Definitive Best Defragmenter 2007

[kinetix63 Veteran]

A fresh "Best Defragmenter" poll for 2007. 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!

[TruckWEB]

I've never used a disk defragmenter.... Not even the one in Windows.

And I've never had any problem before with speed of my HDD or things like that. Should I care?

DK-2007 ProPremier is $99 US or $50 for the Pro.

O&O is $60 CAN

PerfectDisk 8 is $40 US

And I hate Norton products...

Seems like alot of money for something I've never used....

[leo_the_lion]

I was 'spoon fed' Norton in my early computer years and the SystemWorks Defragger and Optimizer has always seemed a good way to keep my hard drves organized and it was a big surprise when I read this article and other members views. I downloaded the trial version of PerfectDisk yesterday and must admit that so far I am very impressed with the results which outstrip anything that I have seen from Norton or the Windows utility. Looks like both Symantec and Microsoft have fallen behind on this particular area. Thank you to everyone for their views and thoughts and I guess you could say that I have been 'converted'. I am now going to look closely at the thoughts in the antivirus area, as again I have been a Norton devotee for many years and I upgraded my package a few months ago, which was not without it's problems and issues. Thanks again guys for opening up my eyes :)

[Guest Jeremy of Many]

You will achieve the same results with any defragmenter capable of file placement in addition to defragmentation.

In regards to anti-virus, Kaspersky, NOD32, Avast! and AVG are the most popular. However, I don't use anti-virus software.

[MR_Candyman]

The only reason I refuse to use diskeeper anymore is they send me many, many e-mails a month since my version expired and I didn't renew it. They REALLY **** me off, so I refuse to support them with my money. I stick with O&O

[soldier1st]

you know u can block them and they cant send u emails anymore.

[apul]

Contig + Power Defragmenter GUI.

[porcelain cruise]

Hi everyone,

Just a little story (which has just happened to myself) for anyone considering buying PerfectDisk. I purchased a licence for PerfectDisk v8 last year. A little while later, they updated it to work with Vista. Anyway, I now have installed Vista on my PC (I was using XP), and wanted to install PerfectDisk. I have the original installer and all the updates (to v8.0.64) released since the original v8.0. I run the installer (for the original 8.0), and it extracts the files, but then pops up a message that it only works on certain operating systems (XP and Server 2003). I then try the latest update - but it wouldn't work because it could not find an installation of PerfectDisk to update. So, I go to the Raxco website, check their knowledge base, and find out from one of their articles that I need to re-download the full PerfectDisk (updated version). I log onto their online store, and click on the download link. I receive a message that I have no downloads available. So, I go back to the knowledge base article and send an email to their sales people as it suggests (if you can't re-download). A few minutes ago I received a reply. They basically told me that the download privileges for an order are only valid for a certain time period after the order, mine are expired, and that they can't help me. So, I have a licenced copy of PerfectDisk v8, and PerfectDisk v8 is now certified for Vista...except I can't use it on Vista because I don't have the updated 8.0.64 installer. I've replied to Raxco's email and told them that I will never use and never recommend one of their products ever again, and told them what they can do with themselves. Anyway, it's too late for me, but for anyone else considering PerfectDisk, think very long and hard about it, as Raxco have demonstrated to me they have no problems with screwing a paying customer over.

Regards,

CM

[ServerMechanic]

OK, so I downloaded Diskeeper 2007 Professional (30 day trial) and installed it.

I had it defrag my entire drive, and then I even had it do my MFT and Pagefile at boot time.

I don't notice a darn bit of difference in the speed of my computer. NONE! And DK said my drive was "heavily fragmented". It recommended that I let it make my MFT larger and my pagefile had 2 fragments. Afterwards I still had 2 fragments in my pagefile and my drive was no longer "heavily fragmented" it was "Healthy" and had no fragments at all.

The PC is my main box and it's a 1.5GHz P4 with 512MB RAM and 2 80GB 7200RPM hard drives. I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP2 and this box has been built and running since 8-23-2004.

It makes me wonder if this is designed to really help people or just make money. I'm thinking it's just for making money. I also wonder if the people that "notice" a difference are experiencing the placebo effect?

Hmm....

Edited September 7, 2007 by ServerMechanic

[Pharos]

OK, so I downloaded Diskeeper 2007 Professional (30 day trial) and installed it.

I had it defrag my entire drive, and then I even had it do my MFT and Pagefile at boot time.

I don't notice a darn bit of difference in the speed of my computer. NONE! And DK said my drive was "heavily fragmented". It recommended that I let it make my MFT larger and my pagefile had 2 fragments. Afterwards I still had 2 fragments in my pagefile and my drive was no longer "heavily fragmented" it was "Healthy" and had no fragments at all.

The PC is my main box and it's a 1.5GHz P4 with 512MB RAM and 2 80GB 7200RPM hard drives. I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP2 and this box has been built and running since 8-23-2004.

It makes me wonder if this is designed to really help people or just make money. I'm thinking it's just for making money. I also wonder if the people that "notice" a difference are experiencing the placebo effect?

Hmm....

Well, fragmented hard drives do have slower read times, but I think you would need to have a VEEEEEERY fragmented HD to notice a difference after defragging.

[shishas4u]

i would recommend iobitsmartdefrag has the ability to defrag as you carry on with the usage of the pc if it is idle if you start using your procsser for more demanding reeaons it stops defragging. hardley notice it even running

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5318 link to iobit defragg free software

[ServerMechanic]

Well, fragmented hard drives do have slower read times, but I think you would need to have a VEEEEEERY fragmented HD to notice a difference after defragging.

Point is... I haven't defragged my box in about 3 years.

So if it has been fine and even after defragging there is no difference, why even defrag?

I have servers at work that have never been defragged and have been up running Server 2003 for 2-3 years. They are fine, and have awesome performance. We're talking SQL boxes and file and print boxes with 15k RPM SCSI drives.

To me it seems very much like these defrag products are there to make money for the company. I would love to see some real good and solid proof from an outside company that shows noticeable performance gains. I think everyone "thinks" their systems seem faster.

[soldier1st]

defragging your drive ensures no slowdowns when it comes to finding data,diskeeper 2007 seems very good.

[Guest Jeremy of Many]

I would love to see some real good and solid proof from an outside company that shows noticeable performance gains. I think everyone "thinks" their systems seem faster.

There is plenty of solid documentation out. Both PD and DK have done it. You just have to take the time to go their site and read the PDFs.

So when I went to one of our test machines that was 50% fragmented and took forever to open anything, defragged it with UltimateDefrag, and everything about 3 times faster (GUIs opened significantly faster)... yeah, I just think that happened... *rolls eyes*

Look, just wait 10 years for Solid State RAM and Solid State HDDs to be commercially available to everyone. Then defragmenting will be a thing of the past.

[UKDarkJedi]

I've been using O&O for a while now, but it's starting to bug me that they use a service and a permanent exe (ok, you can kill it but then you have to re-run it every time you want to schedule a defrag, shouldn't be necessary imo).

I'm gonna give PerfectDisk a try.

[soldier1st]

with o&o defrag it does indeed do a good job but afterawhile it seems you gotta repair it to open it,pd is very good,it will work with less free space than dk but pd does not use auto defrag,dk needs a bit more space but has autodefrag.what would be the best choice?

[Knife Party]

O&O defrag is simply the best....that teamed up with O&O Clevercache makes one mean pc!

[kodina]

How about DiskTrix Ultimate Defrag

[Osi]

One more point for UltimateDefrag, from disktrix, for me :)

[ServerMechanic]

There is plenty of solid documentation out. Both PD and DK have done it. You just have to take the time to go their site and read the PDFs.

So when I went to one of our test machines that was 50% fragmented and took forever to open anything, defragged it with UltimateDefrag, and everything about 3 times faster (GUIs opened significantly faster)... yeah, I just think that happened... *rolls eyes*

Look, just wait 10 years for Solid State RAM and Solid State HDDs to be commercially available to everyone. Then defragmenting will be a thing of the past.

Just a tad defensive huh? :)

So how would you explain both of my boxes at home not seeing any difference at all after a full defrag, boot time defrag, pagefile defrag, etc? Especially after they both said that my drives were heavily fragmented and not they are "healthy".

I'm not just making stuff up. I mean it's not hard to tell that my computers are unchanged.

[Jock Horror]

other --> JKDefrag

[BrainDedd]

PerfectDisk 8.0 for it's speed and options ... especially the offline defrag to fix the pagefile and ntfs attributes.

JKDefrag for everything else (clients and others who don't want to pay for a defragger.)

[neufuse Veteran]

Diskeeper Pro for its low resource, idle sensing, and auto defrag abilities... nothing better then real time defrag when it has no performance hit on your system since it is smart enough to tell when you need to use the HD.... great for servers also!

[drugo]

hi

is there a portable version of PerfectDisk ?

to put it in a usb pen

[soldier1st]

no but there is a portable voptxp and ultimate defrag

[drugo]

can a Defragmenter spoil, damage the file system?

had u notice in your past file damage in your file system for a frequent use of Defragmenter

i was used perfect disk 7 , and after about 4 months , i think(not sure) it damage my file system