Defrag- useful or not?

I know a little bit about Linux, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a Windows aficionado. When I ran XP I dutifully ran Defrag on a regular basis as the general consensus was that Defrag helped to optimize the performance of your HD.
Is Defrag a good program for Win 7? Is it necessary?
Thank you for any and all replies.

 

Actually the built-in defrag in Windows 7 is good and should take care of all fragmented problems.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes. I know Win 7 has a built in Defrag program. I don't think that I formulated my question properly. Is it necessary to Defrag Win 7? A friend of mine was told by a technician that Win 7does not need to be defragged. I was under the impression that it is a good idea to defrag your HD.

 

If I remember right Win 7 automatically defrags your drive in the background, so you never need to to it manually.

 

I am going to go against the grain and say it is worthless.

I ran Windows 7 on traditional hard drives for 2 years straight without a defrag. Never saw an issue. I did defrag one day though,a nd never saw a lick of difference in performance. My family runs their machines to the ground and never once defrag. They have issues, but they are usually of the malware or PEBCAK variety.

 

Edit: Ah, yes it does, at set intervals. Disregard previous post.

 

This is always a great debate. I am on the side that defrag on modern hardware and software provides very little or no benefit at all. I have read articles on the benefits but I have not seen one that provided before and after statistics. Even if there was improvement, I believe it would be so small that the user would not be able to desern an improvement in performance.

 

I would add to this good advice: Before making an image.