What is the all out BEST free defrag program?

I have jkdefrag which is really good, if a little slow; and I have Auslogics defrag which is pretty good and fast.

[I also have the defrag in iolo's System Mechanic 7 which is so horrible it actually frags rather than defrags my HDD]


SO, DO I ALREADY HAVE THE BEST DEFRAG PROGRAM I CAN GET FOR FREE OR IS THERE ANY OTHER ONE YOU'D RECOMMEND?

 

I'd say use the vista defragger...once you start the defrag open task manager and set the priority higher of Defrag.exe and DegragNTFS.exe....usually takes about 20 mins to an hour for me

 

The best I've ever used is either Diskeeper or O&O, a toss-up IMO, but Auslogics is very good - and free.

 

Sticky sticky sticky.

 

Yes, read my sticky and you'll find the best free defrag programs, but specific to your question. Yes, you already have the best ones. Auslogics and jfDefrag.

 

The best non-free defragmenter that I've used is Diskeeper Pro. It's fast, stable and it's light on resource usage so I can use the system perfectly normally when it's running. The last point is quite important for me since I don't want my system to be bogged down or rendered unusable during defragmenting.

 

JK Defrag and Auslogics Defrag are both great programs. Other than UI or personal preference, there really won't be that much of a difference that would make one better than the other. I for one prefer Auslogics Defrag, it is very fast and gets the job done. With weekly cleanups then defrags, it never takes me more than 5 minutes to defrag.

If you do any sort of video/music/photo editing on a constant basis I would recommend either using your 2nd HD or a partition as your temp folder to keep fragmentation down on your C: drive.

 

The OP asked for best FREE defrag program.

 

I prefer jkdefrag mainly because it gets the job done and also due to its small size (I don't use all the other options jkdefrag offers). This program doesn't even take up half a MB. btw I don't think it's good to run multiple defrag programs since they use different defrag procedures (I could be wrong on this). So one program defrags one way and then when you run another it defrags a different way mixing stuff up.

 

The one that comes with Windows as default.
It works for me.

 

It may work for you but it's not the best.

 

jk raised my WEI score a whole .1

Not a lot I know, but since nothing else budged it.... Yay!

 

WEI fails. But at least you got a good performance boost.

 

Something I noticed about the difference between the Windows defrag and Auslogics.

Auslogics does a great job at actually defragging the files, but still leaves big gaps between larger data blocks going towards the edge of the disc. Windows seems to do a better job at compacting the data blocks down (i.e. removing the gaps) and getting the data as close to the centre of the disc as it can. Usually takes 2,3 or even 4 defrags in a row but it does it better than Auslogics. So I actually use both.

Just my $0.02

 

Hm... I noticed that about Auslogics... It seems to only defrag files, but nothing to optimize their placement on the HD in any way.

 

I noticed that too, but that makes it ideal for use with another defrag that does actually move the files aroung on the HDD

 

My vote goes for auslogics disc defrag. It's fast, small, and does a better job then the windows one.

 

JKDefrag + Safe Mode = 0 Fragmentation

 

Diskeeper 2008, I know it's not free, but that's the best investment you'll probably do for your computer. Everyday I am just so glad I have it on my computer, I don't ever have to defrag my HDD because it automatically does it for you, right now when I analyze my hard drive it's 99% Blue, and I haven't even done manual defrag.

You can defrag boot files as well, which significantly boosts your boot loading time.

 

I use Auslogics (free) as well and it seems to work well.

 

I'm currently defragging my 2 month old laptop with the Vista disk defragmenter. Been running 6 hours now and still no sign of finishing

 

If you had checked my best free software for windows thread, you would have seen that jk defrag GUI is there, and it does a better job faster. My personal favorite over Auslogics.

 

I checked it alright, but then I seen people on this thread saying the Vista one is ok but I didn't think it would take so freakin long, probably have to leave it running all night now. Oh well i live and learn, jk defrag GUI here I come

 

I just use the Vista one on autopilot, you know, how it's scheduled to run at night once a week by default, I just let it do that and forget it's there. I don't know or care how long it takes.

6 hours does sound really excessive though.

 

Auslogics. Fast, reliable, free.

 

I see a lot of people giving thumbs up for jkdefrag. I've tried that on all of my computers in my household, but didn't like it. On all of my 3 computers(2 with Vista and one with XP) i noticed a lot of HDD trashing afterwards and the work wasn't as smooth as before.
However, everything was back to normal after running the Windows built-in one on my XP machine, and Auslogics on my two Vista PCs.
Another thing that surprised me was how long it took to defrag the harddrives right after jkdefrag.
Anyway, a long story short, i didn't like jkdefrag. But to each their own, i guess.