Defrag frequency

ollyk

try defragmenting your drive - see how long it takes. If you haven't done it in say two months and it takes two hours then try it a week later to see if it defrags any quicker. If it does then you know the more often you do it, the quicker it will take!
Oh, delete all temp files before defragging too!

redux

The Windows defrag tool doesn't seem to recommend doing it, even after 18 months now. Or if it does, deleting some System Restore points cancels it, as they seem to be the most fragmented files (which wouldn't get used much).

I've read that other defrag tools do a much better job, and will try a free one in the next couple of days - O&O Defrag. I've also heard of Diskeeper and PerfectDisk. Any other recommendations?

http://www.oo-software.com/
http://www.execsoft.com/
http://www.raxco.com/

Toxteth_OGrady

Would highly recommend O&O. It will continuously defrag in background whenever the cpu is idle, so I never have to run a manual or scheduled defrag. Also runs as a snap-in in the management console.

:cool:

tobyosbourn

3 AM every morning, just after a spyware perge and just before the laptop shuts itself down.

chuckles1066

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

Would highly recommend O&O. It will continuously defrag in background whenever the cpu is idle, so I never have to run a manual or scheduled defrag. Also runs as a snap-in in the management console.

:cool:

Agreed, I have O&O.

However, with faster processors, cheaper memory and bigger hard drives, it isnt as essential as it was, say, when we were running 33Mhz 386 processors with 8mb ram and 40mb hard drives. (That's megabytes as opposed to gigabytes for the younger readers!).

Likewise, screensavers used to be essential to prevent "burn" - these days, they're more novelty value than anything else.

Technology progresses at an alarming rate.........

Reluctant_spender

Like others I do it as part of a weekly regime, however I do it whilst in safe mode along with anti virus, ewido etc...

Ian_W

Mines a weekly routine too.

Spybot then Adaware, CCleaner, JV16 power tools Reg cleaner, Defrag then back-up my docs & photos. Every month or so instead of the defrag in XP I use a Hard Disk manager which at boot up checks the file system and disc surface then defrags before there is a page file in existance. Then image in Accornis.

Redux, the defrag with XP is diskeeper - lite. This free one was in a technie newsletter [langalist at langa.com] I get last week - https://www.auslogics.com - I used it this morning and it seems to do a decent job.

Whether you need to defrag - I'm not techie enough to really know but at least some conventional wisdom seems to think so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

redux

Ian_W wrote:

Redux, the defrag with XP is diskeeper - lite. This free one was in a technie newsletter [langalist at langa.com] I get last week - https://www.auslogics.com - I used it this morning and it seems to do a decent job.

Hee hee, thanks. I get the Langalist newsletter, but only the free version, so I couldn't see which it was - maybe I'd better stump up a few quid.

But it triggered me to look around, and I've just run O&O 2000 Free. It shows about three-quarters of the occupied blocks as fragmented. You can click on each and see what is in there, and about thirty random clicks shows some files spread over about half the disk. The XP one wasn't bothered the other day, first time run for over a year.

The Raxco one seems popular in reviews and recommended by Microsoft, and I'll look at yours too as it's free

domestic_goddess

hi go to start comp bottom left of screen click on all programs then acceries then system tools and defrag sorry about bad spelling

alzeebub

Diskeeper is a great defrag tool, it also lets you defrag your paging file while many other defrag tools dont. How often you should defrag depends on how much you use your pc, but a good rule of thumb is monthly for most users.

Your pc will take longer to find and access fragmented files. XP is better than previous operating systems at storing files but its still not perfect so a regular defrag is certainly beneficial.