[O/C]Realities of Hard Drive Fragmentation

Very good write-up! I was amazed by the numbers that Piriform Defraggler posted, which is also the defrag utility that I use. An average read speed of 68 Mb/s is superb. That is almost on par with the numbers you posted outside of virtual box. Interesting.

If anyone wants to pick up defraggler, you can get it here

[O/C] Realities of Hard Drive Fragmentation - summary & wares to test

Hi Frank

Well done - thanks for being so generous with your time & energy to share the results of your defrag testing

I appreciate that the methodology is still being tweaked & the need for that discussion - but thought this summary of the results of your tests might be helpful (please let me know if anything needs correcting here):

Defraggers initially tested (reported 18/2/2010):

* Windows XP Default Defragmenter
* MyDefrag 4.2.7
* Defraggler 1.16.165
* Puran Defrag Free 7.0
* Auslogics Defrag 3.1.2.90
* Vopt 9.21

Best overall results: MyDefrag 4.2.7 & Piriform Defraggler 1.16.165


Also tested:

* Defrag Express
* Diskeeper 2010
(if I understood the results correctly MyDefrag & Defraggler still rate best)


Would there be any significant difference in results between MyDefrag 4.2.7 & MyDefragGUI 2.1 ?

----

Now here are a list of defrag wares that would be worth testing (though some may be trial versions - not sure if all of these are freeware):

* Auslogics Disk Defrag (been getting a good rap on other forums)
* IObit Smart Defrag (quite popular so worth testing)
* Vista & Windows 7 Defrag (goes without saying)
* O&O Defrag (requested by other members in thread)
* Perfect Disk (requested by other members in thread)
* UltraDefrag (requested by other members in thread)

If anyone out there knows of any other worthy freeware defraggers then please advise!

Vista defrag already taken over 24hrs & still running

By the way I've used IObit Smart Defrag every few months, now doing full Vista defrag on my notebook (with no other apps running) & it's already taken over 24hrs & still running– does anybody know if that's possible without there being some kind of problem?
My spec's are: HP Pavilion DV9520TX with Intel C2D T7500 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, Vista OS & all wares on 160GB HDD & all music & docs on 500GB HDD

new suggestions for defrag testing

Hi Frank

Well done - thanks for being so generous with your time & energy to share the results of your defrag testing

I appreciate that the methodology is still being tweaked & the need for that discussion - but thought this summary of the results of your tests might be helpful (please let me know if anything needs correcting here):

Defraggers initially tested (reported 18/2/2010):

* Windows XP
Default Defragmenter
* MyDefrag 4.2.7
* Defraggler 1.16.165
* Puran Defrag Free 7.0
* Auslogics Defrag 3.1.2.90
* Vopt 9.21

Best overall results: MyDefrag 4.2.7 & Piriform Defraggler 1.16.165


Also tested:

* Defrag Express
* Diskeeper 2010
(if I understood the results correctly MyDefrag & Defraggler still rate best)


Would there be any significant difference in results between MyDefrag 4.2.7 & MyDefragGUI 2.1 ?

----

Now here are a list of defrag wares that would be worth testing (though some may be trial versions
- not sure if all of these are freeware):

* Auslogics Disk Defrag (been getting a good rap on other forums)
* IObit Smart Defrag (quite popular so worth testing)
* Vista & Windows 7 Defrag (goes without saying)
* O&O Defrag (requested by other members in thread)
* Perfect Disk (requested by other members in thread)
* UltraDefrag (requested by other members in thread)

If anyone out there knows of any other worthy freeware defraggers then please advise!

Might try sending Frank a PM, seems he hasn't followed up on this thread lately and maybe a poke will help - I know some real life things have been keeping him busy, but he is still around regularly.

Thanks - I just sent him an email - or would a PM have been better?

Not sure, but that should work!

I.M.O.G. said:

Not sure, but that should work!

Click to expand...

Are these results still relevant?

Has the Windows 7 defrag utility been improved over XP?
Have any of these 3rd party defraggers been updated to increase performance?

No, the tests actually would all need to be re-ran to test for issues readers reported with the testing. However, the author has been busy with other things and hasn't gotten back to designing or rerunning a new round of tests.

If anyone is interested in doing the legwork involved with that after submitting a methodology which we've reviewed and approved, we'd be happy to publish updated results.

thanks for this! just dl'd defraggler and it's running in the background

i'm so ashamed... my os drive was at 26% and the data drive was at 38%. BAD NERD!