Defragmentation

[KillerStickMan]

I'm thinking about running a defragmentor on my computer, but I was just wondering what actually happens when you drive becomes fragmented and what are some good defrag programs?

[chaos555]

Gain hard drive space, programs open faster, and computer will run faster. You should do it once a week mmhmm

[sava700]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

I suggest this program for a fast degrag! :)

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Power-Defragmenter.shtml

[Twlight]

If your willing to pay Diskeeper Pro Premier is one of the best, though if you want a free defrag program Jkdefrag is just as good and it doesn't require an install

[KillerStickMan]

Do you need %15 of your HDD free for the defrag to work properly?

[looqas]

Do you need %15 of your HDD free for the defrag to work properly?

Yes. Otherwise it does not have space to move data blocks around.

It's a very good idea to clean the drive before defragging. Uninstall unnecessary programs and files. You can use this very good and free program to clean your hard drive of crap. www.ccleaner.com

After running ccleaner run defrag.

[Hawkers]

Lots of useful links, thanks guys.

[kaheiyeh]

Gain hard drive space, programs open faster, and computer will run faster. You should do it once a week mmhmm

You wouldn't gain hard drive space by defragmenting a drive. All it does it rearrange the files so there's no benefit to disk space by doing it.

I try to run a defragmentation daily cause with alot of activity on your computer, it can take a very long time to defragment when it all piles up and your drive is very fragmented.

[=98=]

I just run the defrag.exe -C -W command when my computer is idle.

[Chris_Redfield]

Windows default defragmentator is sub par and insufficient at best. Potentially, you need two programs.

- Diskeeper (you can download a trail version, which covers all functions)
- PageDfrg (Or PageDefrag)

One of them is a conentional degfragmentation program on which Windows default one was built on, its a very efficient little bugger and mostly also covers PageDefrags functions aswell (boot time defragmentation, page file defragmentation, aswell as system files defragmentation).

Before you defragment your hard driver, remember that you need at least TWICE as much free space as your BIGGEST FILE. Which means that if you have a 10 GB file, as the largest one, you need 20GBs of free space.

Next, run through disk cleanup, remember to delete all but the last restore points (under advanced options under disk cleanup). Delete everything you dont need and free as much space as you can. While in theory, 15% is enough, in practice, youre most likely end up needing around 30-45% free space. Empty your Temporary Internet Files too.

Run Diskeeper, youll end up running it many a times. If past multiple defragmentations, you still end up having fragmented files, look them up under "Job Summary". Delete if you can. You can also try making a copy of them, moving them around (basically, try to "fit" them somewhere else on your HDD). Sometimes, its the pagefile, or system files that are fragmented, at which point you run the PageDefrag utility. It needs you to reboot your computer as it works similarily to ScanDisk or CheckDisk.

Occasionally, theres a very peculiar file that will never get defragmented, like USN Journal, its an NTSC file system log file and you will end up having to delete it and then restore it, although from what Ive read its unnecessary.

EDIT:

Fragmentation and defragmentation in laymans terms- over some use, files will get fragmented, they fall into "pieces" and scatter all around the HDD. For example, your favourite porn movie can be in 5 pieces all around the HDD. Its a natural course of how a HDD works and theres little you can do abut it. Defragmentation basically puts these pieces back together so the time it takes for the HDD to locate and read the files, decreases. A faster and healthier HDD.

[Kradath]

The best one I know is from O&O.

You can use the trialversion for 15 days if I'm right.
If you want to have a very clean defragmentation do to COMPLETE/ACCESS one.

[kaheiyeh]

Also the key to keeping your disk defragmented is to regularly defragment it using such programs as those mentioned above.

[Sniper1432]

I use this. It's pretty good IMO.

[peeth]

I use this. It's pretty good IMO.

Me too.
It's quick and does what you want it to.

[TheHeartSmasher]

Defraging does bring back free space that the harddrive has marked as unuseable due to too much fragementation.

I use Diskeeper Premier Pro, and have auto defrag enabled, along with all the other options.

Plus if you are using diskeeper then you will be able to see what is being defragmented in extreme detail as you used to be able to do with the obsolete earlier Windows operating systems. You will also benefit from being able to defrag all your hard drives/partitions at one time, then having diskeeper do auto defrags.

You will want to keep defraging until you have no more red blocks (fragmented) and diskeeper tells you that your drive is healthy. You may need to extract any zipped files or delete them if you do not need them anymore.