mrmadness

I'll broaden this further by putting out (in multiple threads) that I would like to see a version of Defraggler that defragments EVERYTHING not on the host partition. That way I can use my BartPE stick and defragment all my systems COMPLETELY with nothing left to the wind (registry included).

Actually, it should be able to defragment anything accessible by the operating system. The reason for leaving the MFT, registry hives and other important system data alone is that 1) it's most likely in use at the moment anyway (on the host drive) and 2) moving around system files while the system is running is probably not a good idea. However, there are a couple of defragmenters that do just that. One I know of is Diskeeper. The older versions had a Boot-time Defragmentation option that would defragment your folders, pagefile (which can become a serious headache when fragmented) and MFT at boot time when windows is not running (yet). Microsoft themselves puts out a tool (Pagedefrag) which does the same thing to just your pagefile. Another program I've seen includes your registry hives. It's all possible, it's just not done for safety reasons. That said, I too would be a fan of seeing a Defraggler version that defragmented everything. I use BartPE a lot to help bring computers back to life. One of the steps I take is to defragment their drives (which are usually SEVERELY fragmented), but I'm limited to defragmenting most of their drive since Defraggler won't touch those system files. If someone could make a release that recognized the system drive (%system%) defragmented everything NOT on that drive (i.e. C: is system and you're defragmenting D: or something), that would really be awesome. It would also be easy to implement as the tags would only need to have the %system% flags and whatnot placed in front of them, rather than just listing the file/folder name only in the safety table. Anyone from Piriform have a comment?

Just saw this and wanted to clarify further. Defragging anything flash memory (SSD, Jumpdrive etc.) should NEVER, I repeat NEVER, be done. It is not necessary, needed or useful for anything. Defragmenting rearranges files into a contiguous line to minimize access times and cycles on a disk style arrangement. This speeds access times and reduces the amount of head movement that slows read times. Flash memory DOES NOT have this con. It is accessed the same as system RAM. Jumping from one sector to the next in a continuous line requires no more access time than jumping from one sector to the middle or end resulting in 0 latency time. So, if you want to fry your flash memory earlier than predicted, defrag it and notice the 0 improvement in anything except the looks of the colors on the screen. Otherwise, leave it alone. Damage is only done when WRITING! You can read from flash memory an indefinite number of times resulting in no damage (in theory, wear is almost negligible). So, never defrag flash memory. Keep the life up. And save defragging for disk style storage. As a side note, if there was a way to determine if a drive was flash or disk, it would be a beneficial safety mechanism if flash had the option of not being allowed to be defragged. Just a thought.