Defragmenters

From your own experiences, which defragmenter do you find the most reliable, for both speed, honesty, range of features and reliability?

Do any use Kernel mode drivers?

For example, some defragmenters are faster than others, but not necessarily the best, some sneak in toolbars without users’ knowledge or pretend users can have the option to opt out of them, yet the software installs them anyway, the best ones do Boot Time Defrag and have a defrag optimizer.

Piriform’s Defragger looks really good and includes a safe API defrag so file moving is safe. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a defrag optimizer.

Auslogics does have one and looks to be on a close par with Defragger.

UltraDefrag also looks very good, also using a safe API defrag, but it’s reported that it’s not digitally signed by Microsoft.

Does this mean that this and/or all software not digitally signed by Microsoft is dubious?

I don’t wish to cast a cloud of doubt over UltraDefrag in case there is nothing sinister about this, as, overall, it comes across as one of the best products around, but I’m a bit cautious about the lack of digital signature issue.

The only downside that all defragmenters do is that they delete all the system restore points. One claims that it doesn’t, but some sources have proven otherwise. The software in question (not listed above) also secretly installs the Babylon Toolbar without users’ knowledge and reinstalls its software after users try to uninstall it and broke a user’s Internet connection upon using it, so I shall avoid that one altogether.

Does anyone have any positive experiences with IOBit’s software? I’ve read mixed reviews about them and their products, again not wishing to cast aspersions on them. I’m only going by what I’ve read.

A common feature with several defragmenters is that they move large files to the end of the hard drive. Some move all files to the start of the drive, and it’s said computers access files faster if they’re at the start of the drive.

Of the above three products, Defraggler can put the large files users probably don’t use that often (eg videos and archives) at the end of the drive so that Windows can find the smaller files faster.

Both their method and other defragmenters’ methods are very good and very quirky.

I have used Deffrager. does a nice job keeping it clean. Is made by the same company that makes CCleaner.

Another defrag program I use, although not as detailed as Defragle, is Puran Defrag. I might use the Quick Defrag before running Puran Defrag. My system performance just seems smoother.

UncleDoug

To be honestly with you, on windows xp I felt a difference in performance when I used defragler. But since I switch to windows 7, the only performance that I felt is from windows 7 defrag.

I am a new user to CCleaner, and more recently, also Speccy. Both excellent products in what they achieve and very well written, easy to follow instruction guides. :slight_smile:

I’ve not yet installed Defraggler.

Does it remove all the system restore points? (it seems that all defragmenters still do this) and

Does it now have a Defrag optimizer?

http://alternativeto.net/software/defraggler/comments/

If this is the same type of optimizer, it does, but I’m not currently sure if these are two different types of optimizer purposes:

it has access to your entire hard drive, and spends its time moving thousands of files around to optimize and speed up your PC

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/features/safe-and-secure

If not, I don’t know if the absence of a Defrag optimizer (August 2010) has a major negative impact on the capabilities of a defragmenter compared with ones like Auslogics which do, but other than that issue, I have read many positive reviews about Defraggler, most recently from you, including that its use is safe on the hard drive, due to the type of software it uses. :slight_smile:

Upon using Speccy, there is no mention in the technical specifications that my computer has a Solid State Drive, so it must be a hard drive, as I first thought, but I checked, having recently become aware of SSDs, so any type of defragmenter should be safe to use on my hard drive, but Defraggler is one of my top choices, due to positive reviews and direct positive use of this Piriform product and Speccy.

I’ve read that some issue concerning Windows System Restore relates to Windows Volume Shadow Service not being fully compatible with the default Windows System Partition cluster size of 4k, whatever this means. The reviewer goes on to say that VSS compatible defragmenters will limit how many files are moved during the defragmentation process.

I don’t know if Auslogics now has a boot-time defrag, but at the time it didn’t, wihile at least Puran, Defraggler and UltraDefrag all do. It’s shame that the latter is not digitally signed by Microsoft.

It sounds like a common problem, by the looks of things, all defragmenters deleting vital system restore points :O, which would be fine, if it could be guaranteed that nothing goes wrong and that having no restore points doesn’t put a computer at risk of irreversible damage (without a reformat). Hopefully all defragmenters will resolve this problem in the not too distant future.

Auslogics has a VSS compatibility mode but has no boot time defrag.

Another invaluable aspect, unsure if all of the ones quoted by you, I and others here have one is a Kernel mode driver.

Until recently, I’d only ever used the very slow Windows defragmenter, which is not only slow but is less extensive in its process.

I currently have Windows Vista, so I should benefit from a defragmenter. It’s just trying to determine which one, as I’ve read very good (plus in some cases varyingly bad reviews) on different products.

Among them, Auslogics is said to be very good, but while they now have a boot-time defrag, in their product, it’s only in the Pro version:

I’m planning to upgrade to Windows 8 at some later date, so as you’ve found that Windows 7’s own defrag is sufficient, so much better than previous Windows defrags, Windows 8 must be on a par with 7 and also probably not require an independent defragmenter.

“Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. 0 Smartscreen Filter has classified Ultradefrag 6.0.0 as MALWARE! This didn’t happen with prior versions… What changed with this update???”
Is this a false positive from the program that classified this product as malware?

“the function that checks for updates then takes you to the website where you have to try to find the right page to download the right version of the program”
Without knowing the correct version, it could unintentionally caused problems, hopefully not but possibly of a serious nature

“This program writes lua~~.dll to System32 directory, which is annoying.”
How does a program writing l lua~~.dll to System 32 cause problems?

“Unsigned driver = FAIL”
Is it unsafe to install a product with unsigned drivers?

Does Defraggler have a Kernel Mode driver?

Does it defrag registry hives and paging files?

Does it have MFT optimization?

Does this and other defragmenters work best in Safe Mode for optimum results?

I use MyDefrag. ;D

How does MyDefrag compare with other defragmenters?

I use a Solid State Drive (SSD) so no defragmentation needed. =P Shame they have a shorter life time than mechanical drives.

Although Speccy doesn’t list a Solid State Drive, only Hard Drive and Optical Drive in its listings of my computer’s components, for interest, how do you determine if your computer has a Solid State Drive, and do any have both Hard and Solid State drives?

There are a few ways to determine whether you have an SDD or HDD, for example SSDs are generally smaller than HDDs both in physical size and the amount of Data you can store on them (though there are exceptions). Another is that HDDs usually makes a sound when it is in use, SSDs doesn’t do this because they have no moving parts. Another way is to check your laptop or desktop details from where you got it and see if they mention SSD at all. SSD are newer than HDDs but to my knowledge they aren’t used as much as HDDs.

From my knowledge, most people who has an SSD have installed them themselves or bought a computer with that in mind.

SSDs are generally faster than HDDs and don’t need defragmentation (in fact I would recommend against it since it will only result in lowering the life-time, SSDs have a certain amount of writes until failure which also makes HDDs somewhat more reliable.)

But I would say, if you don’t know that you have an SSD then most likely you don’t but that doesn’t neglect the possibility.

Also, SSDs are more expensive than HDDs… mostly, depends on the amount of data, but generally a SSD is more expensive per byte.

Hi,
I have used defraggler,windows built in,auslogics.
I like my defrag as it has several scripts loaded and it gives an excellent on screen display of exactly what it does.
It has quite an extensive list of defragging options plus you can add your own.its a great little tool.

I have a 232 GB drive, of which just under half is free space.

I’ve since checked Speccy, which doesn’t state if I have a hard drive, but it lists my computer model, which I’ve confirmed is a hard drive via Google. Mine is 5 years old.

Earlier today I installed Defraggler, which states “HDD (NFTS)”, so it is thankfully safe for me to defragment my hard drive.

There are some very exciting features in both hard and solid state drives from your descriptions. :slight_smile: Until quite recently, I’d not heard of solid state drives, but they sound very good on the whole.

I’ve just checked my hard drive and I can hear slight sound in the background. In more recent times, my computer makes a loud sound (presumably the fan) during the first few minutes it takes to load up. Originally, it made no sound. I don’t know if this is a concern or not, but your reference to sound reminded me of this factor.

They all sound very good pieces of software. :slight_smile:

This is the thing with software. There are several overlaps and differences between each product, irrespective of defragmenters, mostly positive. I currently have Defraggler, but I’ll keep in mind others, as I’ve read that users can have one or more installed, a bit like some other types of products whereby one will do/pick up something that the other doesn’t. :slight_smile: