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Defrag Utilities

Z

Zugzwang152

Lifer
I've decided that I'm going to purchase a defrag utility, if there's one at a reasonable price. I don't want any bells or whistles (ala Norton Systemworks). All I want is a small, simple, fast, and reliable program to defrag my hard drives. What are my options? Diskeeper seems to be well received, or so Google tells me. Anything else? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
 
Originally posted by: Codewiz
Depends on the OS but if you are using Win2k or WinXP definately go with Diskeeper.
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Using XP on 1 comp, 2000 on the secondary...are there any alternatives that are cheaper but still dependable?
 
Why would you need a different Defrag app than the one XP has built-in? Just simply need more features?

I last used Diskeeper v5.0, but it was back in the days of NT4.0 when a defrag program was not included with the OS. Diskeeper was more a necessity, and was not used because of its extra features.
 
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Why would you need a different Defrag app than the one XP has built-in? Just simply need more features?

I last used Diskeeper v5.0, but it was back in the days of NT4.0 when a defrag program was not included with the OS. Diskeeper was more a necessity, and was not used because of its extra features.
Click to expand...

I have heard that the built-in windows defrag doesn't do nearly as good a job as third party apps. I'm willing to spend the money to buy one, just not norton prices...
 
thats true too. I tested a quasi-legal copy of it a while ago and liked it a lot...i guess i'll go with the cheapest...thanks a lot 🙂
 
gah, you must like wasting money. Spending money on a defragger is such a waste.

Do you feel much improvement after defragging? Using NTFS?

I think defragging is overrated.
 
XP utilizes a heavily cut down version of DiskKeeper 7 which for the most part is widely regarded as the most effective defragmentation utility publically available.
 
The one reason that 2k and xps disk degragmenters suck, is no scheduling. The following app simply initiates a defrag with the windows routines for all hard drives whenever u run it. Basically, set this program to run every saturday or sunday like 5 am and you will be a happy camper.

Autodefrag
 
defragging your hard drive can make a world of difference. I know that when I burn a 4x DVD-R, my hard drive needs to be able to keep up. I like to continue using my computer while I burn. If my files are extremely fragmented then it can cause burnproof to kick in. Yeah it doesn't create a coaster but if use Nero DVD Speed to test the read speed you see a huge dip where burnpoof kicked in. The DVD is still readable but it makes it harder to read.

So I could just not use my computer while burning but that isn't a solution to me. Defragging is a solution because the hard drive doesn't have to work so hard getting the data on the bus to the dvd writer.
 
I tried Diskeeper lite but it doesn't seem to defrag free space. Norton does it though, although it's noticeably slower. I don't know what the other differences may be.
 
I can't imagine a fragmented drive causing your hard disk to be slow enough to affect a burn, even a DVD burn. I've burned many DVDs and I've never had burnproof kick in and I never defrag my drives, perhaps the seek time on your drives is just too slow? All of my drives (well all but 1 now :/ ) are 10K RPM or 15K RPM.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I can't imagine a fragmented drive causing your hard disk to be slow enough to affect a burn, even a DVD burn. I've burned many DVDs and I've never had burnproof kick in and I never defrag my drives, perhaps the seek time on your drives is just too slow? All of my drives (well all but 1 now :/ ) are 10K RPM or 15K RPM.
Click to expand...

It only happens at 4x dvd-r burning. My drive is a 7200 120gig drive. Where I get into trouble is I have like 10gigs free space and I compile a dvd. It gets thrown ALL over the drive because there is no disk space together. If I don't use the computer then it will be fine regardless.

If I start listening to music or something that uses the hard drive it will cause burnproof to kick it. It just can't jump all over the hard drive fast enough when I am using it for different things. Before my dvd burner I used a scsi cd-writer and dvd-ram drive.

Another factor is that I only have one hard drive. If I had a second where I put dvd compilations this would be a non-issue. It is just the fact that when you have hardly any space and your drive is fragmented to hell it can cause a problem if you continue to use the computer while burning. I just have diskeeper setup to defrag once a week at 5am. Takes it about 10 minutes to keep everything nice and clean.
 
Thanks for reminding me why I use Linux and SCSI drives instead of Windows and IDE ones anymore. Well that's not totally true, I did break down and get a 120G WD for storage where speed doesn't matter. What's funny is that Win2K in VMWare, with its virtual drives on my SCSI disks, boots faster than Win2K 'native' on my notebook.

Also sounds like the burning software sucks. cdrecord keeps a 2M buffer in addition to the drive buffer so there would have to be a big gap in read speed for both buffers to be empty. I usually never see the software buffer drop below 75% though and those are brief drops.
 
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