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Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition (English Version) Giveaway
$29.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition (English Version)

Total Defrag is a comprehensive product for total file system defragmentation and optimization.
$29.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 349 90 comments

Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition (English Version) was available as a giveaway on November 19, 2009!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$39.99
free today
Uninstall programs without leftovers!

File system starts out with all or most of its files contiguous, and becomes more and more fragmented as a result of the file creation and deletion over the time. Thus files and their parts become spread all over the hard disk, which follows the delays in the hard disk work and further lower performance. Total Defrag 2010 is a new comprehensive product for total file system defragmentation and optimization. Built on original Paragon technologies, it performs complete low-level defragmentation that provides almost zero fragmentation level.

It allows you to:

  • Perform a complete low-level defragmentation that provides almost zero fragmentation level.
  • Speed up and optimize all critical system files and metadata including MFT (Master File Table), directories, paging files, registry hives and others.
  • Use 9 File System Optimization Strategies.
  • Use one of 2 available modes for defragmentation:Fast or Safe. Safe Mode is slower but it protects your data in case of a power failure during defragmentation.
  • Run Paragon Total Defrag without installation. Create a bootable CD or DVD and boot the system and defragment all the available disks directly from it.
  • Read More

Limitations: Special Edition has no 64-bit support.

Technical Support:
During the Giveaway period Paragon Software provides technical support at http://twitter.com/paragonsoftware. Please, post your questions if you have any troubles while downloading, registeringand using the software. Paragon Software’s support team will reply you as soon as possible.

System Requirements:

Windows 7 (x32) / Vista (x32) / 2000 Professional / XP Home Edition / XP Professional; 300 MHz or higher; RAM 128 MB; (256 MB or greater recommended); Disk space: 20 Mb; Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher

Publisher:

Paragon Software

Homepage:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/total-defrag/

File Size:

87.1 MB

Price:

$29.95

Comments on Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition (English Version)

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#90

I looked into the MFT issue in more detail. Since the MFT zone doesn't include the MFT itself, it's not reporting free entries in the MFT. Decreasing the size of the MFT would involve internal compaction of the MFT; defragmentation generally just involves the physical file. I could try to test what happens, but for me it's a total non-issue. Vista is only allocating 200 MB max for the MFT zone, and most of my MFT's are small compared to that. Of course, the MFT zone can be used for files if no other free space is available. I have a full 2 TB drive with only large files. Its MFT is 768 KB. A full 300 GB drive with mostly large files but some small files has an MFT of less than 100 MB. While that's large compared to the 2 TB drive's MFT, it's small compared to the MFT zone, and both are nothing compared to the drive capacity. Another nearly full 300 GB drive with some large files but mostly a great many small files has a less than 500 MB MFT. That's also nothing compared to the drive capacity. A 4 GB virtual drive has a 64 KB MFT. As far as I'm concerned, there's just no reason to worry about MFT size.

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#89

#30 & #54 - iamafever

#30 - Your remark is completely immaterial to the comment I made. I NEVER said anything about having an issue of storage, I made a comment about the coding of the program. Regardless of what it contains (Linux ISO, etc), having a program that large for a simple defrag function shows it could be coded better or distributed in a better way - possibly in modules. Perhaps you should learn to pay attention to what people actually say, not what you assume they say.

#59 - Then I saw your second comment in which you proved yourself to be a total prat. Smart-ass comments are completely useless and provide nothing toward the discussion whatsoever. If you can't say anything useful, save us all the time of having to read your next comment by NOT posting the next time.

Reply   |   Comment by Fred  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#88

#69, Spammy, OK, I analyzed all of my drives with PerfectDisk. The free space inside each MFT reserved zone, not the size of the zone itself, was 200 MB on every drive (except for a tiny virtual drive, which was about 125 MB). Therefor, either Vista or PerfectDisk is keeping the MFT's small. If your MFT's aren't shrinking automatically, it may be due to fragmentation within the MFT.

#86, Alt Brown, PerfectDisk defrags the MFT's safely, and there are almost certainly other defragmenters which do.

If you're using a defragmenter which uses the Microsoft Defragmentation API, you can safely pull the plug on the computer during defragmentation. Of course, you should run a disk check after interrupting any disk operation, to fix up the file tables. For those of you running Paragon, are you comfortable pulling the plug during defragmentation (in any mode)?

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#87

Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition is by far the best defrag tool I have ever used and I have pretty much used all of the free ones. Thanks for the download. I can definitely tell a difference in my pc!

Reply   |   Comment by Eddie Dick  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#86

I've used several commercial and free defraggers and, despite pontification to the contrary, if you install/uninstall/move large programs/files, they do work. I settled on Ultimate Defrag (public), just for expediency - none faster. BUT due to operations described earlier on a Vista laptop and remaining large files, UD (nor Vista) would defrag the MFT nor would the disk get below 15% frag. Like #83 I was not crazy about the time/speed, especially after 45 mins leading to an error in Safe Mode (default). So gave the "Fast Mode" a shot. Yes, it defragged the MFT in about 10 mins, but the drive itself (70GB) took 2½ hours! After restart, UD analysis was .019% frag. PITA, but like all Paragon software so far, it works. Thanks again!

Reply   |   Comment by Alt Brown  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#85

#69, Spammy, what misinformation? If the developer posts inadequate or incorrect information on their website, that's their problem. No, I don't have to try software which can brick your computer in an instant. Absolutely nothing is more dangerous to your PC than a defragmenter, you're explicitly giving it permission to rearrange potentially everything on your disk volumes. Paragon shouldn't allow an unsafe mode, period. Power, hardware, and software, including the defragmenter itself, can flake out at any time for any reason. Why should I take Paragon's word that their "safe" mode is safe? Do they use the Windows Defragmentation API like every other decent defragmenter? They don't say so, and obviously if they're using a Linux boot disc, that version doesn't. Does Paragon support layout.ini and VSS? Again, they don't say so, which leads me to suspect that they don't. If you're happy with it, fine, but it's not for me. As for the MFT, I remember one volume with little data that had a huge MFT. As the disk filled, the MFT shrank. I don't know whether that depends upon what version of Windows you're using, or whether PerfectDisk did it when needed, but the MFT definitely shrank, big-time.

#51, harpo2448, 2007 comparisons are useless, it's almost 2010. Gibson Research? SpinRite? That was useful a quarter-century ago or whatever, but it's useless on modern drives. Same for their firewall testing. Actually, one of the links here mentioned SpinRite, and it did nothing to predict or prevent a drive failure, which is exactly what one would expect.

#64, mike, I find it interesting that you're all for cleaning the registry, which does nothing, yet you see little value in defragmenting the disk, which does impact performance, especially the pagefile. Using a disk doesn't "wear it out", the heads don't contact the disk, and the drive motor normally keeps the disk spinning while the computer is on. You can change that with power management, but nobody can stand the drive startup delay (also, the cycling is far worse for the drive). I'm not saying that you have to use PerfectDisk, I listed the features which I look for in a defragmenter, and most free ones don't have the features I desire. I certainly don't claim that PerfectDisk has the ultimate optimization algorithm, merely that it's good. As you say, the best algorithm depends upon how you use your data.

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#84

Installed well on my XP SP3
but where is my registration information in the program ?

Sorry, but I can't find it so I don't know - for sure - if the program is registrated :(

Reply   |   Comment by Ben  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#83

Don't install this unless you got 3 hours to defrag where you can't use you PC. It boots into DOS and three hours later it came back to Windows after the defrag.

Seemed to do a good job but way too long for me.

Reply   |   Comment by Jeanette  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#82

Hi Folks,

Good comments. If Paragon does not clearly use the Windows API I would pass .. noting Phred's experience #44 and some others I would pass anyway.

The Windows API is known to be quite solid and safe and there is no reason for a defrag program to reinvent the basics. What the high-end products do is more in terms of analyzing usage and placement and algoriths about that stuff .. interesting techwise but since disk access is much less a crunch than processing, CPU, stacks, memory, internet response, etc for most apps to me it is of little intereset. Disk access is simply not a bottleneck. Defragging is good though if done by a light application, it also helps if you have to find a deleted file.

On the light and excellent end .. Defraggler .. Auslogics (if still free) and a number of others. DiskTune actually has some good discussions about how defrag is overdone. http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskTune.htm

For me .. light use, once a week or once a month or so, get rid of 30K of fragments. Whether the nanosecond of file placement is worth the extra processing .. I think not. Defraging a lot, ultra-tech, is a solution looking for a problem.

So I will pass on this one.

Shalom,
Steven

Reply   |   Comment by Steven Avery  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#81

Do we need defrag tool other than one shipped with Windows (XP/Vista/7)?

Yes. Like many other things, MS has shipped a minimal featured version of a tool. Starting in XP MS bundled a stripped down version of Diskeeper defrag tool. (I don' know if it carried on to Vista and 7, or not.) The bundled tools are adequate for minimal functionality, defrag in this case, but there is freeware and 3rd party software, like Paragon, that do the job better.

Why do we need defrag? Because the windows file systems, FAT & NTFS, are based on design philosophy from the (late) 1970's which assumes disk space is at a total premium and HD is terribly slow. Both of which by DESIGN lead to almost instant file fragmentation. If you want a rude surprise to a HD analysis with a defrag tool right after finishing a fresh Windows install. Massive fragmentation!

I used Diskeeper free and purchased version in XP, and have used a couple of freeware, most recently Defraggler, on my Vista machine. I gave Paragon a try since it was a free Full feature version.

I ran Paragon and Defraggler analysis reports (before and after defrag). Paragon said I had 425 fragmented files, and the map showed about 80% of the sectors as red (fragmented). Defraggler said I had 405 fragmented files, 4,068 fragments, representing 7% fragmentation. The difference in number of fragmented files is trivial but the huge difference in representing how many sectors/blocks had fragments is very interesting. Frankly I am more inclined to believe the Defraggler map more than the Paragon one. I then ran a Paragon defrag. Since it was a reboot defrag, to move the directories, I was disappointed to see that there were still 34 fragmented files. They were files from various apps that there was no reason for them to still be fragmented.

Do I like Paragon, do I recommend using it? Short answer is YES, inspite of some "issues" discussed below.

Some general Defrag suggestions before going into Paragon:
- before defrag (like any disk intensive operation) do a FULL backup! (especially when testing a new tool like this!) While moving files around during a defrag, something MAY be trashed and you will need to restore from backup. If you don't do backups, sooner or later YOU'LL BE SORRY!
- before defrag do disk cleanup to delete any unneeded files. Tools like built-in "Disk Cleanup" or CCleaner will help with this
- given large HD sizes it now makes sense to make Windows swap file constant size, min and max the same. Then you can defrag the swap file and it will stay in single contiguous "fragment" and it will no longer contribute to fragmentation of other files.
- when doing a defrag you REALLY REALLY want to have a UPS (battery backup) just in case the power goes out, you don't want your machine interrupted during defrag!

Review of Paragon Defrag:
I decided to keep it for several reasons:
- ability to create bootable "recovery disks" on USB, CD & DVD media. That's great, makes the tool portable.
PS: for those of you who are complaining about size, as it has already been pointed out, most of the app size is probably due to the OS (probably a flavor of 'Nix ) that is incorporated in app to build the recovery disks
- ability to move all directories to "front" of drive. I don't see it in most freeware
- it was able to move some files that were located at the "middle" and some at the "bottom/back" of the drive that other defrag tools have not been able to move.


Observations on the app:
- in general it is a "competent" application. Compared to other similar tools I've used it has fewer user configurable options, including a few I think are fairly important
- feels like a lot of "wasted" space in the app window since I consider the information on the map the most important element in the whole app window. ie the "task pane" on left side could be done away with (ie move up into menu and button bar) PS: I just found that it can be "dragged" to float on window so that "Fragment bitmap" has more working space.
- In the "fragmentation bitmap" I would like to see a couple more categories, ie directories, MFT, locked system files (ie swap file).
- you could move the bitmap legend from bottom to top of frame on same line as "Disk usagel of ..." text
- add options to configure tool/button bar, ie: turn off tool/button bar, turn text on/off (I LIKE that buttons have text, some people don't), option to use large or smaller icons
- "Disk Map" at bottom of screen uses a lot of space, make it smaller or move up to button bar or maybe make it into a new tab?
- the "blocks" in the "fragmentation bitmap" could be visually smaller so that they include fewer files in each (see defraggler as an example of this) I think this is the most important info in the app window, so more detail is better.
- I really would like to be able to click on a "fragmented block" and see a list of the files in it, with number of fragments, and have an option to pick one, more or all and defrag them explicitly.
- somewhere there should be an option for user to explicitly specify files and folders to exclude from defrag
- it would be nice to be able to specify process priority, ala defraggler, for online defrag in multi cpu processor. Might as well max out defrag speed on the one CPU (let hd be limiter)

- initial analysis of disk is VERY fast, less than a minute for my 60gb partition. It is nice to be able to save the report to disk, but I have a few suggestions.
- keep the report available in the app after it is generated, ie put report for each drive into a tab of it's own.
- report format is a little "strange". Why start with freespace (I would put it last), most people are more interested in file and directory fragmentation than in freespace. Include "fragmentation %" number for files and directories. After defrag, report still says freespace has 5700 fragments, but only 36% fragmentation?!? Are you calling each free block/sector a fragment? That is counter intuitive (for me).
- I really would like to be able to PERMANENTLY specify a location to save all reports to, other than the current default.
- for the online report I would prefer to see it default to max to min fragments sort order
- I did analysis on a secondary partition, after I closed the report it "jumped" back to "C:" drive. WRONG, since was planning to work on that other drive not the C:

- I ran the "Check File System Integrity". It said "The volume has some errors. ...". So I set Checkdisk with fix parameter to run on reboot. No errors were found or fixed. Re-ran your check, it still reported error! Your check also reports 0 free space, WRONG!

- help file says there are "27 different defrag strategies". Nice, but what are they? Help file doesn't say and I don't see that many during defrag setup (or are you saying the combination of those options, 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 are the "strategies").



Directory Placement: First / Last / Do Not Sort
Sort by Size: large / small / Do Not Sort
Sort by Date: Recent First / Recent Last / Do Not Sort

How do the Size and Date options interact? Which takes precedence?

- during the reboot defrag, when the other OS app was running, the user interface SUCKED! The progress bars didn't work, there was no indication of how long it would take.

Reply   |   Comment by Ron  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#80

The probable reason why the download is so big is that it comes with a bootable iso so that you can defrag outside of an OS (at least that's what I'm decyphering). Now that I've got Win7, I've not had a real reason to defrag yet. Only have 2 hours to decide to download it or not, but I will probably pass on this one, but still, Paragon has put out some cool programs, and I suspect this one's a fantastic program too. :)

Reply   |   Comment by Lyle  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#79

Not able to get Total Defrag to work on my XP.Locks in on my drive C and keeps telling me to reset my computer. Will not defrag or analyze my HD.
Uninstalled program and returned to my AusLogics defrager.

Reply   |   Comment by Logware  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#78

I installed it, got the registration key but do not see the program in my start menu. Where did it go?

Reply   |   Comment by ad  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#77

Update: the program does see and access all my USB external drives, but labels the thumb drive I had in as 'invalid'. Hope the difference helps someone.

Reply   |   Comment by bem  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#76

I have used 1)Auslogics,2)Defraggler,3)JKDefrag(Now the name has changed) and finally THE DEFRAG UTILITY IN WIN UTILITIES(free from gaotd), and WIN's came first and Defraggler ,a close second (imo)!

Reply   |   Comment by sreedhav  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#75

For Aeonic.Yes i have the same problem.Not work in Windows on XP SP3 32.This is why i use bootable CD with Paragon Total Defragmenter.In quality it can be(if you read and understand the manual)the best soft for defragmenter but they need to work to improve this soft.It is like something unfinished.

Reply   |   Comment by Doru  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#74

# 14, 100% I agree with you. most of people don't know anything about how SSD/Flash drives works. And what defrag techniques are used with flash-based solid-state storage. And they don't know anything about TRIM command and how continuous free space prolong drive life.

Reply   |   Comment by Seven  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#73

I'm with #56. Defraggler is all I use and it has never failed me. And I converted a portable HD from and old computer and it even does that great.

Reply   |   Comment by Suzanne  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#72

ALSO - note to several posters. Total Defrag does not claim to do a low level format. Which, as you point out, is a near impossibility for most modern hard drives. They use phrase "low level defragmentation." However, I have no idea what that means.

Reply   |   Comment by JohnC  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#71

I should have also mentioned, a well used internet explorer to web surf can create as many temp files equal to or more than all other files on the system. (though each file is very tiny). It creates havoc on the drive. Huge fragmentation that takes forever to defrag - for junk files.
Before a defrag, i recommend this: 1) Clear the browser cache for Internet Explorer, and any other browser you use (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc). 2) manually locate each user's Temp folder ( C:/documents and settings//Local Settings/Temp/ )
Some files will be in use and can't be deleted. 3) Delete the pagefile upon shutdown. (google how to do that). 4) Turn off Hibernation. 5) If you are really really smart, remove the download cache for Microsoft's Software Distribution, and install/uninstall folders for all microsoft updates that have been installed and you're happy with. (all "KBxxxxxx" folders more than 2 months old is my rule). Again, google it for how to. 6) Empty recycle bin.

Then, select a start-up degfrag with MFT shrink, degfrag folders to front. Let it complete on next boot-up - but absolutely don't interrupt the degfrag. It could take an hour or two. But, thanks to to clean up you did before, it will save you 2 to 4 hours that would have been spent on all those junk files. Upong windows start, re-enable Hibernation.

Reply   |   Comment by Spammy  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#70

# 25 Shep (from the company?). Your diatribe against Fubar responds to a few of his remarks. WHAT ABOUT VOLUME SHADOW COPY SERVICE?
Is Total Defrag compatible with VSS? If so, then just say so. But when you fail to reply it implies the answer is no.
I agree about Fubar - that "fast" mode may well be unsafe. No one has a perfect power grid! Maybe you should eliminate it in future editions. Nothing angers a person more than trashing their system. And be sure to have a way to stop defrag during operation! ESC is standard!
Finally, why did you fail to include your 64 bit edition? Many are migrating to 64 bit (with trepidation!) and I suspect a higher percentage of GAOTD people are in that category.

Reply   |   Comment by JohnC  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#69

Misinformation is so frustrating.

A typical home user, *ESPECIALLY* if you have even 1 kid on your pc, will have tons of programs installed, thousands of temporary files, music, videos, etc - the hardrive is usually 80 to 90% full, and has never been defragged. I've seen it a thousand times.

Fubar:

Windows does "adjust" the MFT (Master File Table - index of all files on the pc) as needed - but only larger and larger. It never shrinks it. So, if you for example, come to realize you have 200,000 files in your temp folders and delete them all. You have a huge mft of files marked deleted.

As far as the danger of using "unsafe" mode? Well, use safe mode. Duh.
I would agree with that strategy, and Paragon allows it. Encourages it.

As far as the ability to run during startup, Paragon DOES do this.

If one wants to criticize a product, actually use it first and know what it does...

I HAVE used Paragon 9.5 from a previous giveaway. I like the MFT shrink. I like defragging every single file (during startup), and I like defrag during startup. (when I'm not actually using the computer). It allows the best, most complete defrag, and avoids system slowdown if defragging while using the pc. I like ability to choose defrag features such as Folders first, and sort by date.

I think creating a bootable cd or flash drive is an excellent feature, but I've never needed it.

Built in windows defrag does not allow configuration of the settings mentioned above, and will not shrink the ever growing, space hoging MFT.

I run a defrag about once a month. I find system performance does lag due to defragmentation (on Hard Disks - not flash drives or ssd drives). In fact, Microsoft does to, which is why they recommend a monthly defrag. It is *exactly* like finding something in a cluttered closet versus a clean and organized closet.

I'm tempted to try defraggler, but for anyone who's just popped on and considering this program - I've used it extensively. I'm very fussy, and I've been extremely pleased with this program.

Reply   |   Comment by Spammy  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#68

Is there a legit workaround for a x64 install?

Reply   |   Comment by Seth  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#67

This program did NOT work for me at all. I installed it and burned the CD first, as I have been looking for something to be a boot environment system file defragmenter for a while now, and this also can do Linux partitions which is an interesting feature.

After burning the CD I went ahead and tried to do a normal defragmentation of the C: drive from the Windows interface. Well, it said that I would have to reboot to do it properly, so I agreed, and it immediately gave me a Blue Screen (Of Death) memory dump. I had to hold the power button down to get out of that and then rebooted back into Windows. I went to run the program again and it told me that it could not find the settings.xml file and could not start. I then tried a "Repair install" from the installation menu, it completed, and I tried again. Same message, so the settings.xml file does NOT get repaired. I then had to fully uninstall the program, and rebooted the computer with the Boot CD in the drive.

The Boot CD seemed to start up fine, and so I went ahead and told it to defragment and compact the MFT file as well as the other files on the disk from smallest to largest. It ran for and hour and 34 minutes until I realized it had 'moved on' to the second partition on the disk, which I didn't want it to or need it to since that could be done in the Windows GUI. So I cancelled it while it was working on the second partition thinking that the first one must have been completed.

I exited the program, took out the CD an booted back into Windows. In order to see what the program had done, I went ahead and reinstalled the Windows interface, had to re-register by using the email they sent and then ran the program which did not complain about a missing .xml file this time. THE C: DRIVE WAS AS BAD AS IT WAS BEFORE I DID ANYTHING! RED SQUARES EVERYWHERE!

I was completely perplexed at the report, so I unchecked the system files/MFT box and tried to run the program again to see if at least it would work this time, and it once again told me I would have to reboot to run the program even like that! I sighed, clicked OK and Wham-o, another BSOD and memory dump.

Once I rebooted the computer again, I uninstalled this software and will never install it again. Good riddance! I may use the CD I burned for a Linux box at some point but I would NOT RECOMMEND this program to anyone.

MyDefrag and Ultimate Defrag are SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!

Reply   |   Comment by Kirk  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#66

@ #57, (oOfmanOo):
I could be wrong, but the article you mentioned is discussing hard drive formatting. Today's software is for defragmenting the data on the hard drive.

Reply   |   Comment by defrag no frag  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#65

As usual, a lively and factioned debate regarding a system level program. I learn a lot from these interchanges, even if it's only that everyone has there own opinion. I appreciate the links to external information as much as the expertise and experience offered by the more technical types. Thanks to all for taking the time.

As to the discussion about flash drive defragging, I think one point is being overlooked. The lacking program feature is not flash access but USB access, which includes external hard drives that plug in that way. I have a Tbyte worth of storage spread over several units and r/w to them often. That is an issue for me.

I'll get this installed and see how it goes. Maybe it won't be an issue. ;)

bem

Reply   |   Comment by bem  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#64

Truth be told, if you don't ever defrag your hard drive(s), you don't need to worry that some hard drive grim reaper is going to show up tapping you on the shoulder. De-fragmenting your hard drive(s) should make it/them last longer because it's more efficient that way, but it also causes more activity (during the defrag process) which directly causes more wear. Defrag your drive(s) because badly fragmented drives can slow you down, & defrag before you work with your drive partitions -- that works best when all the data is concentrated towards one end of the drive/partition.

Defrag your drives while in Windows if you don't have another version of Windows you can boot into -- chances are, outside of some version of Windows, anything with a lot of disk writing is going to be painfully slow. I use LiveXP on a bootable USB stick, plus I have more than one Windows install on this PC -- if I didn't I'd just defrag what I could from inside whatever running version of Windows... a relative few files that can't be defragged because Windows is using them is just not that big of a deal. Plus many like the registry can be defragged using other tools [i.e. NTREGOPT] separately with much less pain. Also remember that whatever power saving measures your CPU & graphics card use in Windows won't work from most boot discs -- everything's usually running full on [if nothing else that can mean using a lot of extra electricity & a lot of unwanted heat in the summer].

Yes, the results can be different using different defrag apps. I haven't had any problems with Paragon's Total Defrag. Apps that attempt to optimize the disk, moving most accessed files for example, *guess*. They guess at what's fastest for most, & they can & do get it wrong, just as the way you use your PC often doesn't fit exactly into any *most* category. Some like PerfectDisk may have less impact on a running system, but it may or may not offer you anything useful for the PC/laptop you're using right now the way that you use it -- I've not had any problems using Total Defrag, MyDefrag, or JKDefrag, don't see anything it could offer me, & won't be spending the time to download a trial, backup, monitor the install, try it out, & potentially restore that backup. I'm satisfied now -- why should I?

Finally, some people like to defrag their drives more often, some even constantly in the background. If you're one of them, great -- I'm not. I won't try to tell you how often you should or shouldn't defrag your drive(s), & no one else should either. Windows 7 64 Defrag help says you need it when a drive's over 10% fragmented. If you can tell the difference at 5%, go for it -- if you don't see a difference at 20%, that's fine too. If you can't tell the difference, regardless if there is one or not, unless you're altering the partition or have some other compelling reason to defrag your drive, why bother?

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#63

what good is it if it will not do 64 bit

Reply   |   Comment by chuck  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#62

Addition to defragmentation of flash/SSD drives: the key for a longer life span of flash/SSD drives is to reduce writing to them. This is so because flash/SSD drives support only a very reduced number of write cycles for a cell compared to normal hard disks. So you normally would not want to run a defrag on flash/SSD drives because they do a lot of writes. Also switching to special portable versions of programs is good when it comes to programs that do write a lot of small files normally. This goes f.e. for Firefox and Thunderbird. Firefox normally writes many small files (browser cache) during surfing. I have even seen a recommendation to configure Windows itself so it does not do so many writes.

The point is: Defragmentation is good for normal hard disks and is bad for flash/SSD drives.

Reply   |   Comment by Reiner  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#61

http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20091119-tzoc-55kb
Here is an image with Disk Defragmenter from s.o. after a total defragmentation with Paragon.I started with half D partition-red.I install soft,make a Cd bootable with iso image,delete with Total Uninstal,soft Paragon,restart computer with Bootable CD,enter in Safe mode,choise partition D for trial and first i make a normal defragmentation,next on the same partition i make mft defragmentation and next i make compact mft.I don't change any settings because i didn't read the manual.This is the result.In Windows when i try to work, nothing happen,only you see an image of how it loock your partitions.This is possible with:Disk Defragmenter from s.o. soo i don't need another soft for this function.What it was necesarry it was iso image to make bootable Cd.Ended to work with Paragon Total defragmenter is super but is necesary to work with bootable CD for very good result.

Reply   |   Comment by Doru  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#60

Okay, normally when I use Paragon software, it'll let me restart the computer into the boot-mode version of the program and do some low-level stuff from there. However, this program tells me that it needs to restart the computer so that it can run its boot-mode version, but, it doesn't. It restarts and starts up Win XP again. So basically I can't even get it to work.

Reply   |   Comment by Aeonic  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#59

I have used previous versions of this program and found it to be stable, reliable and does exactly what it says it can do. However diskeeper professional does the same thing for a cheaper price and much quicker so i will stick with that. But for those who need a quality defragger i highly recommend this.

Reply   |   Comment by Warumpi  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#58

@ harpo2448 thx, ik will look into them.

The only thing I remember is a offer of paragon 2009 SE
in the Computer Act!ve.

Here you will find some user experience. http://tiny.cc/UwMMK

If low level format isn't even "really" possible.
This is what wikipedia says
"Today, an end-user, in most cases, should never perform a low-level formatting of an IDE or ATA hard drive, and in fact it is often not possible to do so on modern hard drives outside of the factory"

But this program can low level defrag?

Reply   |   Comment by oOfmanOo  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#57

@#25: Perfect Disk does allow boot time defrag. of Windows system files. PD does also allow limited placement of files (in three 'groups,' according to last-accessed/written times).

I've tried Diskeeper, also Defraggler and a couple of the other freebies, and they genuinely weren't nearly as good as Perfect Disk.

Because I am a (very) satisfied PD customer, I won't be trying today's giveaway, but thanks to GOTD for offering it. I have nothing against Paragon, no against 'trying new things' in general, but I'm VERY wary of trying software which might in theory stuff up your system unless I first have the time to take a FULL drive backup. It would be touch and go as to whether I could do that within the time left for download, and still have enough time left over to give Paragon a fair trial.

Reply   |   Comment by Cad Delworth CEng MBCS CITP  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#56

One Word!
DEFRAGGLER
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
http://www.filehippo.com/download_defraggler
FREE!

I Have been using it since original alpha builds, and have NEVER had any reason to switch. I've moved on from x32 operating systems so I won't waist the download of this, but really, Between what Windows and Linux BOTH do automatically, and what you can set them NOT to do; there;'s really no reason to move beyond the basic tools.
It even does folder entries.
And YES, there is a speed increase for some, such as when you are using multiple-terabyte drives. Having a video spread all over a 1.5 is a great way to eleminate your seek ability in that file, or even crash VLS.

Just a word of caution, DO NOT DEFRAG FLASH DRIVES! Flash media has much shorter lifespans than typical magnetic drives, defraging them is a sure way to reduce lifespan.

Reply   |   Comment by lostinlodos  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#55

WHY would a defrag program be nearly 90 MEGABYES!?!? No way.

Reply   |   Comment by Sierra  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-10)
#54

# 41

"I do have a bigger drive and cosequently it is multi partitioned but this offering can only defrag ONE partition at a time.

It’ll take ages to keep checking & Restarting BECAUSE I have a large drive."


Your reply does not explain why the size of todays giveaway exe is a problem.

Anyway, if you don't like the program being offered then don't download it and and don't use it.



There, now think of all the time I have saved you.

Reply   |   Comment by iamafever  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-11)
#53

I agree with others, nothing touches PerfectDisk, worth every penny. Several large websites like Intel and Amazon use it on their servers.

Reply   |   Comment by Tony Wojo  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#52

Too bad this version has had 64 bit OS disabled. I did download to try on my laptop that has 32 bit win7 installed. I would even buy the retail version that has 64 bit support if it was significantly discounted for GOTD people, but I don't think that I would pay 29.95

Reply   |   Comment by billum  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#51

I've used several defragmenters, including default/built-in Windows, Diskeeper (paid "Pro" and free editions), Auslogics, WinUtilities, JkDefrag/MyDefrag, and a couple others I can't remember.

Overall I've like Paragon's other products as offered here on GAOTD. They seem generally well thought out. Personally, with hundreds of gigabytes of disk space I'm not too concerned that their product might take up 87Mb versus others' 3Mb as long as it is justified by being feature-rich and stable (although I do appreciate and admire compact coding, see below!).

However, I can't yet comment on today's offering (that would take some time), but to help people with their thoughts, here's some interesting info about defragmenting. (You must decide if you accept the explanations and if they apply to other defragmenters):

http://www.mydefrag.com/Manual-FrequentlyAskedQuestions.html


It includes an answer to this question: "Will MyDefrag reduce the lifespan of my flash/SSD memory disk?" (Yes, and apparently so would most any defragmenter according to the explanation.)

And although magnetic hard disk defragmentation is the main subject of today's offering, here's another on FLASH devices:

http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1220272,00.html


Here's a guy that tests/compares/reviews most of the available popular defragmenters (seems to be one of the better independent test web sites on the subject):

http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/search/label/Defragmentation


...where he gave a thumbs-up to Paragon Total Defrag in 2007:

http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-xv-paragon-total.html

http://www.openaccess.co.za/BlackAndWhiteInc/Defrag.htm


Unfortunately, his "The 2009 Defrag Shootout" testing comparing the latest product versions has apparently been put on hold:

http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/search/label/The%202009%20Defrag%20Shootout


...but there is still lots of good info on the website, including his 2007 comparison "shootout":

http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-all.html


(And finally, as mentioned, for a couple of very useful examples of fairly "tight"/compact code that people seem eager to harp about, visit these pages for (1) Gibson Research, maker of the classic SpinRite disk recovery utility as well tiny utilities to probe and test your computer's security for "open ports" that hackers could use, and (2) Bitsum, maker of Process Lasso, a utility which keeps any one process from dominating the CPU cycles of your machine -- great to maximize responsiveness for gamers!)

1) http://www.grc.com/default.htm

2) http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php

2A) http://www.bitsum.com/winmemboost.htm (article about Windows "memory boosters/optimizers", a seemingly-popular topic to argue about around here.)

Hopefully this info is useful to a fairly wide audience today.

Reply   |   Comment by harpo2448  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)
#50

I also use DiskTrix UltimateDefrag (as already mentioned 32 & 43).

The freeware version is just as capable as their paid version but basically just without the pretty GUI...

It also has boot time defragmentation if you check it in Tool/Options and will run the one time on boot-up (until you check it again).
You can also schedule.

Definitely read the pdf - it offers a wealth of information.

One more thing - when DiskTrix initially offered V1.72 for free it was originally 2.17 MB (it is now 2.43 MB due to the inclusion of an ad that asks you if you'd like to upgrade to the current version). So if you can find the smaller installation file you'll not have to deal with the ad...

As far as today's giveaway - Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition (English Version) - it does what it says it does - I installed and defragged - took about 1 hour 10 minutes on my laptop 1.6 Centrino M, XP SP2, 512MB ram (it was 41% fragmented according to PTD 2010). Unfortunately I forgot to check UltimateDefrag to see if it gave the same reading for the level of fragmentation - but I don't doubt it - I like others here are always installing/uninstalling/tweaking settings, etc.

The frustrating part was a lack of updated info as it did it's thing - progress bars were slow and time only updated once every 5 mins or so - not sure if that's just my end though. This is a large programme even if you delete bootcd.iso from the programmes folder (you'll save 47.4 MB if you do but won't be able to create one).

Thanks Paragon and GOTD.

Regards,

Damian

Reply   |   Comment by rezidue  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#49

I have an outdated copy of PerfectDisk (received as a promotional giveaway) and I've come to rely on it because of all the good press their defragmenter has received. Today, I installed Paragon's offering (and will burn a CD-R of the iso image later). With these two applications on my hard-drive, I see no reason to complain. I'm a fervent fan of good freeware, but I wouldn't venture to compare free & Open-Source products to their commercial counterparts. XP systems and newer are tough to break if you're willing to spend time maintaining them: give today's GOTD a try on the off-chance that you may be pleasantly surprised.

Reply   |   Comment by word edgewise  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#48

Going to stick with MyDefra and Defraggler. Never have had any good experiences with Paragon software offerings. Tried this product earlier this year and it held my laptop hard drive hostage for 15+ mins while it booted into DOS level just to analyze the defragmentation and warning that if I rebooted without letting it finish that it could cause problems. The result was that I had to wait until the analysis was complete 15 minutes later.

Reply   |   Comment by Frustrated  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#47

BOOT DEFRAGMENT AND SORT AND COMPACT: What I have been looking for !
Anyone with common sense intellegence can figure that a drive-volume
or partition cannot be effectively re-filed while it is operating
and I do not want defraf running in the background.
All I want is a complete boot defrag-sort-file-compact that I can run
weekly or monthly on lunch break or run at shutdown.
I have found UltraDefrag to effective improve performance using the
OS boot defrag and XP defrag at each startup and the "Compact"
(re-file) monthly (with all apps and security turned OFF in Glary SU).
I will try this and if it works make bug reports and buy the upgrade.
Thanks Paragon and GAOTD.

Reply   |   Comment by den  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#46

#25, #27, Shep, you raise numerous issues. Many people don't understand the purpose and proper use of disk defragmenters. It's not a tool that you run once a year. Good defragmenters are designed for frequent use and minimal impact on running systems. I've tried many different disk defragmenters in the past, I've mentioned some here, and I say more about PerfectDisk because I haven't found another which I think is better, and some others have caused me grief (specifically Diskeeper, although I haven't tried recent versions). PerfectDisk is designed for use in business environments. That means it's designed for minimal impact on running systems, and minimal down time outside of normal Windows operation (boot-time defrag). Realistically, defragmenters should be compared over time, but at least not a single-use. PerfectDisk is designed for minimal CPU, RAM, and disk impact (and there are options). In a normal usage environment, you're not going to have extreme fragmentation. PerfectDisk will limit how much time it spends trying to access individual files which are in-use, and limit how much time it spends defragmenting large, heavily-fragmented files. If you've never used it before, my recommended sequence is to defrag the disk, then do a boot-time defrag of the system files (the disk defrag leaves the disk in a pretty good state for the boot defrag, which only defragments system files to minimize down time), then defrag the disk again, to defrag files moved around by the initial boot defrag. Thereafter, you can schedule whatever type of defrag suites your needs. Different defragmenters have different optimization strategies and report things differently, so a disk which is arranged by one defragmenter may look poorly arranged to another. Also, if you just ran one defragmenter, then obviously the fragmentation level will be lower for the next defragmenter which you try. If you're really going to do short-term testing, which is unrealistic, then at least use the same disk image for each defragmenter test. Some defragmenter reports are incorrect, incomplete, or designed to make the defragmenter look good. Most defragmenters have a disk analysis function (without defragmenting), which you can use to compare the accuracy of the reports of multiple defragmenters. Your comment appears to indicate that you didn't fully defragment the disk with PerfectDisk, that you skipped its boot-time defrag of the system files. You also didn't analyze the same disk state with both products.

There are several issues related to defragmentation safety, which I have mentioned. Most people aren't going to be impacted by most file moves. But if you happen to have software whose files can't be moved (usually security software), a defragmenter can brick your computer. Commercial products which are used in business environments, like PerfectDisk and Diskeeper, are generally safer. They also use the Windows Defragmentation API (Total Defrag says nothing, and has an unsafe mode), support Volume Shadow-Copy Service (Total Defrag doesn't claim to), and have white papers (I linked PerfectDisk's in comment #23, you should read them and compare them to Diskeeper's, which apparently you now have to search for). PerfectDisk can defrag multiple volumes in series, parallel, or automatically decide, has options to minimize impact on running systems, and has scheduling. Total Defrag lacks all of those.

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+24)
#45

@ Ashraf

Auto defrag is actually not bad but rather good

Takes to many sys resources and slows down sys dramatically, I bought a prog which has auto defrag integrated and as gamer I have to say this is a pain

Reply   |   Comment by El barto  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#44

I support Fubar's comment regarding safety as the primary criterion when choosing a defragger. In this regard I condemn Paragon's defragmenters after a Version 9 experience that told me soon after beginning that I had an 8 hour wait - eight hours - before the process would finished. Okay, I thought, I'll do it some other time, but when I pressed Escape to cancel the current job I was warned not to stop the program. Don't interrupt. Wait 8 hours!?!?
I couldn't conceive of the warning being correct so I stopped the defrag - and never saw the data on the disk again. I still have the carefree emails from Support. There's a programmer out there and a product manager who are prepared to jeopardise data to such an extent that a user has no way of closing down a Paragon defragger. A 'paragon'? Not.

Reply   |   Comment by Phred  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)
#43

ULTIMATE DEFRAG FREE EDITION (just 2.43 MB vs 87 MB of today's giveaway...what the hell???) is much better than both this GAOTD and all the defrag free alternatives listed above by Ashraf!!!

Why??

Simply because it's more than just a defragger!!!

In fact ULTIMATE DEFRAG is also a hard drive file placement optimizer that enables users to defrag and place their files in the areas on their HD where they can achieve maximum performance, taking into account that on average 80% of the time PC owners only use about 20% of the files stored on their hard drive.

ULTIMATE DEFRAG is different than other defrag applications out there since it's able to detect and send your rarely used files onto the slower performing areas of your HD making your DRIVE perform as quick as a new and almost empty one!!

And it's the best fast reliable defrag tool out there even if you don't want to use (all of) its ADVANCED OPTIONS and simply want an ordinary defrag by selecting the "AUTO option", because it uses effective “in- place” defragging algorithms for fast, reliable and complete defrags.


Highly recommended!!

h ttp://d ownloa d.cn et.c om/UltimateDefrag-Freeware-Edition/3000-2094_4-10582157. h t m l

(remove spaces at beginning, in the middle and at the end of the above link)

Enjoy!!

Reply   |   Comment by Giovanni (King of Freebies...LOL!)  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#42

#3: "Straight to the point: What is this product any better in terms of defragmentation than the software that already comes with Windows?"

Google for info on the limitations of Windows' Defrag -- it has it's shortcomings all by itself. Far as Total Defrag goes, easier to use, better docs, handles MFT, optimizes drives/partitions, can work outside of Windows, extras built into program.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#41

CATCH 22 #post 30.


Some people just live to complain.

If 87 megs is an issue to you, get a bigger hard drive. It’s almost 2010.



I do have a bigger drive and cosequently it is multi partitioned but this offering can only defrag ONE partition at a time.

It'll take ages to keep checking & Restarting BECAUSE I have a large drive.

For ALL previous posters.
Hey guys, lets be NICE to each other. This is a COMMUNITY

Reply   |   Comment by rizla01  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
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