do people still use defrag type software? or general pc optimizers?

[paradigmGT]

I remember back in the day I would run defrag programs via dos shell on my old 486dx/33.

Do people still use defrag programs or any sort of optimizers to help the PC run efficiently? If so, what are some popular programs?

 

[BrightCandle]

Windows 7 just manages it on its own nowadays, it runs a schedule in the background that ensures any fragmentation is minimised. Beside that fragmentation is less of an issue today than it was in the primitives days of dos.

 

[Red Squirrel]

When I was on XP I rarely did it, maybe once in a while. Same with windows 2003 servers. I used 7 for a very short period of time till I switched to Linux so I never did it after that.

I sorta miss doing it in windows 98, it was fun watching all the blocks moving around. Just had to disable the screensaver and put the mouse in a spot where it wont be hit by accident. :biggrin: Remember that, move the mouse, or screensaver comes on, and it would restart the whole thing. LOL.

 

[Berryracer]

I don't defragment my SSD just my HDD every one in a while using the built in Windows Defragmenter.

I turn off all the scheduled defrag bullshit in Windows though. I want to defragment when I WANT to

 

[Kyanzes]

PC optimizers will go out of fashion about the same time as weight-loss pills.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Starting with Vista, Windows has had, by default, an automated defrag that is more than adequate (with XP and earlier, I'd actually run 3rd party defrag software). I'm sure a majority of users don't even realize its at work and likely have even forgotten about disk fragmentation and thus forgotten about defragging as well.

I don't defragment my SSD just my HDD every one in a while using the built in Windows Defragmenter.

I turn off all the scheduled defrag bullshit in Windows though. I want to defragment when I WANT to

there's little serious reason for 99+% of Windows users (at least Vista and beyond) to not just let the OS take care of its own defragging

1. SSDs don't need it and technically shouldn't be defragged, and Windows won't defrag SSDs by default

2. the automated defrag is smart enough to not run when it would be a detriment to the use of the computer

3. by letting automated defrag do its thing, its pretty much a guarantee that there will never be a drive that is fragmented enough to require any sort of lengthy defrag time in the first place

 

[Berryracer]

I sometimes defrag my SSD using PerfectDisk which does space consolidation (although I have no idea what that really means)

 

[bononos]

I sometimes defrag my SSD using PerfectDisk which does space consolidation (although I have no idea what that really means)

Eh? I thought defragging ssd's are pointless because it is a random access storage medium and consolidating files and empty spaces will not speed up reads/writes to any significant degree. In fact defragging will shorten the life of an ssd without bringing any benefit.

 

[gizbug]

I use PerfectDisk 12.5 on my Windows 8 box, with an SSD. Works great.

 

[PowerYoga]

Eh? I thought defragging ssd's are pointless because it is a random access storage medium and consolidating files and empty spaces will not speed up reads/writes to any significant degree. In fact defragging will shorten the life of an ssd without bringing any benefit.

You're right.

Don't defrag your SSD. The whole reason to defrag is so that files are realligned so that the drive head can read it faster instead of skipping all over the place. SSD does not have that problem so shouldn't be defragmented. In fact, because of the way the SSD behaves, each erase and rewrite operation is the worst case scenario for a SSD's life span.

 

[jhansman]

I did when my boot drive was spinner (Raptor 74GB), but not since I moved over to an SSD. My D: drive holds a ton of data, but I've never bothered to optimize it.

 

[Nothinman]

I remember back in the day I would run defrag programs via dos shell on my old 486dx/33.

Do people still use defrag programs or any sort of optimizers to help the PC run efficiently? If so, what are some popular programs?

Yes, people still use them.
No, they shouldn't be doing that.

 

[Mushkins]

Yes, people still use them.
No, they shouldn't be doing that.

To be fair, defragging HDDs is still a valid practice. Though if you already have a half decent drive it doesn't make much of a noticeable difference.

All the cleaners and stuff are pointless. Windows 7 does all this stuff and handles disk cleanup automatically in the background by default.

 

[Nothinman]

To be fair, defragging HDDs is still a valid practice. Though if you already have a half decent drive it doesn't make much of a noticeable difference.

All the cleaners and stuff are pointless. Windows 7 does all this stuff and handles disk cleanup automatically in the background by default.

Defragging has pretty much no appreciable benefit in most cases, but even so Vista and up defrag your filesystems for you so you don't need to run anything extra to do that.

 

[Berryracer]

So you think the benefits of the PerfectDisk SSD Optimization is just a placebo effect and I should stop using it?

 

[Zxian]

So you think the benefits of the PerfectDisk SSD Optimization is just a placebo effect and I should stop using it?

Yes. Install Windows7. Leave it alone. The built-in defrag engine will take care of any spinning hard drives you have and leave your SSDs alone.

 

[Nothinman]

So you think the benefits of the PerfectDisk SSD Optimization is just a placebo effect and I should stop using it?

I think that's true for all defrag tools now. Even spindle disks are dense and fast enough that combined with read-ahead, disk caching, SuperFetch, etc the physical location of the data on disk has very little affect on performance. I'm sure all of their technical numbers are accurate, but like any statistics they can be interpreted multiple ways and of course they're going to present them in a way that benefits them and their products. And because of the mechanisms mentioned above it's pretty much impossible to reliably benchmark the effects of defragging which works in their favor because you can't really disprove their claims.

And the SSD tools are even less reputable. I can't even imagine what an "SSD Optimization" would do besides TRIM and initiate a GC run, maybe.

 

[Berryracer]

I think that's true for all defrag tools now. Even spindle disks are dense and fast enough that combined with read-ahead, disk caching, SuperFetch, etc the physical location of the data on disk has very little affect on performance. I'm sure all of their technical numbers are accurate, but like any statistics they can be interpreted multiple ways and of course they're going to present them in a way that benefits them and their products. And because of the mechanisms mentioned above it's pretty much impossible to reliably benchmark the effects of defragging which works in their favor because you can't really disprove their claims.

And the SSD tools are even less reputable. I can't even imagine what an "SSD Optimization" would do besides TRIM and initiate a GC run, maybe.

Thanks for the advice bro. I'll stop defragging from now on because my OS is on the SSD and my software installation folder (where i save all my setup EXEs are also on my SSD) and the HDD is only for music, pics, videos) which get fragmented a lot and I am sure I wouldn't get any benefit defragging a few pics and vids

thanks for opening my eyes over this snake oil

seems like many companies are doing this so called SSD optimization like Raxco and O&O Defrag

 

[ShawnD1]

Starting with Vista, Windows has had, by default, an automated defrag that is more than adequate (with XP and earlier, I'd actually run 3rd party defrag software). I'm sure a majority of users don't even realize its at work and likely have even forgotten about disk fragmentation and thus forgotten about defragging as well.

That thing was total crap. Windows would have defrag and automatic updates scheduled for something like 3am. My parents would turn the computers off at night (like most normal people), so it would miss the scheduled events every time. Any time I checked Windows update, there would be dozens of critical security updates that have not been downloaded or installed because the computer is never on at 3am.

I put Smart Defrag on their computers and set it to defrag every time the computer went idle. When it defrags several times per day, each defrag takes very little time. It moves a few chunks around and it's done. It prevents that problem where the computer goes several months without defragging, so doing anything at all makes the hard drive go nuts and make a bunch of a noise.

 

[Nothinman]

Thanks for the advice bro. I'll stop defragging from now on because my OS is on the SSD and my software installation folder (where i save all my setup EXEs are also on my SSD) and the HDD is only for music, pics, videos) which get fragmented a lot and I am sure I wouldn't get any benefit defragging a few pics and vids

thanks for opening my eyes over this snake oil

seems like many companies are doing this so called SSD optimization like Raxco and O&O Defrag

I can't see pics or vids benefiting from it unless it's something like raw 1080p video, but even playing that back should be fine as the player should do buffering. And I would think the default defrag would be good enough for day to day usage. If you want to check the defrag's scheduled task history you can find it in the Task Scheduler under Microsoft\Windows\Defrag. For the SSD, I can't see doing anything besides just using it and making sure TRIM is happening periodically.

Of course they're releasing SSD optimization tools, their business model is based upon storage optimization and with SSDs growing in size and reliability they won't have a market soon if they don't.