How important is Defragging & is any 3rd party program worth using?

[Crow550]

Changed the topic to a general discussion on Defragging.


Looking in the program options.... http://www.piriform.com/docs/defraggler/defraggler-settings

Under settings:

Should Boot-Time Defrag be set to Run Every Time?

For Scheduler settings should it be set on Startup or Logon?

Under Apply additional conditions should Stop defrag if it runs longer than 72 hours be checked. I'm sure this would be a good thing if this ever happened.

Also under Idle should Start defrag if computer is idle for 1 minute a good option? As well as stop the task when the computer is not idle?

I also have an Admin account and two Standard accounts. Will setting the Scheduler in the Admin account apply for the other two or will I have to set the other two to Admin temporally and set the settings up similar on those names then change it back to Standard?

Under Options:

Under Defrag should Move large files to the end of the drive during whole drive defrag be checked & Move only selected file types not checked? Also minimum file size to 250mb?

As well as Do not move Large Files during Defrag Freespace checked?

Under Advanced should Show folder index entries in file list be checked?

 

[0roo0roo]

uninstall

windows vista/7 defrag works well enough, anything else is mostly voodoo, boot time defrag is about as voodoo as it gets.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/...d-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx
very likely your special defragger does a whole log of nothing

 

[theevilsharpie]

uninstall

windows vista/7 defrag works well enough, anything else is mostly voodoo, boot time defrag is about as voodoo as it gets.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/...d-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx
very likely your special defragger does a whole log of nothing

Defraggler uses the same API that the built-in defrag utility uses. In essence, it is the built-in Windows defrag with a different interface.

Boot-time defrag initiates a defrag during the boot process on a number of well-known files that you can't defragment if Windows is running (e.g., page file, registry hives, etc.).

There's nothing "voodoo" about Defraggler.

 

[0roo0roo]

yes but running defrag all the time is essentially voodoo.

 

[theevilsharpie]

yes but running defrag all the time is essentially voodoo.

Agreed.

 

[Crow550]

So skip the Scheduler and just run a Defrag either once Month or after installing and deleting a bunch of files?

What about the other settings like moving large files to the end of the drive?

Thanks.

 

[0roo0roo]

Just do it once in a whatever, it doesn't really matter all that much.

Moving files to the end is a waste of time.

 

[Crow550]

As far as Defraggler vs Windows Defrager. It seems Defraggler is more popular: http://lifehacker.com/5855152/most-popular-disk-defragmentation-tool-defraggler

 

[lxskllr]

As far as Defraggler vs Windows Defrager. It seems Defraggler is more popular: http://lifehacker.com/5855152/most-popular-disk-defragmentation-tool-defraggler

Popularity doesn't mean anything. BonzaiBuddy was pretty popular too, and it was adware/spyware :^S

Third party defraggers aren't useful. The built in defragger is only seldom useful. Fragmentation just isn't that much of an issue. On XP I defragged every few months or so, and on Vista, I kept the weekly defrag schedule because it was easy enough to allow.

 

[Crow550]

LOL good point.

I was using Auslogics Defrag which I found to be much quicker. However lots of people reported Defraggler doing the best job.

I might just uninstall it and have Windows run there Defrag in the background for awhile and see I suppose.

 

[Nothinman]

You've probably already wasted more time thinking about this than defragging will ever save you. =)

 

[Crow550]

You've probably already wasted more time thinking about this than defragging will ever save you. =)

Usually Windows Defrag gets a bad rep. As it's usually considered slow and doesn't do the best job either.

Which is usually why alternative programs like Defraggler & Auslogics is offered.

 

[mechBgon]

I also have an Admin account and two Standard accounts. Will setting the Scheduler in the Admin account apply for the other two or will I have to set the other two to Admin temporally and set the settings up similar on those names then change it back to Standard?

For this sort of task, I'd just have it run with the SYSTEM credentials. There may be some merit to a boot optomization routine that (as I understand it) arranges the system's prefetch files for optimal reading during startup.

See this post for how to do it, and some peoples' results in startup times:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/140...oot-process-under-windows-vista-or-windows-7/

Speaking for myself, I schedule a batchfile that runs cleanmgr (Disk Cleanup) followed by a defrag and defrag /b. It runs with SYSTEM privileges in the wee hours, and Nothinman is probably right, it's not saving me any measurable time but oh well.

Speaking of cleanmgr, run it from an elevated command prompt with the /sageset:<number between 1 and 255> option, and it shows you all the options it has, so you can select the ones you want it to use. It's like a preset. Then if you run cleanmgr /sageRUN:<that number> in the future, it uses the options you selected with /sageset.

 

[Dude111]

Just do it once in a whatever, it doesn't really matter all that much.

Moving files to the end is a waste of time.

Not really,it makes it easier for your computer to find things.. (Like cleaning your registry of un-needed things)

I defrag once a week unless i do ALOT OF DELETING OF BIG FILES then i do it more often..

I think the Windows Defragger is the best (You want A GOOD JOB DONE when defragging,not the fastest job)

 

[Emulex]

win7 and vista iirc schedule a defrag every wednesday - so if you clone to ssd, be sure to remove that from the scheduled tasks

 

[Nothinman]

Usually Windows Defrag gets a bad rep. As it's usually considered slow and doesn't do the best job either.

Which is usually why alternative programs like Defraggler & Auslogics is offered.

Most MS stuff gets a bad rep for no good reason. However, the main point is that defragging is rarely worth the effort. Just let Windows do it's thing and you'll be fine 99% of the time.

 

[jobz]

One thing I like experts to confirm, is that Windows defrag is scheduled to run at 1 or 2 am. If machine is off at that time, will Windows run defrag next time you switch on, or is the last job skipped altogether?

 

[mechBgon]

One thing I like experts to confirm, is that Windows defrag is scheduled to run at 1 or 2 am. If machine is off at that time, will Windows run defrag next time you switch on, or is the last job skipped altogether?

To summarize the task setup:

It's scheduled for 1AM Wednesday, with a two-hour randomization. So it could run as late as 3AM. It runs under SYSTEM so no one has to be logged on.

It will only launch if the computer's been idle for three minutes and is running on AC power. It'll stop if someone uses the computer, and continue later when it's idle again.

If it couldn't run on schedule, yeah, it'll run at the next available opportunity. If it runs more than three days, it'll stop itself. It doesn't wake the computer from sleep/hibernate to run the defrag.

 

[IGemini]

Defraggler is okay if for no other purpose than having a more detailed fragmentation breakdown. I'll take that for a 10MB install.

In any case, scheduled monthly defragmenting is overkill unless you're shuffling a lot of files (especially concurrent ones, then multiple files are fighting for sequential space). I personally do it only as needed, either when it hits 10%+ or if specific file(s) are acting up.

 

[DrPizza]

It's worth pointing out that you're not supposed to defrag an SSD drive.

 

[sm625]

It is more important to clean out temporary files than it is which defragger you use. Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Adobe, IE, they all create thousands of temporary files and even things like icons for every url you ever entered. My pc has 8000 temporary icons right now. You can easily accumulate 100000+ temporary files that dont even get cleaned by doing a "Disk Cleanup". Run CCleaner then run defrag, once a month.