Get The Best Technology By Buying A Disk Defragmenter

If you are careful about how you choose it, buying a disk defragmenter will get you the best defragmentation technology available. Free defragmenters are generic vanilla products with basic defragmentation engines and hardly any other features. The best commercial defragmenters come with high tech defragmentation engines and are packed with features designed to help speed up your slow computer.

Reasons For Purchasing

• You acquire the best defragmentation technology available
• You want the benefits of additional hard drive optimization features
• You need to defrag in extreme conditions (i.e. really full hard drives)
• You need to defragment large hard drives such as servers
• You are a network administrator and want the most convenient solution for defragmenting computers on a network

What To Look For

o It should be easy to use for the average user

Setting up and running the defragmentation process should be easy and intuitive. You don’t want to get confused by complex system settings that need to be adjusted before you get started. For a standard defragmentation it should be as simple as starting up the software and clicking on an analyze and defragmentation button on the user interface. Other activities such as scheduling defragmentation runs should also be very straightforward.

o It should have a flexible scheduler.

It needs to have a scheduler which enables you to schedule defragmentation runs for certain dates and times without having to manually start them. The scheduler should at least be able to schedule defragmentation on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It should also enable automatic defragmentation when the computer is on but idle.

o It should be a single pass tool, not a multipass tool.

Single pass defragmenters defragment the vast majority of data files in one pass and consolidate the free space at the same time. Multipass tools are typically not as good at defragmenting the free space as are the single pass tools.

o It should be able to defragment free space as well as files

Free space fragmentation is a major cause of file fragmentation. When free space is very fragmented the hard drive must break files into fragments to save them. Free space defragmentation consolidates free space fragments into much bigger areas of free space, so that the drive doesn’t have to fragment your files when it saves them. Consolidation (defragmentation) of free space slows refragmentation.

o It should have some kind of optimal file placement technology

Optimal file placement technology refers to the placement of files in locations on the hard drive that will either slow down refragmentation or speed up file retrieval and thus speed up your hard drive. For example, files that are recognized as frequently accessed should be placed in locations where they can be accessed more quickly than average, as the net time savings will be large.

o It should be able to defrag in extreme situations

Sometimes hard drives get very full. If your hard drive is full and you cannot remove any files or back them up to a separate disk, then you will need a defragmenter that can do its work with only a couple of percentage points of free space.

o It should have automatic background defragmentation technology

Automatic background defragmentation is where the disk defragmenter automatically starts up when certain criteria are met. Criteria could be that it detects a sufficient level of fragmentation, or a specified period of time passes. Background technologies should operate without using up system resources that would interfere in your work. This is a useful function as it means you don’t need to schedule defragmentation as it starts up automatically.

o It should be able to defrag immoveable files

Defragmentation entails moving files around your hard drive to new locations. However, there are some important files, called “system files” on your hard drive that cannot be moved because of the important role they play in your operating system. This means the only time these system files can be defragged is when your operating system is offline, or in other words has not yet been started up. The feature you need is known as a boot defrag or offline defrag feature, as it defrags the immoveable files during “boot” or in other words during start up.

o It should be able to defrag individual files selected by you

Defragging individual files is a very useful feature as it means you can select the files that are most heavily fragmented and only defragment these. If you are working on a particularly large file and find that opening it is slowing down, this feature enables you to defragment it. Or alternatively, if you recognize that one or two of your files are heavily fragmented you can specifically target them for defragmentation.

o It should have excellent analysis and reporting functionality

Analysis and reporting functionality should focus on analyzing your hard drive and providing you with insightful information on the health of your hard drive as it relates to fragmentation. This at a minimum should tell you the level of file fragmentation and free space fragmentation, as well as how fragmented are your system files (see immoveable files above). The reporting feature should provide this information in an easy to understand format and provide you with recommendations on what you need to do to return your hard drive to optimal health using the defragmenter.

o It should have won a number of awards

Awards help to establish the credibility of the disk defragmenter. Check to see whether the defragmenters you are reviewing have won any credible awards. Do a google search for the name of your target defragmenter and the word awards.

o It should have positive reviews from credible sources

Positive reviews from credible sources are important in reassuring you that you are on the right track. Do a search in cnet.reviews.com or in www.about.com for the disk defragmenters you are examining.

o It should be able to exclude files from defragmentation

This feature enables you to exclude files from the defragmentation process.

o It should be network integrated

A more advanced feature enabling installations of the defragmenter on different computers on a network to be controlled from one central computer. The control should at the very minimum cover installation, configuration, and scheduling.

o It should have power management capabilities

Defragmentation uses up quite a bit of power, therefore there should be a capability to turn off defragmentation while running your laptop from a battery.

My Recommendation

• I found it more intuitive to use than any other disk defragmenter I have tried. Everything in the user interface fits together really neatly. The buttons are well labeled which helps to quickly understand what they do. I pretty much mastered it very soon after installing it.
  
  
• I found its reports very easy to understand, and especially liked the comments it makes on the health of my hard drive as measured by the fragmentation of files, system files, and free space. It then gives a recommendation on what kind of defragmentation pass to run to resolve issues.
  
  
• There is an estimated time to completion which is particularly useful as you can see immediately approximately how long it will take to complete its job.
  
  
• It has a very useful “reclaim free space” feature which empties the recycle bin and deletes temporary files but also searches for duplicate files and lets you decide whether or not to delete them

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