Defraggler is a free defragmentation tool for optimising the performance of your hard disk. It does this by re-arranging file fragments so they’re all contiguous where possible, which translates into faster seek and save times. The commercial King of the Hill is Diskeeper, but it costs $29.95, which makes this puppy a bit of a bargain. Defraggler is slower than Diskeeper, but that’s probably because it analyses each file fragment to give you the option to optimise parts of your disk rather than the whole thing. Neat product, and definitely worth a download.
Defraggler! It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool! And remember like all Piriform products, Defraggler is completely free for both corporate and individual use.
Hold on – I thought that defragging=bad? I always got the impression that modern wisdom dictates that defragging irrevocably ages your hard drive, and that it’s just not worth it.
Does this product change things?
Hmm…good point. My view is that a little defragging now and then is worth it, because there’s no doubt that fragmented files do slow down disk access. I think that with modern high capacity drives, however, the dangers of thrashing that disk on a regular basis is probably what gives defragging its bad name. Do you have a source for your worries, Charlotte?
Hi,
Interesting post and discussion. As someone who works for a company that develops a disk defragmenter, I do say that defragging is not bad. It is still necessary to keep a computer running at peak performance, and is not going to age your drive. That is why millions of gamers, power users, professionals and casual users continue to defragment their drives.
Also not free is PerfectDisk, which also can defragment single files. In addition, it also consolidates free space, which ends up reducing fragmentation in the first place, and defragments all file system metadata files. That, in conjunction with it being used by millions of home users around the world, Microsoft employees themselves, and many of the world’s largest enterprises, are why we think PerfectDisk is the King of Tthe Hill.
Thanks,
Joe Abusamra
http://www.raxco.com
http://www.perfectdiskblog.com
Heh, thanks for the plug Joe. Always good to have more opinions. :-)
Have to agree with Joe Abusamra. Never heard of defragging being bad. In fact, the reasons given above should be reveresed (ie, not degragging ages your drive because it must work harder across the whole surface to recreate the files, dangers of cross-linked files, possible loss of data, etc).
I recently nearly lost a whole directory on a portable drive I’ve been using alot for a few years. I was able to repair the problem but the root cause was a badly fragmented disk.
I was going to download defraggler but opted out now becuase the download page indicates the following serious problem:
“Warning!
This is a beta version, it may contain bugs, so should be used for testing purposes only. We therefore do not recommend you use it in a commercial environment.”
Beta software may be fine for some apps but never, ever for a defragmentation tool.
I’m strongly agree with twocents. In fact I think Defraggles should not offer its product in the first place. Even if it’s free. A buggy defragmenter is a potential nightmare.
I was going to try PerfectDisk until I saw the $40 pricetag. That’s pretty high IMO, and I’m a power user who understands the value of defragging. For that much, I’ll either defrag manually with the built-in tool (based on the DiskKeeper code I believe and definitely also certified by Microsoft) or spend $10 less and get DiskKeeper.
PerfectDisk may be great, but if it’s too expensive, it doesn’t matter. Make a $14.95 Home Version and you’ll kill DiskKeeper. At $40, it’s no wonder I’ve never heard of it.
Sorry if this is a doublepost. It appears that my first submission didn’t go through? Please ignore if this is indeed a DP.
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I agree with Joe – defragging is actually good for the drive -both for performance as well as lifespan. It is actually fragmentation that causes disk thrashing because the drive head has to move across the platter frequently when sequentially reading a fragmented file. This tends to increase disk I/O time as well as reduce drive life because the actuator arm assembly is being worked needlessly. Defragmentation fixes these two problems, among others.
With increasing size of storage solutions, it looks like automatic defragmentation is becoming the preferred route for commercial enterprises, and the old manual or scheduled defrag is waning. Basically, the automatic defragmenter takes care of the whole fragmentation problem from A to Z while running in the background and defragging as required during windows [pun only partly intended :p ] of idle activity. This means that admins don’t have to waste time defragging the servers manually or scheduling for off-peak hours, thus saving time and manpower.
I personally wouldn’t touch a beta defragger with a ten foot pole :/ It’s too much of a risk since the danger of it messing up files during a defrag is unacceptable unless your data is of no value to you. Wait until it comes out of beta….don’t be the guinea pig!
Thanks for the comment, Mike. The $40 price tag is actually $10 less than Diskeeper’s “pro” version, and about $50 less than it’s pro version that has all features. Raxco also has a home version for under $30 (PerfectDisk Rx Suite), which also includes a registry cleaner, trace remover, and duplicate file remover. There are always some discounts going on, so you can get pretty close to your desired price. Check out Microsoft user groups and you’ll find a lot of power users and Microsoft MVPs using PerfectDisk.