Best disk defrag and other programs

[Superstar]

What's the best disk defrag that I can use, and is there any other good programs that you can recommend for optimizing my dvd making computer?

[admin]

Diskeeper: http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/h...spx?RId=105864
Nothing else compares, not even close.

[moontrash]

I've been on 3 OS in the last few years and the defraggers i have used vary...IMO it depends on the OS

on windows XP the fastest on the planet is Vopt...nuthin comes close to its speed (except maybe JKDefragGUI)...it does a darn good job on my old download machine i use most. I tried Perfectdisk many times to see what all the fuss was about and it didn't do much in terms of boot up speed or faster access after defraggin my drive.

on my Windows 7 64/Vista 64 OS...hands down, the best there is is Perfectdisk...its quite remarkable at the difference it makes to my Edit PC in terms of boot up times and file access speeds when defragged properly...Vopt is fantastic on XP but on WIn7/Vista it just isn't in Perfectdisk's league

for a few freebie defraggeers that do well

Defraggler - decent basic defrag utilty
JKDegraf GUI - more than liekly the best defragger ever. It has a very odd defrag algorithm in that it doesnt place the files at the beginning of the drive. It plaes them in sectors or chunks...try this defragger once and you'll see what i mean

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moontrash

I've been on 3 OS in the last few years and the defraggers i have used vary...IMO it depends on the OS

I'd have to agree. However, in my experiences, Diskeeper was more or less the same for defragging on Windows XP, defragging on Windows Vista, and defragging on Windows 7. It just always worked well, regardless of your Windows flavor.

Quote:

I tried Perfectdisk many times to see what all the fuss was about and it didn't do much

My conclusion was the same.

Quote:

in terms of boot up times and file access speeds when defragged properly

I would suggest that defragging is more about data integrity, and not so much about speed. Yes, access speed can be faster (including start-up access, which can affect boot times), but I don't think that's the primary reason for defrag.

Thanks!

[moontrash]

my primary goal for defragging was to pull all the boot and OS files to the front for a better start up time. For some reason I like fast startup. Going to a SSD drive would even be better but I'm just not sold on their reliability yet (Had too many thumb drives and CF cards go bad). I never gave much thought or concern to file integrity as the main pc i defrag (XP & Vopt) just d'loads files and deletes later. Occasionally I install something new to try it (like a new defragger LOL) but normally i only defrag when i update from windows update or install a new file. Rarely does any file I d'load stay on my pc for more than a few days.

It's almost the same with my edit pc...its a quad core that mainly just creates dvd's (TMPG AW), Encodes/Transcodes (Nero Recode) and burns/error check discs. Unless I update from Microsoft that pc also rarely gets defragged. I tried 3 defraggers on it and my favorite, Vopt, just acted odd while it was defragging. I didn't get a good feeling about the process. Startup time lagged. I tried the basic defraggler and it really doesn't do much in the way of "smart" or "proper" placement of boot files, it just pulls everything close together and thats it. It didn't do that well either. So I tried PerfectDisk, which I just didn't like on Xp, but was surprised at the results when I used the "Smart Placement" feature they have. Immediate startup results were just fantastic compared to the other 2. So I've stuck with it.

Defraggers are like Encoders I think, you pick one that works best for you and then, move on to somethin else