Defrag upgrade ? XP

Hi Everyone
Well I been playing with my computer again and was wondering if I need to upgrade my XP Pro window defragger? Because I have been reading about some of the ones on the market places which claim to be much better. I also went to my control box-performance and maintenance-administrative tools-event viewer-files-option-at this point it give me the option to deletes all the files my disk cleaner has been saving on my hard drive, is this a good idea? Thanks to you all.
LeRoyJoe

 

The commercial utilities (note: none of the good ones are free) offer better speed, more thorough defragmentation, automatic modes, boot-time defrag, low space defrag and other features that the XP defragger lacks. Only you can decide whether the prices are justified by the features.

I personally use Diskeeper 2008, and to me it was worth the money. I have it installed on both the vista and XP machines, and it does a great job. Especially on the XP rig that is my my primary gaming, entertainment and photo work machine, it keeps the files on all the drives in peak condition without my having to do anything. YMMV.

I suggest you check out the free trial versions from the Diskeeper site before you make a decision. It's free to use for a month.

 

I have, Diskkeeper Lite and Auslogics. The free version of DK is free period-forever. I for one, don't need auto anything to Defrag. As for low space can't say as I have free space. Low space will create issues with any Derfrag App so what does the paid version do.. probably prompt to free up the disk...
I just prefer "Auslogics" as LauraR mentioned. If you ask me to quantify the abilities of either I'd say "unscientifically" both are at par.

 

I didn't mean to cause any controversy, so my apologies if my post was taken as such. :-o

Permit me some comments:
Firstly, most of the free defraggers are actually worse than Vista's, mainly because they (1) lack the ability to defrag the MFT, (2) do not protect older system restore points, both of which the Vista defragger does to a limited extent IIRC. Commercial utilities have both options.

Any defragger that uses the MS/DK defrag API ought to be safe on paper, but unless a product has been well tested and known to be reliable (and backed up by tech support), I personally would be very cautious about letting it have a free run of all of my drive's contents with the risk of losing everything. I guess I am just too paranoid. This is strictly my personal view. Your opinion may vary, and I respect that.

I have used auslogics once before, but never noticed any advantage it has over the default vista/XP defragger. It cannot defrag the MFT or other system files, needs atleast 15% or more space to defrag, and it cannot defrag more than a single drive at a time. Additionally, it lacks automatic usage options. Many people like it because it's fast (because it does not defrag many files) and free. One or more of these drawbacks are applicable for other free defraggers. I have a fair idea because I 'tested' a few of these utilities over a period, some time ago.

I agree 100% that sometimes free software works just as good or even better than payware. Opera, DVDShrink, DVDDecrypter, Videora, Winamp etc are fine examples and all of them I use regularly. And sometimes, I find some things worth paying for, either for performance, peace of mind or just usability. I bought Windows instead of going Linux, I bought Diskeeper instead of Auslogics or JKD, I bought CS3 web premium (at educational pricing) instead of opting for The GIMP etc, and I always buy all of my PC games instead of firing up utorrent. YMMV on each of these points.

That's my view on the subject and I am sticking to it.

 

used to have and use DK but since have switched to Perfect Disk as DK takes out Win manual PD does not and you get a discount for switching to them,just as good if not better is the PDrx feature sold seperate but works with PD 2008.just my hunble opinion

 

Thanks to you all for putting up with my silly question. I went to O&O defrag and it work great, so thanks again for your input.
Leroyjoe

 

use perfect disk 8 and PDrx that goes with it.hard to beat after years with DK.
get a discount for switching too kind of cool.not sure about this free stuff,like the saying goes''you get what you pay for'' - can't beat their support with a srick.
If there is a problem they want to know about it and go the extra mile to fix it.
Tank goodness No problems to date after three years since the switch.
four with DK before that and they're not free ,they'll 19.95 ya to death assuming you want to stay current.PD on the other hand cost 5 and 6 a year respectively.think I can swing that to stay current