Sunday, April 27, 2008

Another Look at Defraggler

Defraggler is a free product from the good guys who make CCleaner, which I use often. It has been in a beta program for months, and the improvements being made are impressive.
It's simple, but fast. I can't think of a single program that is able to analyse a hard drive quicker. And often the file defrag time is faster than I have come to expect. I always assumed that contig would remain my simple defrag utility of choice, but I am finding Defraggler indispensable.
I use an external USB hard drive for making backups, and once I have used SyncToy to make the backups, I do a quick check with Defraggler to make sure that nothing is fragmented. (See screen shot). A quick selection of the fragmented files, and a click on the "Defrag"button and the files are tidied up in no time.
Defraggler is not a full-featured defrag tool yet. It makes no attempt to optimise file placement, and relies on the availability of a block of free space big enough for the entire file being defragged. But when speed is required, or a quick check to see if there are a lot of fragmented files on a drive, this has become my first port-of-call.
It does not attempt to compete with fully-featured products like JkDefrag or PerfectDisk, especially with regard to file placement, but if you're used to using the built-in Windows defrag utility, then give Defraggler a try at www.defraggler.com. It's a small 445kb download, with no nagware or annoying ads: just a quick and simple way to tidy up your hard drive quickly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now defraggler proposes file placement. One has to chose "Defrag Drive" with a right click over the drive letter and it performs well, it may even sorts directory (apparently).

They changed the file placement algo with last release, the previous one was way better IMHO.