Smashing Defrag

#41

Unfortunately on trying this, left overnight working on an already defragged 300Gb drive, by morning had only reached less than 10%. Absolutely terrible. Disk analysis took over 15 minutes. Worse than Windows defrag, which I never thought possible!

Reply | Comment by sparkles – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#40

#14 & Others just to let you all know that JK Defrag up to v3.36 [http://www.kessels.nl/JkDefrag/] has actually had a change of name & they also have a new website to MyDefrag v4 onwards [http://www.mydefrag.com/]

Reply | Comment by Walter Lindrum – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#39

There are numerous differences among defraggers and reasons for using commercial defraggers. The commercial defraggers are generally better at VSS compatibility, more likely to support layout.ini, more likely to support boot-time defragging of files which can't be defragged online, better at defragging metadata, much better at knowing which files should never be moved (generally more relevant to portable computer users rather than desktop computer users). Most, but not all, defraggers use the Windows API. There can be additional specialized features in commercial defraggers, like handling VMs, etc. They generally have more options for when to automatically defrag, how to minimize CPU, memory, and I/O, etc., as well as differences in algorithms and ability to handle low free space conditions. In my own testing (anything from magazines is generally extremely low-quality and advertiser-biased), PerfectDisk Professional has always come out on top. But now an SSD is my performance drive, and near-continuous backup isn't particularly compatible with defragging. PerfectDisk just came out with version 12, and my license supports a free upgrade, but I no longer have much incentive to go beyond Win7's built-in defragger. For most users without an SSD, a good defragger is recommended, but I don't know if Win7's is close enough to be adequate. Especially if your drives are nearly full, it pays to defrag the page file(s), even in Vista and higher. Vista+ security will delete the page file on shutdown, preventing defragmentation, but you can set a fixed-size pagefile to ensure that it gets defragmented by a defragger which can, which is recommended anyway. (Now that I have an SSD, I don't bother). I've listed a lot of information about page files here on GOTD over the years, even the Sysinternals guys got some of it wrong. Defragmentation only matters on files which are being accessed, generally read; defragmenting files which aren't being accessed accomplishes nothing (well, there are good and bad impacts on recoverability).

There are numerous differences among defraggers and reasons for using commercial defraggers.  The commercial defraggers are generally better at VSS compatibility, more likely to support layout.ini, more likely to support boot-time defragging of files which can't be defragged online, better at defragging metadata, much better at knowing which files should never be moved (generally more relevant to portable computer users rather than desktop computer users).  Most, but not all, defraggers use the Windows API.  There can be additional specialized features in commercial defraggers, like handling VMs, etc.  They generally have more options for when to automatically defrag, how to minimize CPU, memory, and I/O, etc., as well as differences in algorithms and ability to handle low free space conditions.  In my own testing (anything from magazines is generally extremely low-quality and advertiser-biased), PerfectDisk Professional has always come out on top.  But now an SSD is my performance drive, and near-continuous backup isn't particularly compatible with defragging.  PerfectDisk just came out with version 12, and my license supports a free upgrade, but I no longer have much incentive to go beyond Win7's built-in defragger.  For most users without an SSD, a good defragger is recommended, but I don't know if Win7's is close enough to be adequate.  Especially if your drives are nearly full, it pays to defrag the page file(s), even in Vista and higher.  Vista+ security will delete the page file on shutdown, preventing defragmentation, but you can set a fixed-size pagefile to ensure that it gets defragmented by a defragger which can, which is recommended anyway.  (Now that I have an SSD, I don't bother).  I've listed a lot of information about page files here on GOTD over the years, even the Sysinternals guys got some of it wrong.  Defragmentation only matters on files which are being accessed, generally read; defragmenting files which aren't being accessed accomplishes nothing (well, there are good and bad impacts on recoverability).

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Reply | Comment by Fubar – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#38

Ultimate Defrag is still THE best and only defrag that lets you alter the size of the Master File Record and MOVE it where you want to - it also lets you move any file you want to anywhere on the disk platter. it is THE only defrag that will defrag in 5 minutes (WHOLE DISK) after the first initial defrag.

Reply | Comment by Majestic One – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#37

I tried this and found that while it did everything it claims there was a major flaw in its processing.: once you stop the defragging it cannot restart. You must start the defragging all over again. So that's a miss for me. Better luck next time.

Reply | Comment by Jane – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#36

One of the most important benefits of the GOTD site and program is the comments. Thanks, guys / gals. :)

Reply | Comment by seeseea – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#35

#17 (CIAo Baby) : I also suspect JKDefrag engine is being used. I'd like to know what J Kessels thinks about that...

Reply | Comment by MerleOne – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)

#34

I think most reviews miss an important point - why would you need to defragment your disk? I mean today's disks have such huge capacities, that they hardly get fragmented, unless you fill them up with some films you won't have time to watch, which most people don't do. Just check for yourselves, using your fav defrag soft - it will most likely say your disk doesn't require defragging, except for system partiton, which most progs won't be able to do - it involves moving and defragging read-only system files, which is possible only during a reboot. There is a freeware prog called PageDefrag (I think), which had been developed by a company bought later by Microsoft and now it's official MS freeware. Probably the safest way to defrag what you really may need to defrag and avoid wasting your time (and your disks' wear and tear).

Reply | Comment by Joe – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)

#33

According to their website:

Five tips to help you speed up disk defragment

Are you boring that the slower the more you use computers?
Are you boring the Windows Disk Defragmenter is cumbersome and inefficient?

Are you trying to convince me that you develop software and write code any better than you compose sentences in the English language?

I'm not convinced.

Pass.

Reply | Comment by MooJohnny – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#32

You can usually judge the relative speed of a PC/laptop by looking at the price tag -- faster hardware simply costs more money. Like the automotive aftermarket, many products are advertised suggesting you can get [closer to] top dollar performance without spending the cash, except for the price of their product of course. Disk Defraggers sometimes fall into this category. Truth is if you go to Windows built-in performance rating your hard drive(s) will probably be the main thing slowing you down, & even if it isn't, slowing down reading/writing to that drive(s) will hurt performance. A highly fragmented drive may slow down that reading/writing, but defragging a drive will very often make no noticeable difference. A blog at Microsoft's MSDN [ http://goo.gl/kBJMl ] spells it out a bit, while describing why the defragger built into win7 is the way it is. Minus all the details, if your [regular - not SSD] hard drive can read a file without having to jump all over the place finding bits & pieces of that file, it's faster/easier -- my favorite analogy is that it's like having all the dirty laundry in the hamper, rather than having to track it down & pick it up all over your home... still takes time/effort to do the laundry [or read the file from the hard drive], but the hunting/gathering makes it much more a chore. [Obviously I lead a dull life. ;-) ]

For simply gathering files together [defragging] today's GOTD, Smashing Defrag doesn't seem too bad. It does give you a nice report when it's done with a job, though that report (stored in the program's folder), will be overwritten the next time Smashing Defrag does something & creates a new one. While you can't select a specific file to defrag, you can select a folder. You can't resize the program window however, & many features found in other defrag apps are missing, e.g. automated running in the background &/or as a screensaver, working with the MFT at the front of the disk etc. And Smashing Defrag has no info or settings regarding optimization -- Most defrag apps relocate the files on a hard drive's partition, so that some files are on the fastest part of the drive. MyDefrag http://goo.gl/kmla may be the most flexible, with several customizable scripts determining which files are moved [if any], the recently more popular Auslogic Disk Defrag http://goo.gl/Ticr lets you defrag with/without optimization, Paragon Total Defrag [a previous GOTD] http://goo.gl/eM2C gives you 27 options [per the app's Help], & CNET's most popular Smart Defrag http://goo.gl/HJnuL gives you 3 [none, fast, & full]. Paragon's help & the MyDefrag site have some info on what optimization strategy might work best for you [by default MyDefrag uses Windows Prefetch data], but as they say in that MSDN blog, mileage varies from one person &/or one PC/laptop to the next.

Something else they point out, & something you'll likely see if you read about defragging on-line, is that not every app or even Windows version uses the same definition of what makes up a fragmented disk or file -- run one defragger after the other & it very well could tell you that disk/partition needs defragged, never mind you just did that. Something experience will teach you is that because of the different ways they have of optimizing [relocating files/folders], when you run one defrag app after another, that 2nd app may rearrange everything all over again -- it might take 2-4 times longer than if you'd never run the 1st defragging app! So what's a person to do?...

One strategy is to do nothing, & if you're running win7, & if your system's on when it's scheduled, win7 will happily handle defragging duties. Another strategy is to defrag once a week or so, for example when you do a disk/partition image backup -- if you ever have to restore a backup, might as well have the result already defragged too, right? And something that helps make Smart Defrag popular is that it can run in the background, doing its thing bit by bit while your PC/laptop is not terribly busy -- defragging might/might not make a huge difference, but if it happens in the background without any effort on your part, it's not like you wasted your time or anything. [apologies re: the bit by bit, bit. :-)]

That all said, when you're comparing defrag apps there are a few things to keep in mind... Is the optimization used by whatever defrag app Prefetch &/or VSS [Windows' Shadow Copy] friendly? Can you exclude certain files/folders, e.g. pagefile.sys, or select just one, again e.g. pagefile.sys? And what to do about those *immovable* files, e.g. the ones that Windows is using?... Paragon Total Defrag handles them by running outside of Windows when necessary, so nothing used, nothing escaping [unless you choose to exclude some files/folders]. Try that sort of thing with MyDefrag however, & if you want it to optimize the disk/partition, because it uses Prefetch data you need to do a bit of extra work http://goo.gl/jg7dR . Google/Bing & you'll find defrag app listings like these: http://goo.gl/kqSQN http://goo.gl/rzGff http://goo.gl/DvSmM .

Where does Smashing Defrag fit in? Overlooking any marketing &/or language missteps, most defraggers use Windows own api, and defragging results [not optimization] are going to be pretty much the same. When it comes to relocating files/folders for faster access, since I don't think anyone can say with certainty which optimization strategy is best for you, & regardless there's zero info on how Smashing Defrag does optimization, the only way to say it's better or worse in that respect is to try it. Installation isn't bad, with 2 new registry keys, one for uninstall & one for the app, while the program's folder holds 8 files, ~5 MB.

You can usually judge the relative speed of a PC/laptop by looking at the price tag -- faster hardware simply costs more money. Like the automotive aftermarket, many products are advertised suggesting you can get [closer to] top dollar performance without spending the cash, except for the price of their product of course. Disk Defraggers sometimes fall into this category. Truth is if you go to Windows built-in performance rating your hard drive(s) will probably be the main thing slowing you down, &amp; even if it isn't, slowing down reading/writing to that drive(s) will hurt performance. A highly fragmented drive may slow down that reading/writing, but defragging a drive will very often make no noticeable difference. A blog at Microsoft's MSDN [ http://goo.gl/kBJMl ] spells it out a bit, while describing why the defragger built into win7 is the way it is. Minus all the details, if your [regular - not SSD] hard drive can read a file without having to jump all over the place finding bits &amp; pieces of that file, it's faster/easier -- my favorite analogy is that it's like having all the dirty laundry in the hamper, rather than having to track it down &amp; pick it up all over your home... still takes time/effort to do the laundry [or read the file from the hard drive], but the hunting/gathering makes it much more a chore. [Obviously I lead a dull life. ;-) ]

For simply gathering files together [defragging] today's GOTD, Smashing Defrag doesn't seem too bad. It does give you a nice report when it's done with a job, though that report (stored in the program's folder), will be overwritten the next time Smashing Defrag does something &amp; creates a new one. While you can't select a specific file to defrag, you can select a folder. You can't resize the program window however, &amp; many features found in other defrag apps are missing, e.g. automated running in the background &amp;/or as a screensaver, working with the MFT at the front of the disk etc. And Smashing Defrag has no info or settings regarding optimization -- Most defrag apps relocate the files on a hard drive's partition, so that some files are on the fastest part of the drive. MyDefrag http://goo.gl/kmla may be the most flexible, with several customizable scripts determining which files are moved [if any], the recently more popular Auslogic Disk Defrag http://goo.gl/Ticr lets you defrag with/without optimization, Paragon Total Defrag [a previous GOTD] http://goo.gl/eM2C gives you 27 options [per the app's Help], &amp; CNET's most popular Smart Defrag http://goo.gl/HJnuL gives you 3 [none, fast, &amp; full]. Paragon's help &amp; the MyDefrag site have some info on what optimization strategy might work best for you [by default MyDefrag uses Windows Prefetch data], but as they say in that MSDN blog, mileage varies from one person &amp;/or one PC/laptop to the next.

Something else they point out, &amp; something you'll likely see if you read about defragging on-line, is that not every app or even Windows version uses the same definition of what makes up a fragmented disk or file -- run one defragger after the other &amp; it very well could tell you that disk/partition needs defragged, never mind you just did that. Something experience will teach you is that because of the different ways they have of optimizing [relocating files/folders], when you run one defrag app after another, that 2nd app may rearrange everything all over again -- it might take 2-4 times longer than if you'd never run the 1st defragging app! So what's a person to do?...

One strategy is to do nothing, &amp; if you're running win7, &amp; if your system's on when it's scheduled, win7 will happily handle defragging duties. Another strategy is to defrag once a week or so, for example when you do a disk/partition image backup -- if you ever have to restore a backup, might as well have the result already defragged too, right? And something that helps make Smart Defrag popular is that it can run in the background, doing its thing bit by bit while your PC/laptop is not terribly busy -- defragging might/might not make a huge difference, but if it happens in the background without any effort on your part, it's not like you wasted your time or anything. [apologies re: the bit by bit, bit. :-)]

That all said, when you're comparing defrag apps there are a few things to keep in mind... Is the optimization used by whatever defrag app Prefetch &amp;/or VSS [Windows' Shadow Copy] friendly? Can you exclude certain files/folders, e.g. pagefile.sys, or select just one, again e.g. pagefile.sys?  And what to do about those *immovable* files, e.g. the ones that Windows is using?... Paragon Total Defrag handles them by running outside of Windows when necessary, so nothing used, nothing escaping [unless you choose to exclude some files/folders]. Try that sort of thing with MyDefrag however, &amp; if you want it to optimize the disk/partition, because it uses Prefetch data you need to do a bit of extra work http://goo.gl/jg7dR . Google/Bing &amp; you'll find defrag app listings like these: http://goo.gl/kqSQN  http://goo.gl/rzGff   http://goo.gl/DvSmM  .

Where does Smashing Defrag fit in? Overlooking any marketing &amp;/or language missteps, most defraggers use Windows own api, and defragging results [not optimization] are going to be pretty much the same. When it comes to relocating files/folders for faster access, since I don't think anyone can say with certainty which optimization strategy is best for you, &amp; regardless there's zero info on how Smashing Defrag does optimization, the only way to say it's better or worse in that respect is to try it. Installation isn't bad, with 2 new registry keys, one for uninstall &amp; one for the app, while the program's folder holds 8 files, ~5 MB.

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Reply | Comment by mike – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+18)

#31

Today's giveaway is probably one of the poorest GAOTD ever released over the past few months...LOL!

So 2 THUMBS DOWN from me!!

Dudes, PURAN DEFRAG is actually an amazing program but...how about ULTIMATE DEFRAG??

ULTIMATE DEFRAG is really more than just a defragger, since it's also a hard drive file placement optimizer that allows you to defrag and place your files in the areas on your HD where you achieve maximum performance.

In fact, many people don't know this but 80% of the time you only use 20% of the files on your hard drive.

So why not move your rarely used files onto the slower performing areas of your HD and, on the other side, your frequently used files onto the higher performing areas where data transfer rates are doubled??

The FREE Version of this amazing software has an incredible number of options!!

http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDefrag-Freeware-Edition/3000-2094_4-10582157.html?spi=0ccf37a74386841b84df6d6ce8d9eca0

And to make it PORTABLE just follow instructions here:

http://www.pendriveapps.com/ultimate-defrag-defragmenter/

For VISTA and Windows 7 users (but it's suitable for XP users as well) there is a more recent special Freeware version of this compelling program that performs a more thorough job than the standard one mentioned above:

http://www.freewaregeeks.com/?page=detail&get_id=176&category=53

Enjoy & Prosper!!

Reply | Comment by Giovanni – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)

#30

I think today's offer will be a hard sell. Not because it's bad software but because defraggers are a very personal thing to a lot of users. Like many earlier users that commented I use Puran Free so I am reluctant to turn my system over to anything new. Thank you GAOTD team for all of your efforts and thank you to the publisher for the offer.

Reply | Comment by gpc111 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#29

The defrag built in to Windows 7 works well. Why add another?

Reply | Comment by Coly Moore – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)

#28

Hi,

I tried so many Defrag tools but find one- "Puran Defrag 7.3" which is the very besst in class and free! It works beautifully on my 3 laptops- one Win XP and other two Win 7.

As I know, it is the only free (for personal use)defrag+optimiser+gap consolidator which can deftly and effortlessly perform in pre boot and defrag/optimise/gap fill the entire drive (including unmovable system files). In addition, It can also perform on demand and live defragmentation on low priority in the background.

Cheers!

Reply | Comment by Dwight – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

#27

I tried it out on an external disk with not a lot on it. Maybe 20 GB of data on a 100 GB disk. It installed just fine and looks very simple, but was fast, even considering how little data it had to deal with. I just wanted a quick test, so don't read too much into it.

After reading some of the comments, however, I think it is a good thing I tested on an old drive and system. Seriously, anyone trying to sell utility software is up against a LOT of very credible competitors. I liked the simplicity of this one, though. Linking to malware sites and putting fake reviews and a sloppy site does not cut it.

I will take the advice given here and check out some of the others, especially the one from Piriform.

Reply | Comment by Mark – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

#26

With so many free defaggers out there why would you pay for one. Auslogic is fast, as is Vopt. Ultimatedefrag is quite fast and has excellent circular GUI. Defaggler and Mydefrag are middling. Some of the expensive ones like PerfectDisc are very very slow. I can't bother testing Smashing Defag as commenters have mostly rejected it.

Reply | Comment by david – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)

#25

Thanks, but I'll stay with MyDefrag. As others have said, it's free and gives great results. No complaints in over 3 years of use.

Reply | Comment by Remy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#24

I think this is a nice program for older systems but anything above XP sp2 should have an excellent defragger already build in. I have my maintanance standard at Sunday nights and the times i do check the effect i see a system with a 1% defragmentation. I doubt bringing it to 0% would do much if even possible.

You can't have price all the time, tomorrow is a new chance for some good software, passing on this one

Reply | Comment by whizzy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

#23

Update
I did take a look at the registy after I had uninstalled the program. There´s some interesting about what I did find:

[Workspace] ControlBars-Summary --> Bars=0 --> ScreenCX=1600 --> ScreenCY=900
[Workspace] ControlBarVersion --> Major=10 --> Minor=0

The resolution of my screen is detected, but not used ? And the Bars parameter is there, but not used ?

ControlBarVersion & MFCToolBarParameters is also filled with option that the user have access to in most programs, but not this one, why ?

Reply | Comment by Trucker – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#22

Personally I use defraggers very rarely, because all of today's drives spin very fast plus them buffer chips can go up to 64 MB for traditional drives.
The only defragger I use is Disktrix Ultimate defrag because it gives you total control of your drive storage. For instance, I keep all of my archives and downloads away from the faster edge of the drive. Games and programs are placed on the fastest area, for fast loading.
One other thing is, Disktrix can help you trim the MFT reserved space or move your page file at the edge of the drive upon next reboot.
Finally it's one of the few defrag programs that doesn't touch all of them compressed Shadow Virtual drives that Windows & keeps as Restore images for the System Protection Service.
My 2c

Reply | Comment by jbgoode – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

IObit Smart Defrag is free and runs quietly in the background while your system is idle. http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

Reply | Comment by Emrys – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)

#20

Thanks for this offer, GOTD, but like the other here, the dishonesty on the authors' site puts me off.

I bought PerfectDisk 10 (at a reduced price!) some years ago and found it performed better than Defraggler on my PCs. For the record, my employer (a major company) uses IObit Smart Defrag on their PCs, which is just one of the many free alternatives others have suggested.

So I'm afraid it's a 'thanks but no thanks' for 'Smashing Defrag' (which I think is a rather unfortunate choice of name BTW!).

Reply | Comment by Cad Delworth – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

#19

Havent tried this one today, but Defraggler from Piriform gets very high ratings and is Free .. I have used it for a long time and very happy

Reply | Comment by Strongbase – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)

#18

Why not call it Super Defrag? Smashing has two meanings breaking things or great. Potential users may be over-cautious just because of it's title!

Reply | Comment by sparkles – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-26)

#17

Hi,

Lots and lots of free alternatives about, some of which are mentionned here. So why indeed considering eventually purchasing today's GAOTD...
Trying it though may add to ones comparitive knowledge on defragmenter programs.
I'v been using Piriforms Defraggler (see e.g. #15, OldScotty) myself for some years now and comparing it with some others it remains my favorite - both for its performance and speed. By "performance" I mean the accumalated gain after some three runs of a program - typically Defraggler does in one pass what Windows built-in defragmentation does in three. No other program I've tried performed better on my 800G harddisk, each time with aproximately the same level of fragmentation.
Reading all the above comments, I'll most probably pass on this one (also because of temporary lack of free time) but I will try some of the free alternatives mentionned here (during summer vacation I guess...)

Good day to you all,
Patrick.

Reply | Comment by Patrick – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)

#16

The messages given by this during its operation look suspiciously like those for jkdefrag (now mydefrag). I'm thinking something might have been, uh, "borrowed" (and perhaps more than the verbiage).

Other than that, this does about the same as any defrag program; slower than my favorite Defraggler (from the CCleaner folks) but about the same as jkdefrag (now, I *wonder* why it's similar to THAT?;) )

Reply | Comment by CIAo Baby – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)

#15

Highly respected German Computer Mag Computerbild tested a whole set of Defrag programs. Results:

*Windows 7 - The inbuilt Windows defrag is excellent, no other is needed;

*XP - I do not actually recall but Defraggler I think performed well;

and here is the kicker:

*VISTA - Defraggler beats all the others hands down. I had not tried it before, mostly because of silly name. However, Computerbild said it freed up more hard disk space whilst defragging than any other free program (and I had tried all those listed, which included those listed above).

I had to see this and I was totally blown away. Not the most sexy interface but, oh my, does it deliver. Basically, if I have 20% fragmentation, a full run of Defraggler not only reduces this to 0% but also frees about 20GB of Hard Disk space [will vary according to size]. It also defrags all external drives.

It is free or you can pay for support. Cannot think why you might need that but I guess it helps with developing. Only issue is there is fast defrag and normal. For normal, you really need to start it up and go to bed. Can be set to defrag system files on start up and to switch PC off on completion. Indeed, has a number of useful controls.

Find it at http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download

If it does not impress you can always try today's offering. Thanks GAOTD but this time I don't need the offering.

Windows VISTA HP, ASUS high end G1 laptop that is used heavily (since PC decided to retire:-(( )

Reply | Comment by Billy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+24)

#14

Why would anyone want to pay for a drive defragmenter when there are so many free ones available? The purpose of any of them is to try and join the parts of the file or a program that are scattered all over the drive into one continuous group. There's only one way to do this and that's to move them, so it can hardly offer anything spectacularly different. The price had me checking my calendar to see if it was April Fools' Day!
A couple of free ones:-
JkDgrag http://www.kessels.nl/JkDefrag/
Defraggler http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Piriform have a great pedigree as they write CCleaner, Defraggler has a pleasing interface and is easy to use.

Reply | Comment by OldScotty – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)

#13

I have used Diskeeper Lite, JKDefrag and MyDefrag earlier, but I have switched to Auslogics Disk Defrag. Very good, and much faster than all other defragmenters I have tried. After trying this, I (so far) see no reason to test anything else.

Reply | Comment by Dlira – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)

#12

I love how their website claims a 5-star Top-Rated CNet Award, but CNet doesn't even have a review of the program. The one review that it did have from a user and it was for only 1-star. Hmm...

Then they charge $29.95 for this? I feel sorry for anybody that actually paid for it. Well, no I don't, anybody stupid enough to buy this deserves what they get. I wouldn't d/l this even tho it's for free today. If I'm going to spend almost thirty dollars for something, it's going to be for something that's actually worth every penny. Sorry, but there's much better programs out there that can do a much better job, and they do it for free.

If the software programers are listening to the advice given on this site, they need to take it and use it to churn out a program that's actually worth what they're wanting to charge for it.

Reply | Comment by ToM e BoI – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+57)

#11

Installed on Win7 64-bit

Thumb up:
- The program GUI did open very fast
- After running the Analysis then could I see there was 1 spot with 8 connected empty Blocks from the last program that I have removed.
- You can see the process live in the colored area below

Done after 16 min. on a 90 GB with 65 GB empty.
1st run - 7 spots with different numbers of empty Blocks (total 45 empty Blocks).
2nd run - 7 spots again with new different numbers of empty Blocks
3th run - 7 spots again with new different numbers of empty Blocks

Thumb down:

- There isn´t any fullscreen option
- The html report is annoying and unwanted. A xls file would be more usefull
- The defrag is slower than the build-in
- It works like an much old version of windows´ build-in defrag
- The defrag did say there was a Locked Block, but this isn´t the C drive, so there shouldn´t be any thing like this.

Overall - It is a fast starting program, but it slows down a lot when using the Analysis and defrag functions.
I did decide to try the option "move files to the end of the drive" after 5 times of defrag. My hope is that it then would place the files after each one another... This process is slow too, even that it now should have a fast access to the files ! Under this process can I see more than 8 Locked Blocks, not a convincing sign.
The program DID really place the files as I wanted it to do... it lasted for 15 min. BUT there is 5 Locked Blocks and 5 Reserved MFT Blocks that it didn´t move !
2nd & 3th run gave even more Locked Blocks.
I can see a clear pattern that it don´t work any better than windows build-in. If this program isn´t a copy/clone of the old windows defrag then have the developer played on the wrong horse !

Reply | Comment by Trucker – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+31)

#10

tried many ....
happy with .. free... smart defrag
http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

Reply | Comment by Jerremy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+18)

#9

Use Puran defrag myself. It is freeware and does boot-time defrag as well as supporting 32 and 64 bit Op Systems.
http://www.puransoftware.com/Puran-Defrag.html

Reply | Comment by Beagle – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+24)

#8

Their website is not really a web site. It is a SEO (search engine optimization) magnet. I have never seen one word used so many times in one page (defrag). Even though they have free email support for Try-persons (from their site ;D) I am still not going for this one. They are trying too hard if they actually have a decent product.

Reply | Comment by Greg – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+72)

#7

Wow I'm impressed, boosting about a great perfomance and it crashed at first operation. I've already removed it from my system.

Reply | Comment by ojoj – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+84)

#6

Installed and ran the program without any problems. Seems to do a pretty good job of defragmenting the drive, only one drawback is that if you have multiple drives it only defrags one drive at a time, but very light on resources. Will keep using it for a while to see how it compairs with other defrag progs.

Reply | Comment by Russ – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)

#5

there are better software wich are free too
like Puran defrag
supports
boot-time
disk checks
registry defrag
pagefile defrag
MFT defrag
Junk cleaning

Reply | Comment by Chris – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+38)

#4

No way I'm even considering installing this. the intro phrasing above suggests caution- a visit to the homepage link (Copyright © 2009 Defrag-Defragmenter.com- but no program history) and support [How to disable UAC (user account control)?] certainly shows nothing JkDefrag + JkDefragGUI or MyDefrag + MyDefragGUI [http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/ and http://www.mydefrag.net/] can't do free.

with more information and track record.

The blog finished off any doubts. (What's "DeFragging Your Tough Dr")

Reply | Comment by goodgotd – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+90)

#3

I'll probably pass on this one. After looking at the product's site I noted that there are no professional reviews, they boast the cnet Top Rated award yet it's never been awarded that and it's rated 1 out of 5 stars. cnet didn't even review it.

They have the Softpedia Spyware-Free pic (which just means they scanned the file) and it's rated 1 start of 5 there too.

The 3rd pic is a download3000.com spyware-free certification but that site is well known for distributing malware:
http://www.mywot.com/scorecard/download3000.com

My advice to Smashing Defrag is to be honest and if you are proud of your product, get a reputable site to review it.

I am very happy with Auslogics Disk Defrag which is free. O&O Defrag now has a Free Edition, however, I would love to see O&O Defrag 14 Pro Disk Defrag here someday.