How often do you defrag?

[eatmyshorts]

Thought I'd get a topic going on defrag..

It would be interesting to know how often everybody is using it these days, if just windows or a better -yes they are better- 3rd party defragger and on what system.

I'm looking at getting an automatic defragmenter shortly so would appreciate any recommends. and am using windows defrag once every week or so on Win 98 -yes I need to update.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Most of my systems: never.

 

[Harvey]

I defrag my drive daily. More often if I make serious changes such as installing a new program.

Defragging often can cut the time it takes from hours to minutes, and it definitely cuts the chances of system errors.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Most of my systems: never.

Yup. Maybe once every 6 months at most.

 

[dawks]

I use Diskeeper and have it configured to defrag my OS/Program drive nightly.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Most of my systems: never.

Yup. Maybe once every 6 months at most.

At least your honest.

I do it about every 6 months or so too... Basically as needed.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Harvey
I defrag my drive daily. More often if I make serious changes such as installing a new program.

Defragging often can cut the time it takes from hours to minutes, and it definitely cuts the chances of system errors.

Same here - it just takes a few minutes each night pefore shutting down, and it keeps things in goodshape. I have done this for the past 19 years, and it has become a routine. Maybe that's why I only have to do a clean install when I get a new system or mobo?

The best I have found to do the job quicky with a good, understandable GUI/metaphor is PerfectDisk by Raxco (Canadian.)

 

[Zelmo3]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Most of my systems: never.

Ditto :beer:

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: dawks
I use Diskeeper and have it configured to defrag my OS/Program drive nightly.

me too

 

[Nothinman]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Most of my systems: never.

Same here. Occasionally I'll defrag a file or certain directory if something seems like it's running too slow, but it's rarely worth it.

 

[Jeff7]

Whenever I 1) think about it and 2) do not have the computers busy doing something else.
That translates to once every 2-3 months.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: Zelmo3

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Most of my systems: never.

Ditto :beer:

Same here.

 

[cubby1223]

never

 

[jdiddy]

Its usually whenever I remember which ends up to be once or so a month.

 

[RedCOMET]

Usually right after i check disk defragger console in windows xp. if the partitin needs to be fragmented and i'm not using the pc, i'll do it.
Usually this happens 4-6 mothes. but it might be longer if the drive isn't experiencing a lot of major program installs (excluding windows update. )

 

[Harvey]

Norton's defrag is cool. It puts the swapfile at the head of the disk as one contiguous file so it doesn't get fragmented, and other files don't fragment around it.

 

[Powermoloch]

daily

 

[SynthDude2001]

I used to have it set to defrag nightly, but I haven't gotten around to setting it up again. I run the standard Windows XP defragger manually about once a week or so.

 

[jadinolf]

I use Diskeeper. It does it as required.

 

[imported_BikeDude]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Same here - it just takes a few minutes each night pefore shutting down, and it keeps things in goodshape. I have done this for the past 19 years, and it has become a routine. Maybe that's why I only have to do a clean install when I get a new system or mobo?

Eh... Well, I never defrag, and don't even bother with reinstalls (except that time an Epox motherboard was allergic to the memory the dealer recommended, and caused data corruption -- I was left with a corrupted registry).

19 years ago I too was heavily into defragging, but for the last 10 years I have more or less stopped. SCSI drives seek fast and I seriously doubt I'd be able to tell if someone defragged my drives without telling me.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Whenever I 1) think about it and 2) do not have the computers busy doing something else.
That translates to once every 2-3 months.

Ditto and I use Diskeeper!

 

[daniel1113]

Whenever my disks need it, which is usually about once every 6 months or so. I've been on a yearly schedule, it seems, where I format my machine once and defrag once 6 months later. Pretty effective cycle, especially since I change hardware quite often.

 

[eatmyshorts]

Interesting responses!

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: Harvey
I defrag my drive daily. More often if I make serious changes such as installing a new program.

Defragging often can cut the time it takes from hours to minutes, and it definitely cuts the chances of system errors.

Same here - it just takes a few minutes each night pefore shutting down, and it keeps things in goodshape. I have done this for the past 19 years, and it has become a routine. Maybe that's why I only have to do a clean install when I get a new system or mobo?

Especially the above. I'd like to know if you 'wore out' any hard disks during that time. I have heard too many people arguing that using defrag on a very regular basis wears out the hdd. I think the above and several other comments point out that that is probably not the case.

Funny also how everyone jumps from every 6 months or less to every day or so. Personally I swing more towards daily, because it seemed to sort out some blue screen errors -bsod- a couple of years ago and have been using it atleast weekly since. -Maybe d/l'ing over 3gig a week in large files makes a difference too?

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: BikeDude

Originally posted by: corkyg
Same here - it just takes a few minutes each night pefore shutting down, and it keeps things in goodshape. I have done this for the past 19 years, and it has become a routine. Maybe that's why I only have to do a clean install when I get a new system or mobo?

Eh... Well, I never defrag, and don't even bother with reinstalls (except that time an Epox motherboard was allergic to the memory the dealer recommended, and caused data corruption -- I was left with a corrupted registry).

19 years ago I too was heavily into defragging, but for the last 10 years I have more or less stopped. SCSI drives seek fast and I seriously doubt I'd be able to tell if someone defragged my drives without telling me.

I agree , for me harddrive upgrade after the other I started to notice less improvements after defraggin especially with my 74GB Raptor drive , but I still do it anyway using norton systemworks and that happens whenever I have my computer idle and I have nothing better to do than watch those little colored squares move around the screen.

 

[JBT]

I use diskkeeper. It does it when my PC is idle.