Do you guys "defragment" your laptops/desktops?

I had a friend tell me about doing that defragmenting process in "My Computer" in addition to the disk cleanup process for clearing unwanted/unused files.

My question is do you guys think this is a good idea or is there a risk of deleting files that I need?

 

Defragmenting just sorts out your harddisk files so its easier to read, making your system faster. I do it every week.

I suggest you do it once a week or two.

 

Defragmenting helps a lot.But there are other applications which does a better job.

 

Vista's set to automatically defragment in the background by default so I just let it run it's course. On my XP systems though, I defragment once a month.

 

Which one do you recommend as the best?

 

i used to on mine. but it seemed like even with all my best efforts it was still running slower and slower.

 

I use auslogics to defragment my system which can be found in the free software stickie. I personally defragment about once per month which i may adjust at will depending on my disk writes.

 

Diskkeeper is good and free.

 

How are you getting it free all I can get is a 30 day trial.

 

Yeah I was going to ask the same thing.

 

disk cleanup and defragmenter are good for your harddrive. It helps keep the bookshelf clean and alphabetized, so that books (files) can be found easily and faster.
I personally do this everyday, and sometimes multiple times a day, but that is because I like to keep performance at a maximum.

You should do this once a week or so, it is good for the drive, and will help keep things running a bit faster.

K-TRON

 

I run an automatic defragmenter- it keeps the drive(s) defragmented for me in the background and keeps the files in good shape. I don't need to spend time on scheduled/manual defrags, so it's like killing 2 birds with one stone.

 

1. JKDefrag - It takes quite a while but is very thorough and does an excellent job of defragging and moving files to logical parts of the disc.
2. Auslogic - Very quick but is poor at moving files to the fastest part of the disc.

 

i just format and reload when things get a bit fragmented.... quicker than defrag too!!!

later,
bigO

 

I use Piriform Defraggler and Windows Defrag, I don't think I need more than those two... Not saying they are the best, but I think it's a pretty good team.

When I got my lappy, I used to never bother manual defrag, then my computer started waking up from hibernation and sleep automatically, and after a virus attack (on my old, now taken apart HDD) I was advised to defrag. I opened disk defragmenter and its schedule was set to 1:00am or something, where my laptop was still in hibernation mode. I defragged and all this waking up automatically went away.

So yeah, no defrag can result in annoyances and stuff.

 

I only bother defragging when I know I have been creating and deleting massive amounts of files. That is when it matters the most.

It is a decent thing to do if you like to keep the same Windows installation for a long period of time and would like to know that there is one less thing holding your computer back from its full performance ability. However, I haven't seen any significant performance boost from it. Of course I reinstall my OS every other month anyway, so maybe that's why .

There isn't any potential harm to it. I have never heard of anyone losing any files.

It is a popular thing to do, so it is probably a good idea.

As Thund3rball recommended, I like JKDefrag. It seems like it does a decent enough job.

 

I don`t defragment anymore, DKeeper does it automatically for me

 

Defragmenting is good for your computer because it organizes your files, hence increasing performance due to efficiency. Like Flip says, doing it once a weeks is good. I have Vista Home Premium and it does it automatically every week.

 

Doing it once a week is unnecessary for most people. Once a month is more than enough in most cases. Of course, if you can just kick it off before you go to bed and let it run over night, you might as well.

 

Automatic defrag FTW.

I've made my computer into an automatic automating machine. Take advantage of Task Scheduler to do all that crap you normally do by hand.

I use the built in defragger in Vista. It is free and other programs offer very little, if any, noticeable benefits. It is set to defrag by default at 1:00AM on Wed. I have it set to defrag while I get ready for church.

I give it 30 mins and after than, my anti-virus scanner kicks in and scans any new or changed files.

An hour after that, my system makes a system restore point.

After than, my backup program kicks in (Acronis True Image), makes an incremental backup to a network share. And once a month, this becomes a full backup archive instead of an incremental.

My laptop can do it all. I'm training my laptop to walk the dog now. (I'm trying to get it to turn on the vaccuum cleaner and scare the dog into running out his doggy door.)

I won't even get into what my file server does on its own.

 

I don't like auto-defrag. Why? Simple. I don't want it coming on while I'm doing anything. It will slow up your machine if you are in the middle of anything, and at least in XP, every time you write to the HDD, it will restart defrag. If you can always guarantee that there will be some time that there will be nothing going on on your laptop (including leaving it downloading overnight, or leaving Trillian or AIM open, or really almost anything at all), then automating is fine, otherwise, you might want to think twice.

 

The defrag in Vista is very very different.

For one, the Vista kernel was rewritten so I/O operations could be prioritized. Simply speaking, disk operations could be programmed to use ONLY idle time. And only a certain percentage of idle time. This is why you can type and move your mouse and stuff, while a large file operation can happen in the background. And you can load up a word document at the same time. For most computing task, the auto defrag will not make a noticable dent in your performance. Then again, I wouldn't defrag and say compile something for two hours at the same time.

I think this is true for most people. Most computers are probably defragged more often than they need to be. I think people are just bored and are trying to find ways to speed up their computer.

 

Can you turn the auto defrag off in Vista?

 

So Vista doesn't restart defrag on every disk write then? How can it pull that off?

 

That's why it's best to have it run while one is at work, school, or sleeping.

 

Yeah, but you have to make sure you don't have any downloads or anything running too.

 

I do fresh installs so often from playing around is different OS's that I don't need to. Plus, VIsta is supposed to do it for me.

 

i use o&o defrag

 

I use JKdefrag.

 

at the start menu, type defrag and select defrag.exe. Uncheck "Schedule Defrag."

It just skips over it, like a lot of the Protected System files, the MFT, and pagefile, etc....

 

Just use the built-in Windows one, you should be fine.

All the other defrag software are overrated, it's not really that much better as they claimed to be.

 

i use ccleaner and defraggler. they together can make an old slow system back to normal, fresh installed speed.

and i love defraggler to only defragment files, not the whole directory. i have certain files that just love to get defragmented like hell, and slow down the programs using them. thanks to defraggler, i can defragment my disk in seconds / minutes to a state, where opening a file doesn't take minutes where it should open directly.

defraggler gets run close to each day on my work pc, with still noticable benefit (some of our tools here really do hell to the filesystem )

a full disk defragment gets done about all month, or every other month.

 

I also use O&O, about once a month is enough for me. But then again, I made sure my OS partition is not fragmenting very fast (moved data, temp and swap to a separate partition, to minimize write actions to the OS & program files partition).

Somewhat related and possibly interesting is a writeup I posted once (4th post):
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=151736

 

I did a degfrag today took about 2 hours and I only have about 20 gigs of data installed.

I use ccleaner religiously however.

 

Another item no one has mentioned is disaster recovery. Fragmented files are more difficult to recover should you delete something, or have a hardware issue.

 

Solid point. Or just use the Recycling Bin more

 

Back in the days, once a month - used my "internal monthly timer" as a reminder.
But modern filesystems like ext3, JFS, and ReiserFS don't need to be defragged.

 

I use the built-in Vista defragmenter. I used to use PerfectDisk, the added performance benefit of a separate defragmenter was not noticeable.

Besides, Vista seems to work itself out most of the time.

 

LOL. That gave me a great idea. I need to use task scheduler to remind me to avoid "someone" monthly. I can't enter it into my phone. That'll look to suspicious. Task scheduler needs to purposely break my network or something so I have an excuse to fix it.

 

I had the same idea, but I didn't have the guts to say it.

 

As long as this doesn't get quoted in Cosmo or something, my girl won't have any idea!!!!!!!!!

 

Add a line to the crontab to update the packages on the system every month. You could say that the system updates every month since they release updates every month (quite true in many cases). Of course, if you want, have it update all the non-essential packages to the latest beta. Then you can tell that "someone" that you're also in a bad mood because the beta packages are causing breakage.

If you put the line in the crontab as a "secret" user or as root (as often needed to update packages), that "someone" likely won't ever notice it. (If she's not the root user, that is.) If she has a separate account or doesn't use crontabs, she'll probably never notice it even if it is entered in your account.

Other ideas:
Set CPU speed to minimum. ("Of course I'm in a bad mood! My computer is so slow today.)
On gentoo, "/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop" disables the LAN adapter.
Perform a quick test of the UPS batteries.
Set fan speeds to maximum (only possible with ECM fans connected to a control bus) at random times.
Perform a full backup.

 

She's not very computer literate. I could just turn down the resolution and play that off as my office computer is broke so that's why it's causing all my documents to look so big. Or just plead with her friends to keep inviting her to go out during her "cycle."

Then I'll be like, "no, go and hand out with your friends. The guys wanted to shoot some hoops."

/cheer

I'm such a nerd. I'm using computer excuses to get out of hangin out with my girl.

/repent

 

Then just put something in the crontab and she won't know about it...