Which defrag program is compatible w/ vista?

By ziggie216
in Microsoft (Windows)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Proficient

+bomberh Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

I don't like the basic defrag in Vista and looked elsewhere for a program to defrag my drives. I couldn't find anything that was compatible. There are a couple that with tinkering you can make compatible, but thats a pain.

I did find a very basic program that supports vista and its free. Don't expect anything fantastic, but it works.

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

You can't complain for free, so give it a go. :)

Proficient

Toolage

Posted
Posted
  micheeel said:

Where do you get the beta diskeeper for Vista?

I really like O&O though :(

It says in their blog that you are to send a note to FieldTest@diskeeper.com saying that you have vista RTM and would like to test it for it.

  Quote
If you have the RTM version of Vista , you can participate in our private field test. Email our team at FieldTest@diskeeper.com with a quick note you'd like to test and that you have the Vista RTM build available to test on.
Enthusiast

Turge

Posted
Posted
  bomberh said:

I did find a very basic program that supports vista and its free. Don't expect anything fantastic, but it works.

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

You can't complain for free, so give it a go. :)

I really like the Fragmentation After: :laugh:

sshot-03.gif

I'm currently using PerfectDisk since it's the only one I found to be supported by Vista at the moment, but I'm not a fan of it. I signed up for the DiskKeeper beta to tie me over until O&O releases a supported version, since this is, by far, my favorite defrag tool.

Experienced

thejohnnyq

Posted
Posted

Perfect disk was supported, until build 8, at which time they asked the testers to be careful, and after build 11, they stop support. It had issues that it was corrupting the disk structure, and not on all machines. I filed several reports, after 1 def rag, my disk lost 1.7gb of data, after 5 i lost 3.7gbs. The data lost was only on the partition that was formated by vista, not the ones that XP formated or created.

I know that it installs, but they don't recommend it at this time.

Enthusiast

Turge

Posted
Posted
  raskren said:

And what's wrong with the in-box defragger?

You do know that they built a new one for Vista, right?

Perhaps, just PERHAPS, we're looking for something which also gives us a graphical view of our data, so that we know it's actually doing SOMETHING.

Grand Master

raskren

Posted
Posted
  Turge said:

Perhaps, just PERHAPS, we're looking for something which also gives us a graphical view of our data, so that we know it's actually doing SOMETHING.

Do you have any empirical evidence that suggests the in-box defrag tool does a poor job or are you just trying to create a problem when no problem exists?

defrag -w -f -c

FTW! (please excuse the kiddiespeak)

Community Regular

BBinder

Posted
Posted
  micheeel said:

Gonna check Diskeeper beta too until O&O doesnt release a compatible version... OO interface is so much better than Diskeeper and defrags faster =/ but it doesn't seem to be as good as diskeeper.

O&O works for me in vista mind you it does hang on a partition occassionly, just stop it restart it takes off where it left off

Enthusiast

Turge

Posted
Posted
  raskren said:

Do you have any empirical evidence that suggests the in-box defrag tool does a poor job or are you just trying to create a problem when no problem exists?

No, but then again, I don't have any evidence which suggests it DOESN'T do a poor job.

Nevertheless, I will only use a product which:

1. Offers graphical representation of the hard drive in order to show the progress (and not through the command prompt)

2. uses some sort of "Set it and forget it" option

3. has minimal impact on resources when workstation is in use

4. uses different methods to defrag (offline, stealth, disk space, etc.)

Grand Master

raskren

Posted
Posted
  Turge said:

No, but then again, I don't have any evidence which suggests it DOESN'T do a poor job.

Nevertheless, I will only use a product which:

1. Offers graphical representation of the hard drive in order to show the progress (and not through the command prompt)

2. uses some sort of "Set it and forget it" option

3. has minimal impact on resources when workstation is in use

4. uses different methods to defrag (offline, stealth, disk space, etc.)

You're contradicting yourself here. Why have a graphical representation of the partition and a set-it-&-forget-it feature? Furthermore a graphical display slows down the defrag process as the display is updated. This contradicts your item #3.

I think you need to do some research on Vista's defrag tool.

1. There is no graphical representation. What's the point of one anyway? It merely slows down the process.

2. Vista has a scheduled defrag job set to run Wednesday of every week at 1 AM. How's that for set it and forget it? More accurately, don't set it and forget it.

3. The job runs when the computer has been idle for 3 minutes and stops if the computer ceases to be idle. So basically NO impact on resources when the computer is in use.

4. What for? Defrag the files on my hard disk that are fragmented and consolidate free disk space and be done with it.

Enthusiast

Turge

Posted
Posted
  raskren said:

1. There is no graphical representation. What's the point of one anyway? It merely slows down the process.

2. Vista has a scheduled defrag job set to run Wednesday of every week at 1 AM. How's that for set it and forget it? More accurately, don't set it and forget it.

3. The job runs when the computer has been idle for 3 minutes and stops if the computer ceases to be idle. So basically NO impact on resources when the computer is in use.

4. What for? Defrag the files on my hard disk that are fragmented and consolidate free disk space and be done with it.

I appreciate you trying to convince me, but I think I know what I'm looking for.

As for your points,

1. The graphical representation is not for everytime it defrags. Besides, I'll have to deal with the "slowness". Thanks for pointing it out though.

2. A good defrag software should determine on its own when to run, not a weekly or daily basis, but whenever it needs to

3. good stuff

4. even better

My recommendations are for you to continue using Vista defrag. It appears to suit your needs.

Rookie

myshkin

Posted
Posted

I just registered to neowin specifically to reply to this thread. :)

o&o defrag 8.5 works fine on vista, once you get it to install. Take a look....

http://www.vapulus.com/w900i/images/oodefragvista.JPG

Just to chip in on the whole 1-4 points thing....

1. A graphical representation is good to see WHERE the disk is fragmented. Those slow end-of-disk sectors really get much slower than the first ones. The argument that a graphical update slows down defrags is bollocks btw. Your pc has to index the contents of each cluster when it defrags the disk, and also track the contents too, so visually showing this is no more work than if you made a program to change a grid of coloured squares. It doesn't slow the process. Your cpu and ram can update visualised data exponentially faster than your disk can move clusters around itself.

4. Different defrag methods are important! defragmenting literally just places every file in a contignuous block of data on the disk. Different defrag methods let you control the placement of those defragged files relative to one another. I personally like using an alphabetical defrag, as files in the same folder tree are always right next to each on the disk. Ideally i'd like an inverse-alphabetical ordering, so that c:\Windows is at the beginning of the disk in those fastest sectors; to give the fastest boot times (although windows already places a small selection of boot files at the beginning of the disk already).

anyhow, here's the trick to get o&o defrag working....

1. try to install it, let it moan that your OS isn't compatible

2. browse to your temp folder, eg. C:\users\you\appdata\local\temp\, and copy the 'O&O Defrag Professional Edition.msi' file somewhere

3. install Orca, an msi editor - http://www.brentnorris.net/orca.msi

4. right click the o&o defrag msi file, choose edit, and scroll down to LaunchConditions in the left menu

5. Delete all the launch condition rows in the right panel!

6. click save, and exit. Double click the edited o&o defrag.msi to install on vista. :)

Note: if you try to use it without rebooting after install, don't forget to go CP/services and start the o&o service. :)

Experienced

Septimus

Posted
Posted

XP and Vista have a graphical representation of whats going on. Just go to Disk Manager in Computer Management.

What is everyone going on about that it doesn't? Plus, it defrags fine, you just have to make sure your swap file is assigned to another drive or just turned off for the best results. (Goes for any defragger usually).

Proficient

Grope for Luna

Posted
Posted

http://www.disktrix.com/ultimatedefrag/ultimatedefrag.htm

Runs and analyzes fine but I haven't taken a chance on defragging yet.

  Septimus said:

XP and Vista have a graphical representation of whats going on. Just go to Disk Manager in Computer Management.

What is everyone going on about that it doesn't?

Where do you see a graphical defrag display in Vista? :no:

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.