Suggest a good free Defrag program for XP

[lancer]

i usually leave about 30% free on the drive before i offload the stuff to our nas.

 

[kcnychief]

You should get a SAN :smoker:

 

[fitz]

slight cost difference between a NAS and a SAN.. although some of the cheaper iSCSI SAN's are a lot more affordable now..

 

[andy_rose]

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

Free, small and very fast! My choice.

 

[Weasel]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned this... the built-in Windows defrag is just a hacked up version of Diskeeper and yes, it's very good.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned this... the built-in Windows defrag is just a hacked up version of Diskeeper and yes, it's very good.

DITTO

 

[andy_rose]

and the one I pointed to is an optimized version of the built-in windows defragger

 

[Perris Calderon]

defragging files is not nearly so important to performance as defragging free space,

which neither the native xp defrag nor the one you posted andy does.

I am not a proponent of regular defrags, I am not a proponent of paying for a defrag

but if you're going out of your way to do this, then defrag the free space

if I remember, there are a few free programs that do do this but I forget which ones

if you search my name and "defrag" you should find a ton of threads, which I am sure the free program I just told you about is posted

[edit]

here's the free program that defags the free space...I am not sure it's still free though...on that page you'll see a program that perports to defrag your files on the fly

I tried it back then and it did an incredibly slow job of it and I didn't think it was worth the performance footprint, though it does claim to only run while you are in idle

if it's improved and if anyone ahs good luck with that now, give a shout and let us know

 

[fitz]

defragging files is not nearly so important to performance as defragging free space,

I mostly agree with that. If your larger files are badly fragmented, it will make a difference as well..
[edit]

here's the free program that defags the free space...I am not sure it's still free though...on that page you'll see a program that perports to defrag your files on the fly

Already mentioned and linked to DirMS in a previous post of mine.. previous page though

 

[madmatt]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned this... the built-in Windows defrag is just a hacked up version of Diskeeper and yes, it's very good.

More specifically Diskeeper Lite. However, Vista will do away with this and will be a completely new version coded by Microsoft.

 

[NetRyder]

More specifically Diskeeper Lite. However, Vista will do away with this and will be a completely new version coded by Microsoft.

Where did you read this, Matt? According to a blog post by Michael from Diskeeper Corp, the defrag engine in Vista is still based on Diskeeper code:

For anyone curious about what Windows Vista will offer, the built-in defragmenter is the same basic product that we provided Microsoft in the 90's. The one difference of note is scheduling defrag will be simpler. Instead of having to use the Task Scheduler (as in XP/2003), a UI will be added to the product's main page. The current Microsoft design plan is to also implement a once a month default schedule.

http://www.diskeeperblog.com/archives/2006/02/diskeeper_and_v_1.html

 

[kcnychief]

He may have gotten confused by this or a similar article :

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_ff_auto_defrag.asp

Talking about Microsoft's improvement to their current defragmentation technology. Point is that it was originally coded by Executive Software, Now diskeeper.

 

[madmatt]

I've been wrong before. I thought the technology was licensed from Diskeeper Corp. but I thought someone proved me wrong a few months ago... I give up talking about disk defrag. I'm no good at it.

 

[kcnychief]

*slaps madmatt*

I suppose it is open to interpretation. MS purchased the code from Executive Software, I would assume MS does all the tweaking and maintenence know though. So, techincally, in a way, you are both right?

 

[BaLLZaCH]

lancer, with Vista right around the corner and depending whether or not you plan on upgrading right away... You may want to hold off. Vista's disk defragmenter has made great strides and will likely eliminate the need for a third part defragmenter.

Just a newbie-type question, but I thought it needed to be noted as this post is not clear otherwise:


What is wrong with the WinXP (Or 9x, 2k) Defrag ?

Just a question that I thought should be answered
Thanks!

 

[madmatt]

Lack of scheduling and advanced options similar to full blown defrag applications.

 

[Perris Calderon]

Just a newbie-type question, but I thought it needed to be noted as this post is not clear otherwise:


What is wrong with the WinXP (Or 9x, 2k) Defrag ?

Just a question that I thought should be answered
Thanks!

besides what Matt said, the xp defrag doesn't consolidate free space which is more important then consolidating files

 

[gonaads]

What defrag proggies consolidate free space, pay for or otherwise (free)?

 

[NetRyder]

What defrag proggies consolidate free space, pay for or otherwise (free)?

PerfectDisk, Diskeeper...

 

[American Zombie]

Not sure if this has changed in Diskeeper 10 but in previous versions only the pro version of the product had the ability to defrag free space.