Defragging our computers...how often?

[gogoblender 3,070]

I"m the worst at this. I used to hate the noise of my comp running late at night, and I'm also a spendthrift when it comes to energy...so I never used to have the auto-setup for my disk defraggin I think that was probably one of the reasons why the old comp was slowly going poop. The poor little 40 gig hard drive it came with ( And still has! ) Was slowly getting so messed up, that the last few times I tried to defrag it.. I'd get parts of it showing that it said it couldn't defrag.

Isn't that strange?

 

With new bought stuff, of course, come great new intentions. And I'm now setting forth to do my defrags on a more regular basis. I'm just unsure as to how much is good enough. I had an IT dude at work who said that EVERYTIME we install something new, especially for Vista, we should defrag.

 

err... a bit overboard?

 

And meanwhile, I've got my cousin who's addicted to fragging it seems. He says he does it religiously...once a week. errr....isn't that a bit too much? I'm just wondering how you guys are handling this part of your comp maintenance. And for a gamer like me...how often should be be doing it?

 

Thanks

 

 

gogo

[Zinsho 0]

Tough question. I know that Vista 'officially' does not need defrag. I would still keep an eye on it for bad fragments but overall it tends to do a better job than XP did.

 

Whenever your computer is idle the defrag on Vista goes and does some cleaning, the moment you move the mouse it stops, constantly.

 

As to how often, every time a file writes there's a chance for fragmentation, so after installation (large files in large blocks have trouble not getting fragmented), after deleting files (you just ripped out these huge blocks, same trouble), whenever your game starts slowing down from huge Page file usage/cluttered temp folder, those are all things that can be a problem, particularly when you want your drives running fastest.

 

I have it set for once a week when I do have a real program doing it, and often tend to do it more often (remember, XP defrag takes FOREVER, it would run for 4-5 hours for me and do very little, while some of the real software would take 30 minutes and do a better job than XP ever could) manually and watch the colors move around, it's entrancing (and I'm not joking, I've even done this with XP defrag for a couple hours... I'll do the same when watching download managers, seeing the blocks fill in)

[trd 0]

I defragment when I remember with auslogics free defragmenter, seems to do a better job than the stock one. with xp, I used o&o software defragmenter. can't argue with free on the auslogics.

 

I seem to remember old degrag programs on windows would need a certain amount of free space to defrag properly, which some of the aftermarket ones do not have that requirement. other files that couldn't defrag can also be locked system files, I can't remember how but once upon a time one could defragment prior to getting windows going. according to their website, the next version of auslogics will support this feature.

 

edit: auslogics found 4441 defraged files! not done in a while apparently nor did it seem windows keeping up on its own.

Edited July 25, 2008 by trd

[Yarasa 0]

I am on the computer at work, at home, all day, every day. I don't remember when I complete my last defragmentation

I only do defrag, if I feel like my pc needs it (could be every 6 months or more).

[Genenut 8]

When you consider how internet browsers work (write files to a temp file and discard when you leave that instance of the browser) most computers could use to have it done alot more regularly than they do. I tend to have to override the built in defrag as it always tells me it doesnt need it but when it does it , it takes like 2 hours to run. On line games can do the same thing as browsers. They download snippets needed for certain things at certain times while you are playing.

 

think of it like an in box, you really do need to go through yours once a week and organize it to get rid of things you dont need and move the important stuff to the top of the pile.

 

At the very least I would set yours to defrag once a month. And run it after you deleted or install any large amount of files.

[gial 2]

Supposedly, the structure of NTFS file systems reduces the deleterious effect that file fragmentation has. I do see an improvement when I defrag, but not anywhere near the improvement the old FAT file systems saw.

 

That being said, there are clearly benefits to removing fragmentation. Modern disk drives perform track, or even multiple track reads into huge read-ahead buffers, trying to reduce access time by anticipating data needs. As a result, non-fragmented files help the driver do its job - even if Windows (or whatever OS you use) do not "need" this.

 

That being said, substantial improvement will only be seen where the same, large file is read repeatedly. Files that are constantly written will almost invariably become quickly fragmented. Only files that remain intact have any real hope of remaining "defragged." It then becomes clear that the best time to defrag is immediately after a software installation, since programs tend to be large and also static. Doing so both before and after could also help on fuller disks, as the space will have been made contiguous before the install thus decreasing the chance that files added cannot be defragmented.

 

So much for my take on theory . . . in practice I defrag maybe 3 times a year, but then I rarely add software anymore.

 

I think I'm due . . .

[Arafinwe 0]

Well I do not use Vista but XP Pro, and I usualy only defrag 2 times a week.

I used to use Sysinternals Contig and the JKDefrag, but since a month or

more I use the Combination of Contig and then Ultimate Defrag and I must

say that I am extremely impressed with Ultimate Defrag.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5965.html

 

Disktrix own Website also has a downloadable PDF manual which explains

in detail what the program can do and so on.

 

http://www.disktrix.com/

 

It has both a freeware version and a full version, but even the freeware

version is extremely usefull IMHO.

 

The problem with software is that everyone has his/her own favorites so

it is not possible to say that is the best, try a few out and see which one

you like.

[Bondbug 32]

I have a prog called Diskeeper which supposedly works away in the background any time my PC is on and doing nothing. Seems to be working OK, but how to know? Before that I used to defrag most weeks. Now I defrag if things get slow, just to make sure.

[Timotheus 416]

I defrag every 2 months or so. But I download a lot. (mostly movies I own though )

If you don't install/uninstall a lot of programs, or download large files, you don't need to do it often.

Edited August 3, 2008 by Timotheus

[fRACTAL 0]

Guilty as charged I defrag every 6 - 18 months, usually when something like this shames me into defragging things

~Doom

[Obsession 0]

Defrag.. whats that.. hehe. Don't really remember when done defragging last time. Never done it to my new computer and maybe 4 months ago only partial defrag on my old computer. I blame win xp's defrag program for that (sure sure.. I'm just too lazy to put it on), but maybe those programs on this thread would make the job better and faster.

[berkley 0]

lol I have NEVER EVER defragged my computer and this computer I am using right now is 8 years old XD lol I do love my old G3 Mac tho (even tho I do have a new G5) XD

[Timotheus 416]

Defrag.. whats that.. hehe. Don't really remember when done defragging last time. Never done it to my new computer and maybe 4 months ago only partial defrag on my old computer. I blame win xp's defrag program for that (sure sure.. I'm just too lazy to put it on), but maybe those programs on this thread would make the job better and faster.

 

Auslogics definitly is the fast one here. It can "do" my 500GB hdd in about 15 mins or something? Not sure, but it's ahelluvalot faster than the built-in defragger.

Though I only use about 200GB of my hdd...

[Llama8 8]

I could probably do with defragging my disks, what decent defraggers would people suggest?

[Timotheus 416]

Auslogics Disk Defrag

 

My tool of choice. Purty colors while it does it's work (you can see the amount of fragmented files, defragmented files and empty space etc) and also a fast one

[stubbie 21]

I do defrags once a week along with my usual regular maintenance. But I will only defrag if the program suggests I need one.

I have two 500gig drives so I use Auslogics and Windoze defraggers at the same time.

Takes a total of 15 minutes.

And and I alternate which defragger does what drive.

[Silearth 6]

Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been over 6 months since my last defrag.

[thek 0]

I defrag only when see that my system is slowed down. But I'm good in keeping it in good condition (I have an aye on autostart, registry, firewall, AV and free discspace) so defrag is rather rare. Last time about 6 months ago. I also use Auslogics Registry Defrag (registry can be also fragmented) and then Auslogics Disk Defrag. Of course first I remove unwanted files, game, software and manually clear system registry with RegCleaner (RegClean is different application). Today I have more mork far from computer so run defrag. Too many times I have added and removed files from HDD from last defrag

Edited January 21, 2009 by thek

[plastique_exploda 0]

Qial is right the NTFS file system is nowhere near as bad as the FAT file system when it comes to defraging a system NTFS is a lot smarter and you should very rarely need to defrag. I defrag once a year and even then it says I do not need to defrag. Even my NAS very rarely needs a defrag and it constantly has files moving all over the network its 2TB Raid 0 and is always at over 75% full.....

 

If it makes you sleep better at night gogo give it a defrag.

 

Temp files from the internet etc have the possibility of being deleted they are not always getting deleted (bad coding from the website makers. or most likely lazy;) ) just check your %temp% folder you will be surprised how much FECAL MATTER! is in there unless you clean out your cache etc. every day.

[stubbie 21]

NTFS is a lot smarter and you should very rarely need to defrag.

 

Awwww.......but I like watching all the pretty lights

[Arafinwe 0]

Temp files from the internet etc have the possibility of being deleted they are not always getting deleted (bad coding from the website makers. or most likely lazy;) ) just check your %temp% folder you will be surprised how much FECAL MATTER! is in there unless you clean out your cache etc. every day.

 

Well like you said, either clean your cache etcetera every day...or use a program like Sandboxie.

 

Still since I changed to PerfectDisk, I now only defrag ones a week.

[plastique_exploda 0]

Also most browsers nowadays like firefox and I think IE7 (not sure I dont use it) give the option to clear out these files when you close the browser window automatically making things a lot smoother.