and the life of the drive. All this allows the SSD to "Trim" more efficiently.

[NEVER85]

Liked MyDefrag when I had my 150 GB Raptor.

[HawkMan]

Even NTFS still fragments, and with large HDDs and partitions, defragmentation still matters. (Seriously - how many of you with what were considered *midsized* HDDs back just two years ago - 250GB and larger - broke them up into multiple partitions? Given the small default cluster size of even large NTFS prtitions, there's far less reason to have a multi-partition large drive.)

And windows regularly auto defrags your drives. and you're nto going to notice ANY performance difference, even at the nanosecond level between the different defragmenters.

[Miuku.]

And windows regularly auto defrags your drives. and you're nto going to notice ANY performance difference, even at the nanosecond level between the different defragmenters.

How much money are you willing to bet on that?

Because I can prove you wrong instantly by comparing, for example, SC2 or BF3 loading times with built-in windows defrag vs O&O.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Windows Defrag:

- does the job

- no need for installation

- no need for configuration

- no need for even knowing it exists

- no buying, trialing, account creating, updating

That's my favorite type of utility. :D