WinXP Defrag alternative?
- Thread starter slapnutz
- Start date
I use perfectdisk.
However, it is wise to have 15%~ or more free space if you want a defrag to work well.
However, it is wise to have 15%~ or more free space if you want a defrag to work well.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/defrag.mspx?mfr=trueMicrosoft said:
The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy
Newcomer
I run Diskeeper 10, either one will give you a better result than XP's included utility.
chavvdarrr
Veteran
I believe these 15% requirement is sorta due to NTFS. Besides, the requirement came when 1GB disk big enough... I'm not sure but maybe 15% of 1GB is not the same as 15% from 100GB, ie perhaps for 100GB even 1% is enough...not that i tried
Diskeeper is great program
Diskeeper is great program
mjtdevries
Newcomer
The 15% free space requirement for NTFS defragmenting is BOGUS!
It is only necessary for that horrible defrag tool that is included in the OS.
A tool like PerfectDisk doesn't need 15% free space.
I have defragged a 340GB NTFS volume with only 2% free space. And PerfectDisk did the job perfectly AND fast!
Another reason why you should get rid of the XP defrag (diskeeper lite) is that it does not consolidate the free space.
This means that after the defrag, you disk still looks like swiss cheese!
The files might all have been defragged, but because of all the little areas of free space that are littered all over the disk, you disk will start the fragment again REALLY FAST!
Any defrag tool worthy of that name, should consolidate free space!
PerfectDisk is very affordable and you can get a 30 days trial. I highly recommend you try it.
To give a final example why you should forget about XP defrag: I had a machine with a terribly fragmented disk. I had finally managed to get 15% free space, but still XP defrag couldn't do much about it. Many files still had thousands of fragments after running it 3 times. After 10 times the situation was still bad, but XP defrag refused to defrag any more.
I than ran PerfectDisk, and it completely defragged EVERYTHING and consolidated the free space in one run. And it did it in about the same time as one defrag run of the XP defragger!
It is only necessary for that horrible defrag tool that is included in the OS.
A tool like PerfectDisk doesn't need 15% free space.
I have defragged a 340GB NTFS volume with only 2% free space. And PerfectDisk did the job perfectly AND fast!
Another reason why you should get rid of the XP defrag (diskeeper lite) is that it does not consolidate the free space.
This means that after the defrag, you disk still looks like swiss cheese!
The files might all have been defragged, but because of all the little areas of free space that are littered all over the disk, you disk will start the fragment again REALLY FAST!
Any defrag tool worthy of that name, should consolidate free space!
PerfectDisk is very affordable and you can get a 30 days trial. I highly recommend you try it.
To give a final example why you should forget about XP defrag: I had a machine with a terribly fragmented disk. I had finally managed to get 15% free space, but still XP defrag couldn't do much about it. Many files still had thousands of fragments after running it 3 times. After 10 times the situation was still bad, but XP defrag refused to defrag any more.
I than ran PerfectDisk, and it completely defragged EVERYTHING and consolidated the free space in one run. And it did it in about the same time as one defrag run of the XP defragger!
crypto1300
Newcomer
I'll second Diskeeper 10, 'been using it since version 8 I think. It can even resize your MFT and defrag it too (not sure what that really does though...). My favorite feature is "Set It and Forget It", a perpetually running defrag option that works great on my machine.
mjtdevries
Newcomer
That DirMS programs looks interesting. (as does their buzzsaw service)
Seems like these guys know what they are talking about. I didn't know about "file intestices".
And free too. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Seems like these guys know what they are talking about. I didn't know about "file intestices".
And free too. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
I second that, O&O work like a charm on several of my machines. It has the added advantage of allowing you to choose your defrag mode as well.
The other shortfall of the XP defragger is that it won't work on page files, which I believe the pro versions of O&O do also.
Good perhaps, IF IT WOULD FUCKING WORK!
It's not showing any drives, and bitches about UDP port 138 being blocked. WTF is it needing an UDP port for? Just show goddamn local drives, I'm not going to defrag across a freakin network.
Idiot programmers, always making things needlessly complicated and BAD!
I scanned the forum quickly and it seems this program calls home first before allowing the user to actually run it, so in other words this defragger is bullshit.
Anyone who disputes that can just check what it says as an error message when the UDP port is blocked. "Connection to remote machine was unavailalbe."
Anyone who can't freakin spell simple common words is unlikely to also know how to program. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll have this shit off my system in a jiffy...
Anyone who disputes that can just check what it says as an error message when the UDP port is blocked. "Connection to remote machine was unavailalbe."
Anyone who can't freakin spell simple common words is unlikely to also know how to program. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll have this shit off my system in a jiffy...
mjtdevries
Newcomer
I'm not going to open an UDP port for a simple defrag tool either.
The defragger itself might be ok, but I don't like such tricks.
The defragger itself might be ok, but I don't like such tricks.
mjtdevries
Newcomer
I think that it is still free for non-commercial use, but somehow it still want to do things over the network.
The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy
Newcomer
RE Perfect Disk 8.0 Vs Diskeeper 10.0 (Professional)
I own the latter and have just downloaded the former's trial version.
A] I've had Diskkeeper perform an offline defrag, then once booted, performed an online defrag.
B] I've had Perfect Disk analyse the drive, it reported it to be be in excellent condition with no defrag required.
C] I've run Perfect Disk's offline defrag, then once booted, performed an online defrag.
D] Reboot.
E] Once again let Diskeeper run an online defrag.
For refrence, I'm a home user, single physical drive, and defrag weekly so it's it pretty good health to begin with.
Conclusions.
Each product wanted to locate files in it's own maner, I couldn't say one is more correct, just different. My observation at booting after a defrag was Perfect Disk produced slightly more actuator activity than Diskeeper, but boot times were about identical. Diskeepers drive analysis was noticably faster and I prefer it's interface (but that of course could be simply due to me being used to it). I'd observe both are good products and would be happy with either, if buying today as a replacement for XP's included utility I'd go for Perfect Disk as it's US$10 cheaper.
(Not exactly the worlds greatest review but , meh...)
Interesting enough re-analysing C drive after two hours Perfect Disk says it's fine while Diskeeper says defrag would be good (?) Go figure..
I own the latter and have just downloaded the former's trial version.
A] I've had Diskkeeper perform an offline defrag, then once booted, performed an online defrag.
B] I've had Perfect Disk analyse the drive, it reported it to be be in excellent condition with no defrag required.
C] I've run Perfect Disk's offline defrag, then once booted, performed an online defrag.
D] Reboot.
E] Once again let Diskeeper run an online defrag.
For refrence, I'm a home user, single physical drive, and defrag weekly so it's it pretty good health to begin with.
Conclusions.
Each product wanted to locate files in it's own maner, I couldn't say one is more correct, just different. My observation at booting after a defrag was Perfect Disk produced slightly more actuator activity than Diskeeper, but boot times were about identical. Diskeepers drive analysis was noticably faster and I prefer it's interface (but that of course could be simply due to me being used to it). I'd observe both are good products and would be happy with either, if buying today as a replacement for XP's included utility I'd go for Perfect Disk as it's US$10 cheaper.
(Not exactly the worlds greatest review but , meh...)
Interesting enough re-analysing C drive after two hours Perfect Disk says it's fine while Diskeeper says defrag would be good (?) Go figure..
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, at least it's SOMETHING!
Thanks for posting your conclusions, even though you may feel it's not much. We do appreciate it!
If you've done some heavy surfing in the meanwhile and have a dynamic swapfile then the internet cache and virtual memory useage might have caused some mayhem on the partition, not really sure. Anyway, it's probably a good bet the disk doesn't need defragging every 2 hours regardless of what diskeeper says!
Again, thanks for posting up your conclusions.
