IObit SmartDefrag 3.1 is not particularly smart, in spite of the name. This program is a very bad combination of beta software and ad-ware: if it did its job of defragmenting the hard drive all this would be bearable, but my frustration with this package has grown over time, not diminished. The fact that it is free is one of its few redeeming features.
The screen display is a fixed size, and doesn't follow the usual Windows UI, but rather enforces its own, so on my system ("Windows Classic" theme) it sticks out like a sore thumb. Because you can't resize it the advert messages down the right are partially obscured, which is just irritating. I'd rather see a complete ad than 3/4 of an ad.
The disk display follows the standard
WDD method, but with less detail. The "Comprehensive" defrag took all night, so it isn't particularly efficient, in spite of the web site claim to have "the world’s fastest defragmenting engine". There is no documentation on what the different methods do.
The "before" and "after" display shows what was done, but the comprehensive defrag didn't completely defragment my hard drive, even after several hours of work. The report on what was done (see below) is fairly useful, but it would be a lot more useful if you could resize it to see all the details, instead of having to use scroll bars which are a waste of time. Fortunately you can sort the columns, even if you can't see them properly.
Even more frustrating is the "Auto Defrag" feature which presumably is what gives the package it's "smart" name. In spite of my best efforts I have yet to figure out what exactly it did, other than keep my hard drive active. There is a graph type of display that seeks to reassure you that it's busy doing something but not slowing you down. Unfortunately it fails on both counts. There is a noticeable delay when you click to open a new application because the drive is busy, and if a program is trying to access the hard drive without using a lot of CPU cycles then it also has to wait its turn.
I tried to make a suggestion by clicking on the "feedback" link, but it doesn't work. I wrote to the email address that was provided on a previous version when I encountered a crash, but my suggestion got nowhere because they insisted on a screen shot of the problem. How do you do a screen shot of a missing feature? Grrr ...
In spite of leaving the machine running all night without doing anything else for 3 nights in a row, the the auto defrag made no attempt at defragmenting numerous fragmented files on my drive that were not in use. Perhaps this can be explained by the settings that allow you to defrag files that are either "frequent visited files" [sic] or "recent used files" [sic] or system directories.
A useful feature at the end of the "Analyse" process for manual defragmenting is a "suggested action", a feature also available in
PerfectDisk.
This program is not
PefectDisk, and its auto defrag feature is not nearly as good as the one found in
O&O Defrag, which actually works. It does not have a boot-time defrag facility, and the end result of using it for a week is not particularly encouraging. There are random gaps all over the drive, and the free space is not consolidated. Of all of the programs that attempt to do an "automatic" background defrag, (
Buzzsaw,
Ashampoo Magical Defrag,
mst Defrag 2.0,
O&O Defrag 10) this has to be one of the worst. It slows the machine down but appears to achieve nothing. While it has some nice ideas, the implementation is poor and frustrating. I cannot recommend this program, even though it is free. If you must have automatic defragmentation, use
O&O Defrag 10. Personally I'll stick to the
JkDefrag screen saver: at least I can see what it's up to.
Contig is a fast command-line defrag utility, and provides a quick way to defragment a single file or folder. With a simple addition to the registry you can use it to defragment an entire folder, by right-clicking on the folder name and selecting "Contig Defrag Folder". This will open a command prompt and execute the contig command, as shown here.
5 Years ago when I launched my own business Cell C was the only South African cellular network that was prepared to help me with an easy to remember number. As my company grew I was able to add more contact cell numbers all with the same number sequence ending in 8008. (It did however become more and more difficult to do with each added number) In the beginning, I had 4 contracts all on my personal name. It was any cellular networks dream number, (a rental companies main incoming number on a cell phone). Due to this I was treated like royalty and was even given an Ipod shuffle one year as a gift.
My biggest mistake was to listen to a friend's advice, and move all my contracts off my personal name and onto my business instead. From that day on I was largely ignored by Cell C and treated worse than any pre-paid customer. The amazing thing is that my monthly cell phone bill still varied between R9000 in peak season to R6000 in the quieter months.
