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Defraggler
1

I recently decided to give defraggler another try. Generally it conflicts with other defraggers, as all do their own thing, mainly, though some things are similar in function, the end result is always slightly different, so each one has to start from scratch every time if you use different ones.

So, I decided to dedicate Defraggler to my PortableApps.com portable hard drive. It optimizes the portable apps first, then the rest, leaving no spaces, so less future fragmentation.

Not yet sure how much I will be using it for other drives. My defrag is really nice.

I think if there are enough customization options (on the defrag itself) I would switch, mainly because I dislike programming and have no desire to write mydefrag scripts.

anybody have any views on comparisons between Defraggler and MyDefrag?

Also, what are the real gains when using usb 2.0 interface? surely my hd (2tb) is faster than USB on its worst day (most fragmented)

2

it seems to get bogged down moving mp3's around after 5%, so i quit and tried a defrag whitespace

it says 10 minutes to go... forgot to check time on previous defrag, must be new feature... hmm

now it says 15 minutes, now 30... but it is at 6% now, now 7%

stopping to check regular defrag for time

4%, >1day, now 5%, quickly caught up to itself

methinks the optimization is too intense for a portablehard drive, but if you have portable apps of some sort, it seems it detects this and puts them first... then when it starts munching on your mp3's or something, you can switch to defrag whitespace

time still says >1day @ 5%

3

the defrag whitespace is leaving fragments (red boxes) even though i did NOT select 'allow fragmentation'

perhaps the quick defrag option is better?

currently @ 8% and 30 minutes to go on defrage freespace

trying quick defrag

I have 18% freespace on 2tb (almost) btw

QD shot up to 15% real quick, says 4 minutes to go

the red squares aren't changing, yet

now 36% and 3 minutes to go

still 4 red squares caused by freespace defrag (no fragmentation allowed)

it got one of em at 55% and 2 minutes to go

the resolution isn't really high enough (block size) to see, but it is taking small bits (yellow squares) from multiple locations, while the squares remain dark blue, rather than turning light blue, indicating partially filled areas

so, holes remain, though they aren't visible on the display

it got all but one of the red squares, though, except for the first one, top left corner

several light blue squares here and there, even a couple of white ones not at the end

but 0% fragmentation, 0 total fragments, 0 fragged files

I think I will give the defrag whitespace another try, this time 'allow fragmentation'

4

defrag freespace (allow fragmentation)

@5% shows 4 minutes to go

now 10 min

there was one point when a yellow box was preceding the green box, but i'm assuming that is just overlap

it is doing much better than the regular defrag freespace with 0 new red boxes, so far

oops, spoke too soon, have 2 now, in addition to the upper left corner box being red (light)

now 3 +1

7% and 45 min to go

no indication of which file(s) being moved

aside: what is the avg error rate on defragmentation?

wowzers, the red boxes disappeared (cept for the first one)

now @ 12% and 45 minutes to go

so, at this point (and i remember i did this test before with same results) looks like defrag whitespace and defrage whitespace (allow frags) are backwards, one is the other

could someone verify this?

ima let this finish, now at 16% and 30 minutes to go, but no red squares at all

5

hmm, came back @ 57% and 45 min to go

around 30 light red squares and a dark red one

might as well try the other option again

6

it is really going bonkers on defrag freespace ( no fragments allowed ) ... lots of activity all over (yellow)

pretty quickly shot to 9% and 10 minutes remaining

so far no new red squares... and there were none in bottom 25%, cept for the 1st one

very quickly went to 26% and 4 minutes to go

got past the first red square (light) without affecting it (caused by previous defrag freespace with allow frags)

5 more red squares ignored (says 650 fragged files at this time) 33% and 10 min

now 41 and 5

51 and 3

seems like defrag freespace don't do squat for fragmentation, still 650 fragged files, 58% and 3 min

was 0 on previous defrag... so the defrag freespace (allow frags) caused 2686 total fragments and 650 fragged files, but shows 0% fragmentation

im going to allow this to finish, then do a quick defrag and another defrag freespace (no frags)

7

so what i was saying is that i would like to be able to choose to defrag freespace without frags, no allow frags, rather than JUST defrag freespace... so it would defrag, or quick defrag first, then optimize freespace, but ideally at the same time, to be more efficient

checkboxes would be nice, or radio buttons

8

i had stopped the previous defrag around 66%, switched to quick defrag, now at 2% and 2h10m

basically same as my last test about 6 months ago

going back to mydefrag, for now

once i get this thing defragged again i might try one more time, but not using defrag freespace (allow frags)

9

hi, welcome. boy you are an enthusiastic poster ;)

we don't really encourage comparisons between piriform products and others, that said, past the first question you asked (which I just answered ;) ) I've no clue what you are getting at. you seem to have, for no particular discernable reason, live blogged your defraggler experience.

can you boil this multi post thread down to a single point?

In other words, with no attempt to offend I'm just plain spoken, this entire thing is too long so I didn't read it (tl:dr)

10

wow, maybe not... just lost my post... ok, skipping the rambling, lets just get to the final decision

quick defrag is good up to a point, but slow if there is alot to do; if you don't have any urgency, no problem

defrag is same but even more involved and slow

defrag freespace; nice to keep drive compacted

defrag freespace (allow fragmentation) only if you want to shrink your partition

the thing just seems to drag as if there is too much for it to handle... some threshold or glass ceiling; if you wanna run it all night or night and day, it seems to work ok; perhaps it is conserving resources; solution?

try adding a throttle; throttle up when you aren't using computer, throttle down when you are; manual, that is, user controlled; add customization settings for auto-throttle if already implemented; i'd like to know it is working the way i want

if it is just slow, well, i wonder why (meaning other programs seem to be faster and more comprehensive)

i have been perplexed at this deficiency for a while

anyways... i'm not sure what happend, but my screen jumped to 'report' by itself, or so it seemed, erasing my post, forcing this rewrite... no problem; but, i've lost my train of thought and don't know what else to say

i'm using it right now to 'scrunch' my portable hard drive, just for the heck of it; i don't really want to use it out on my other drives, though i have;

what settings would you recommend for a 2TB portable hard drive with lots of media and portable apps?

11

Jam -> A lot of other defraggers do "Quick" defrags.

That is to say, they leave a lot of fragmentation. Think of it like a filter. They do light defragging, so it takes a short time.

Defraggler goes a little deeper, & when it is done, the performance benefit is usually more noticeable than using one of the "lite" defrag utilities.

2 TB HDD? Think for a moment. That's 2,000 GB, or 2,000,000 MB of files to be (potentially) moved around. That WILL take time. How much, depends on how full the drive is, as well as your HDD speed & your computer speed.

That said, I normally don't defrag external drives, since internal are the ones with your OS, & the one that will slow the most while using.

The exception being, I sometimes connect other people's drives externally via USB connection to my computer, because it is faster to defrag that way if their machine is slow.

12

i am not really impressed by your response

i understand that as it stands your product is ok and people might even buy it, i guess

hey, it works; and it has more customization features than some others, and is fairly easy and user friendly; it seems to speak my language

i think it needs more work, but so does everything, really

your response should have been better

heres a cute photo

i like 'quick defrag' ... i use it just for fun, like to watch the display

there are several issues to explore if you decide to read the whole post, but if you aren't intuitive enough... too bad for you

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/1965/defragglerg.png

13
as it stands your product is ok and

Who is this You? we're all just users like you.