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Definitive Best Defragmenter 2008

Asked by kinetix63,

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Definitive Best Defragmenter  

866 members have voted

  1. 1. Your choice?

    • Auslogics
      54
    • DirMS/Buzzsaw
      1
    • Diskeeper
      184
    • JKDefrag
      101
    • Norton Speed Disk
      5
    • O&O Defrag
      119
    • PageDefrag
      1
    • PerfectDisk
      224
    • Vopt
      5
    • Windows Defrag
      97
    • Other (please specify below)
      75

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[deXter]

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Diskeeper for me. All other defragmenters have below par intelligent, automatic background defrgmentation. PerfectDisk comes close, but it isn't efficient in the sense, it uses too much resources over too little time, thus making performance dips quite obvious. With Diskeeper, you won't notice a preformance drop while a defrag is going on, even on very low end PCs. (I've been running Diskeeper for years on my old 450 Mhz box quite comfortably)

Sure, if you do a manual run, you may find PerfectDisk / O&O / UltimateDefrag to be better, but Diskeeper isn't designed to be run manually.

All those benchmarks that are available at present only tests the defragmenters for a single or atmost two sessions or runs. Those tests only show which defragmenter works the best on manual defrags.

Automatic, background defragmentation tests should be conducted over a period of time, like a week or a month; only then can we know which automatic defragmenter is the most efficient. Note that the keyword here is efficient - meaning delivering maximum performance while using the least amount of resources.

Although, fragmentation is highly overrated these days. With large harddrives becoming cheaper and large media files occupying the maximum space, fragmentation isn't much of a problem once your system is well setup. Again, this is highly subject to your enviromnent and your requirements. Database servers might benefit from Diskeeper w.r.t the performance aspect, but home users might find Diskeeper to be overpriced for their general needs.

Personally, I use UltimateDefrag immediately after a fresh format+install. I manually edit the layout.ini to add ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com at the top of the list. (Why doesn't windows add it in the first place?!) Then I go on about adding files that I don't use frequently to the bottom of the drive (driver.cab, sp2.cab, help files, dllcache, and so on), while I move programs that autostart with windows to the top of the drive. Sometimes, I take the assistance of bootvis to figure out the program loading sequence.

Once the manual drive layout optimization is done UltimateDefrag finishes all tasks, I quit it for good and enable Diskeeper. And that's the last time I'll be opening a defragmenter again, untill the next format cycle comes along :)

My personal advice to all readers: Please don't go blindly by the results of this poll. First, asses your situation and decide whether you would *really* benefit from a dedicated third-party defragmenter. Vista users have their work cut out thanks to the builtin automatic defragmenter, but first asses whether it's working well for *you*. Check your fragmentation levels. Are they low on an average or tend to shoot up every time you install something? Do the drives you use frequently have more than sufficient free space? (If so, fragmentation won't be a problem for you.) Fragmentation of audio/video files isn't a big deal since they're always read (played) at a constant speed. 3 or 4 fragments of a 700 MB movie file wont affect your playback experience. Unless of course, you have some other files, like programs installed in the same partition. Then again, it's never a good idea to keep your programs and media on the same partition, for the above and many other reasons. If program loading time is your main concern, then invest in a good flash drive and make use of ReadyBoost. (eBoostr, for Windows XP users.) If low startup time is what you seek, then disable unnecessary startup programs/services and make use of the Sleep / Hibernate features.

Defragmenters can only take you a certain distance in the journey to optimizing your computer.

Don't just jump to conclusions based on some xyz benchmark or personal opinions. Decide for yourself what would suit your scenario the best. On that note, I'd like to say that there is no such thing as a "Definitive Best Defragmenter", just as there is no "Definitive Best Car".

Edited by [deXter]
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+orgitnized Subscriber¹

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Normally I would choose PerfectDisk but I chose "Other" this year. I'll explain, even though it won't quite make sense...

PerfectDisk from a safety and reliability standpoint has been the best defragger I've ever used, bar-none. Everything I do with it is a cake-walk and the interface is great. BUT, I don't notice performance gains that are that significant.

People tend to look for that defragger that makes things feel faster. That's where my "Other" choice comes in: Ultimate Defrag from DiskTrix

Now, let me be the first to say that I didn't go through all the normal BS with making an image, running PD, then measuring performance, reimaging, running UD, measuring performance, etc. So basically people who are looking for that proof can just stop reading because I have no real benchmarks to measure anything. I'm being honest here...

BUT, from a performance standpoint, I can feel the system respond faster. Things open quicker, WoW loads much faster, programs open quicker. With PD I don't feel like it's any quicker, but with UD I do notice it, and that's what attracts me to the app. It's small, very very fast and defrags and gives me a nice performance boost.

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