SmartDefrag Millions of Users CAN be Wrong

I used SmartDefrag for months thinking it was doing a top job. One day I decided to try the new version of Perfect Disk just to analyze my drive to see how my SmartDefrag was doing. I was shocked to see that my system files were very fragmented.

I started doing research on this and found that the only way system files can be defraged is with an offline defrag.. that is.. a defrag that happens before windows finishes loading. This is because system files cannot be defraged while they are in use.

A search of the IOBit website revealed that SmartDefrag cannot do an offline defrag. Hence SmartDefrag cannot defrag system files.

I dropped SmartDefrag like a hot potato.

 

No 2 defraggers operate the same way. They arrange files differently.
Run your Perfect Disk, then run another defragger( I use Ultimate Defrag) and you will show lots of fragmentation again.
Thing is to find one you like and stick to it.
Your definition of "offline" also is faulty.
Does NOT mean before Windows loads.Talk about a long boot time.
The best defrag IS while offline(not connected to the Internet).
Turn off all running programs(AV,firewall,antispyware) because their files will be constantly active otherwise.
Do your defrag then reboot.

 

Your right. I should have said Boot time defrag. Lots of people use the terms offline defrag and boot time defrqag interchangeably. But as I understand it, your definition of offline defrag doesnt make since.. if your not connected to the net sure you wont have the errors while defraging you can get with anti virus tools etc.. but the system files are still in use so how can you defrag them? i have also used O&O. Both O&O, PerfectDisk, in fact every good tool to defrag i have found says to do a boot time defrag for system files. i do not believe there can be a tool made to do it while your system files are 'online' <-- In use.. (thats why people use the term online.. it has nothing to do with the internet.. it means the system files are in use) I didn't just make that up.. it's all over the net.

 

Not all system files require a boot-time defrag, many can be defragged when Windows is running. Eg. Diskeeper 2009 Pro (the defragger I use) can defrag most of the MFT during normal background auto defrag, without requiring a boot-time defrag. For some files like the pagefile, a boot-time defrag is required.

None of the freeware defraggers defrag the MFT, and I suspect most metadata, which is one of the reasons why I prefer either a 'proper' defrag utility(unfortunately not free)- Diskeeper in my case or just the default Windows defragger. The latter is often better than the freeware utilities.

 

This is an interesting discussion because I see very little value in defragging. Can anyone state a specific experienced performance gain after defragging? The way disks are engineered with disk caching....I just cant see how a performance gain can be realized. Comments please.

 

I've used a lot of different defraggers. IObits defragger is good for people who want a free defrag program with the auto-defrag feature. You can supplement it with Sysinternals Pagedefrag. However, I too discovered that despite using those tools my MFT and USN Journal files were all over the place.

I deleted the USN Journal files (they get rebuilt) and Diskeeper took care of the MFT. However, I stopped using it because it got poor reviews for manual-only defrags, and I don't like programs that are running in the background all the time.

PerfectDisk gets rave reviews, and it's probably (based on what I've read), the best defragger for hands-off type users. Good manual defrags too, boot time, and all that. But it refuses to run on my laptop, and it also won't run in Safe mode (there's a free console add-on for it, maybe that runs in safe mode?). Why safe mode? Because apart from Bart's PE type solutions, that's when fewest of your files are active or locked. As for boot time, my understanding is that defraggers only defrag specific files during that (page file, MFT,...). Even Sysinternal's ScanDefrag defrags at the very start of login (and maybe delays start up of some other programs), but it's not the same as, for example, Windows Recovery Console log-on that takes you to DOS (or MS-DOS?) and Windows doesn't even load.

That said, I have a ton of respect for ScanDefrag with PageDefrag and JkDefrag modes enabled. But there are no bells or whistles, and you are best served by leaving it to run over-night - it shuts down the computer when done.

For me though, UltimateDefrag 2008 is the winner because it runs in Safe mode and has some great options I have not seen in other programs. In particular, it lets you specify in great detail the criteria used to sort files i.e. what's placed in the fastest areas of the hard disk (e.g. executable files of programs you use the most), and what is placed in slowest sectors (e.g. zip and rar-archives). However, it can be a bit confusing, so I wouldn't recommend it to the average user.

 

Example.3 files 1 1MB 1 4MB 1 2MB in that order.
Middle file(4MB) gets deleted.
New file (3MB) installed. Fills in the space where the 4MB came out of. Leaves a 1MB space open.
Another file gets installed. (3MB).Part takes up the 1MB empty space and the rest goes beyond the third original file. It gets broken up into 2 sections. Computer has to bounce back and forth for the information in that file.
Before defragging, you would have 1-3-1-2-2.
After defragging,you have 1-3-3-2.

 

It's not so much the actual defragging that provides the performance gain, but rather the optimization algorithms high-quality defraggers use to sort your files. According to Ultimate Defrag's manual, computers are able to access data from the outer sectors of hard disks 180-240% faster than inner sector files (they explain it further in the manual). If you place all your most used exe and dll files in the outer sectors, and data and archives files that are rarely used in the inner sectors, your computer will be more responsive than if you do the reverse. The MFT should also be close to the high performance files.

But if anyone has the time, I suggest they download one of the free or trial versions of Ultimate Defrag or similar, and use to sort their files in said manner; both fast way and slow way, and report back how it worked out.

Note: Ultimate Defrag wants last access time stamps enabled to see which files are accessed frequently; I assume the same is true for other defraggers. I mention this because some reg tweaks disable last access time stamps. Also some antivirus scans and search indexing services may update last access times, so watch out for that.

 

DomLuc - I am very inclined to agree with you on this point. I have not found ANY substantial evidence that states a user will NOTICE a performance gain after any defragg process. You can spout all the fragmented files you want and organize them any way you want....BUT with the current disk technology I'll bet you wont notice ANY performance gain.