Disk Defragmenting

For years, I used the O&O Defragger, which was good, and had lots of options. Not the fastest around, but it worked well.

Since migrating to Windows Vista in late 2007, I've been stuck on the Windows Defragmenter.

It runs on a schedule, every Wednesday at 0100, and I'm prone to leaving the computer on 24/7, so that works out fine.

Windows defragmenter... has never been the best. Like most Microsoft products, it works... more or less. There's a bunch of stuff it doesn't do, and the interface is written for someone that thinks AOL is complicated. There is zero customization, and slightly more than zero information given. When working, it says only that it's defragmenting. No percentage done, estimated time remaining, what file its working on, nada.

You can't even select which drive(s) to defrag. It's all of C:\ or nothing.

I had let it run earlier today, but I knew from past experience that the results would be less than astounding.

So, I went digging for a new defragmenter; not wanting to drop $60 on a new O&O license.

Seems that Piriform, maker of CCleaner - a longtime favorite of mine for cleaning temporary files from the windows environ - has decided to jump into the defrag market with both feet.

True to what I've come to expect from them, the program just fucking rocks. Not only is it fast, but you can select individual files to defrag, and others not to; as well as the usual 'do the whole drive, Hal'.

Analyzed, selected files, and defragged my windows AND data drives in less than a half hour.

Also worthy of note, is that my C:\ drive was still almost 15% fragmented, even after the windows defragger did its thing.

So... the windows defragger is no longer allowed to run on its little schedule, and can now join the rest of windows' automatic "helpers" in hell, where I generally send them all within two hours of starting the PC up the first time.

Best of all, Defraggler? Is free. Totally. 100%. Not an ad, nor a pop-up box, nothing.

Even if you already have a defragmenting program, I fully recommend you check out defraggler. I don't think you'll be sorry. I know I'm not.