Definitive Best Defragmenter 2010

[Barney T. Administrators]

An updated "Best Defragmenter" poll for 2010. 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!

[cropcircles]

I've use PerfectDisk, O&O, Diskeeper, Defraggler and the one I like the best is Auslogics. Its very quick and light. It has a built in auto defrag feature, a option to turn off PC when completed, it also has a optimize and defrag option besides the defrag only option. It has variable color schemes and its FREE.

[spine1063]

Windows 7 ultimate and Perfect disk 10. Works fine for me

[TokiToki]

i used o&o defrag for very long time, now however i want to use a freeware defragmenter, which of those supports boot-time defrag?

Puran Defrag supports boot time defrag. I've recently replaced Auslogics with this software; does everything Auslogics does + boot time defrag + uses layout.ini for its optimization.

[NeHoMaR]

Why people say Windows Defrag is good? any evidence of that? Or it's maybe because is just easy and simple?

[MagicAndre1981]

Because it runs in background when needed, skips huge files to avoid useless IO activity, keeps VSS, uses Low priority IO and has an awesome boot optimization:

http://www.msfn.org/board/speed-boot-process-under-windows-vista-windows-t140262.html

:whistle:

So, it's the best and free. You don't need a GUI to have a great tool ;)

[Hani]

Defraggler

[NeHoMaR]

Because it runs in background when needed, skips huge files to avoid useless IO activity, keeps VSS, uses Low priority IO and has an awesome boot optimization:

http://www.msfn.org/board/speed-boot-process-under-windows-vista-windows-t140262.html

:whistle:

So, it's the best and free. You don't need a GUI to have a great tool ;)

All defrag tools I know do that plus more. About boot time, well, I restart my PC one time per month.

[soldier1st]

All defrag tools I know do that plus more. About boot time, well, I restart my PC one time per month.

some defrag tools like perfectdisk will remove your restore points in windows 7(i don't like that as i myself like the restore points) but only if you do an ondemand defrag.

[vanhieu]

PerfectDisk

[John.D]

Anything as long as it defrags. But using Auslogics. At least it defrags more than 1 hdd, at the same time. I don't have to do things twice

[Zeet]

O & O Defrag for me. Haven't found anything that does a better job yet.

[smpt]

Diskeeper 2010 - awesome!

[Billus]

PerfectDisk 11. Greatest defrag out there by far.

[ManMountain]

O&O Defrag without a doubt.

[HighwayGlider]

What's wrong with windows defrag?

[Billus]

What's wrong with windows defrag?

Nothing really. I find the UI too simplistic to be honest but it is quite good for the "average" user. I like how PerfectDisk defrags my disk every time the screen saver activates and does some defragging in the background.

PerfectDisk also uses a different method of organizing your files which differs from Diskeeper. For me, I find my system slighty more quicker and responsive than if I use Diskeeper. All my apps open at the click, no waiting :D

[Andre S. Veteran]

I've completely forgotten about defragmenting since Windows Vista. One less thing to manage. I can't be bothered to even think about installing a dedicated defragmenter, for some kind of psychological increase in performance.

[soldier1st]

Windows builtin for Vista and higher but for XP then Perfectdisk.

[dark41]

Diskeeper 2010. Its the only true proactive solution, as the rest are reactive. No lag when starting apps and does as many disks as you connect to it at the same time.

You do realize that everyone who selected Windows Defrag has also selected a chopped down version of Diskeeper, right? ;)

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Wow! Shocked to see that Perfect Disk is not in the list.

The only real competition to PD seems to be from Diskkeeper. But, I am still not convinced. For now, PD has the best optimisation technique and it actually makes a perceivable difference.

Lets hope that the Defrag Guy finishes his tests son.

i used diskeeper for awhile before switching to PerfectDisk, I am now using PerfectDisk 11 and have noticed great improvement even over 10

[Buio]

I've completely forgotten about defragmenting since Windows Vista. One less thing to manage. I can't be bothered to even think about installing a dedicated defragmenter, for some kind of psychological increase in performance.

Diskeeper 2010. Its the only true proactive solution, as the rest are reactive. No lag when starting apps and does as many disks as you connect to it at the same time.

These two are the opposites, and personally I prefer something in the middle. Those never defragmenting their HDD are the ones that has most to gain in performance by doing a defrag, as the HDD gets more fragmented over long use. It's correct that running defrag on a already almost tidy HDD gives basically nothing in performance. Never doing it isn't what I would choose though, I'd choose to do it very seldom. On the opposite end, I'd never use a pro-active defrag running as a background process, because it always puts a load (however minuscule) on your system with unnoticeable gains in performance. I'd rather have one less process running and do manual defrag now and then.

Also, I would never pay for a 3rd party defrag program, like Diskeeper or Perfectdisk. The free options are good enough according to me. The built-in windows defrag is ok, but slow and in Vista without progress display or any estimated time indicator (afaik they haven't updated it). A good 3rd party defrag program gives better visual cues, and a tad more options to play with, which is why I prefer to use them over the built-in defrag. In Windows 7, you should get an automatically scheduled defrag setup every week if you have a HDD. Personally, I turned it off, as I prefer to run it manually with longer time in between.

As for the choices on the list, Auslogics or Piriforms defrag programs are my current favourites.

[spine1063]

Perfect disk user here...so far so good. Using PD version 10.

[bradavon]

Windows Defrag (Vista or Win7 edition). It's silent and does the job. I just set-it-and-forget-it.

[mtrftw]

Puran

[XIII]

SSD with TRIM or Background Garbage Collection :whistle: