The Great Defrag Shootout III: Golden Bow Vopt 8.18

The first time I heard about Vopt was listening to the Security Now podcast. Considering that "Mr Hard Drive" Steve Gibson, of Spinrite fame, was raving about it, I decided to try it out.
First impressions count, and my first impression of their web site was that it was designed 10 years ago, and not much had changed since. Obviously the webmaster is a man of few words. This isn't a bad thing, and at least I was spared the endless chatter and hype of "affiliate"-oriented web sites. No adware, no spyware, no bloatware.
Installing the program was pretty simple, and the initial interface reminded me a lot of the old DOS version of Norton Speed Disk. It loads fast, and shows an initial map of the hard drive without any waiting. First good point.
Second good point is that it runs fast, and the screen display tells you what is going on. I like the way it starts at the beginning and fills up all those little gaps with files from the end of the disk.
Third good point is that the Vopt algorithm tends to maximize the free disk space as it moves the files around. The first "bad" point is that Vopt has a totally different approach to PerfectDisk when it comes to what to do with the Master File Table (MFT). PerfectDisk (PD) and Diskeeper (DK) reserve trailing space after the MFT so that it can grow as required by the operating system. Vopt uses this space for files, presumably on the assumption that the MFT can grow in a fragmented way jut like any other file, and then it will sort this out on the next defrag pass.
The PD/DK approach would make a lot more sense if PD didn't insist on placing the first part of a large file in front of the MFT and the rest of the file after it, deliberately fragmenting the file, albeit in only one place. PD does the same nonsense with other fixed files. Vopt takes a more intelligent approach.
Vopt also warns you about cookies and other junk on the hard drive, and has a most useful little analysis feature that shows you what file is using up a given cluster, as well as a list of all the "large" files, "fixed" files, "fragmented" files, and so on. It also shows the name of the file that it is currently working on, which is most interesting, and a feature sadly lacking from PD.
Vopt has no facility to defrag the drive during boot time**, nor does it seem to give any priority to files that are loaded during boot time, so over an extended period of time the Windows startup process may end up taking longer. Another problem is that it doesn't work too well when eMule is running, since both programs slow down when Vopt tries to defrag files that eMule is using.
It may not be as thorough as PD, but it is much faster and doesn't overwork the drive, keeping the file movements to a minimum. The more I use it, the more I like it. If you've already spend $39 on PD it may not be worth spending another $40 on Vopt, but if you haven't got a decent defrag utility already, and you want the defrag program to work quickly and do a good job, Vopt is a good choice.
If you already have PD and get impatient with its (comparatively) sluggish behaviour, then it may be worth the extra cash. I can't bring myself to uninstall Vopt or PD, because I know that when my drive needs to be properly reorganised every few months, PD is the only one up to the task. But at the same time, Vopt has been keeping my drive in good shape on a daily basis, so I can't uninstall it either.
For the purposes of the review process, I will try the freeware Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.1.2 next. It's going to be tough not using Vopt.
**Update: According to the Vopt technical support people, " it's not true that Vopt8 can't run at boot time. You can use the Schedule Tool to tell it to run at Startup, and it's so fast it will be done if you turn on your computer and go get a cup of coffee."
Update: My attempts to defrag my drive's Master File Table (MFT) using Vopt failed. According to the help file's notes section, "Metafiles, including the MFT (Master File Table), are automatically defragged as part of normal defragmentation. In rare cases, the drive configuration may not permit complete defragmentation of the MFT."

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