Thinkpads Forum

Personally I'm having a bit of trouble deciding. So far it's either DiskTrix's UltimateDefrag, Raxco's PerfectDisk or O&O Defrag. If you have any experience with these programs please reply, if you just use the Windows built-in defragmenter or none at all please don't reply

There's also Diskeeper (on which Windows' defragger is based).
My preference is PerfectDisk.

I use PerfectDisk as well. The "Screensaver" defragmentation mode keeps my disk perfectly defragged without impacting the interactive performance of the laptop or having deal with a periodically scheduled defrag (since I might be using my T60 at any hour of the day or night).

Raxco support has also been excellent; I've only had one problem, though, and it was related to an obscure issue with the filesystem.

I like Perfect Disk and have been running that for a while.

Another vote for PerfectDisk.

Another happy user of Perfect Disc here.

Perfect Disk 8 is about as fast as it gets. Another vote here. .. JDH

I'll go against the grain here: O&O.

I've used it for over 5 years with excellent results. Its "Stealth" defrag mode works great in the background.

hehe.. breaking the mold some more as i'm using Vista so i just let it take care of it. I've never had major fragmentation issues and i go through some huge files 4GB - 15GB ones. Sometimes i load up some of those programs to scan my drive and i'll see it's still less than 1% fragmented. Therefore it's not something i worry about. Vista takes care of it without me even thinking about it.

Last month I installed Perfect Disk, ran it... after that, I got blue screen of death...

Is it normal?

I'm afraid it will harm my harddrive..

If that was a legal copy, you should ask Raxco.

RealBlackStuff wrote:If that was a legal copy, you should ask Raxco.

Agreed. Raxco provides decent support. I have dozens of copies of PD 7 and 8 running on mine and client machines (all XP Pro). None on Vista yet. But no blue screens with any version of PD from 6 to 8 and from XP SP1 to XP SP3. ... JDH

Are there any advantages in using above mentioned software instead of Windows defrag?

kunfuchopsticks wrote:Are there any advantages in using above mentioned software instead of Windows defrag?

There are three:
1. PD is much faster (PD8 generally completes in about 5 minutes on my machine)
2. It slows down hard disk access only modestly. I just keep right on working while PD is running (Daily at 11:00am)
3. It can be scheduled, runs silently, and runs in a restricted profile. Great for user machines.
... JDH

I think differently, why windows need defragmentation? can't microsoft make it not require this thing? mac certainly does not need it. Meh
Windows has a huge edge over mac because it can be run on virtually any computer but I am of the opinion that it is a huge investment as well, you need good paid apps like internet security software, registry cleaner, defragger and so forth.

I also think microsoft should try to eliminate the need of such apps or buy few small companies, maybe rights, contracts whatever to include these useful apps as standard in windows but no crippled trial versions or craplets please!

Has anyone tried UltraFrag (Opensource - http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/)?

I have downloaded it but have not tried it yet.
According to the website it should support Vista x64. The install requires that you disable antivirus and vista driver compatibility enforcing.

I have used jkdefrag a lot and I like it. It is not much to look at but it seems to work well. It also has the defrag screensaver and a CLI version you can use with task scheduler.

I also use jkdefrag. It's effective, fast, and I agree it's not very pretty to look at.

Recently, I discovered a GUI wrapper for it that makes it a lot easier to work with - JKDefragGUI

Using diskeeper light gives me this error warning message:

"MMC has detected an error in snap-in. It is recommended that you shut down and restart MMC." followed by 3 options.

This occured before upgrade to SP3 (XP). I´m also using ExprWeb2 and VS2008.

Has anyone similar expiriences?

Iminj: Since you recommended jkdefrag I gave it another look and now have it nicely configured for Vista x64. I created shortcuts to run a full optimise and a fast optimise so that I can choose when to run it without returning to the command line each time. Thanks.

It's a very neat little program. The best thing about it is that (it is free - it is free - it is free) you do not have to install it - it requires no additional drivers. On the other hand Ultrafrag on Vista x64 will only work if you start with Driver Enforcement disabled from the Advanced Startup Options menu (F8 at startup). This pretty much makes it infeasible for this OS. Secondly, and I am not sure if this is essential for Rescue and Recovery users, you can tell it to exclude the RRBackups folder with the "-e C:\RRBackups\" switch. However, perhaps that folder can be defragmented without any issues. Lastly, it will not defragment system files. This can be worked around by recreating hibernation fail and specifying pagefile size (see defrag help). Obviously, commercial software would get round this. But then, I don't have the cash to hand over. Also, this thinkpad came with Diskeeper but only in x86 mode .

I have read on other forums that if you going to use you should do so exclusively, as each program prefers to organise files in a separate manner.

For those wanting a freebie Defragger, you should also have a look at:
Auslogics Defrag from http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag
It's free and Vista compatible as well.

I will second the recommendation for Auslogics Disk Defrag. Nice and fast.

Just got Auslogics Defrag, a very small utility that seemingly does a great job.
I'll third a vote for it. Works faster than the Vista Defrag.

Another vote for Auslogics Defrag. Free, fast, and effective.