Poll: Best NTFS defrag software

[Biggs]

Diskeeper 6 or Speedisk 5.1?

According to this, Diskeeper can also defrag the MFT$ (Master File Table, analogous to Fat tables on Fat16-Fat32 which are databases used for the filesystems) while the Speedisk cannot? Anyway, what are your opinions?

 

[Alfred]

no doubt, speed disk.
I have tried almost every defragment utilities on the market. speed disk is the best!

Alfred

 

[yo2tup]

how are those better than the one that comes with win2k?

 

[luv2chill]

I use Diskeeper 6 and love it.

l2c

 

[LXi]

SpeedDisk 5.1? Is that part of Norton Utilities? If so then that's a good defragger.

 

[borealiss]

diskeeper

 

[Pardus]

windows 2000 has its own built in own and does a good job too.

for all other os'es, diskeeper for sure, especially NT 4

 

[Adul]

Disk kepper is by far the best. MS license disk keeper to use in win2k BTW.

 

Diskeeper is the best. It will defrag the MFT, paging file, and system files if you let it do a boot-time defrag.

 

[Biggs]

This is taken from Norton Speed Disk's help file,

"About MFT and paging file fragmentation

Just like user data files, the MFT and paging files can become fragmented over time. Since these system files are being accessed frequently, their fragmentation can cause delays in system boot time and other types of performance degradation.
As with any operating system?s file system, NTFS experiences file and free space fragmentation. This affects the read/write performance of the system in general, down to the core file system level. If you monitor the status of your MFT file you will notice that, as more read/writes are performed on the system and the amount of file tracking overhead data increases, the MFT file grows to handle the increased activity.

Although the MFT file expands to accommodate new information, it never shrinks, even when the number of files decreases or disk activity slows down. Unlike the paging file, whose size is adjusted with each reboot, not even rebooting your system resets the MFT file to a smaller size. Because the MFT resides at the beginning of any drive partition, it has no free disk space to expand contiguously. NTFS is forced to find free space elsewhere on the same partition for the MFT file?s overflow fragments.

Norton Speed Disk safely optimizes the MFT and paging file structures without the need to restart the machine, make multiple optimization passes, or disconnect from the network.

Copyright (c) 2000 Symantec Corp."

There ya go, Speed Disk also optimizes the MFT.

 

If it defrags the MFT without booting, that's pretty good. How much does it cost?

 

[Need4Speed]

diskeeper all the way

 

[hifimaster]

Speeddisk.

 

[jaywallen]

For a little info on defragmentation and why it might be best to choose one defragger over another:

http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win2000/win2ksrv/w2kexec.asp

In particular, this paragraph pertains to the matter of whether or not online defragmentation of the MFT is a good idea:



<< Once Windows 2000 starts up, the MFT and Paging File are always exclusively open and cannot be safely moved. The APIs that permit safe online defragmentation do not support the movement of these files. It is recommended, therefore, that the MFT and Paging file be defragmented offline, rendering them beyond the range of routine online defragmentation methods. If fragmentation of the MFT or Paging File becomes evident, the standard solution is to consolidate these files during boot time using a third-party defragmenter. >>



Online defragging of everything would be an obvious plus for anyone running a server that s/he don't wish to reboot periodically. However, the W2K APIs don't allow for it. I figure if the OS maker specifically sez don't do it, I don't do it. I guess using the Norton product for this purpose involves a certain amount of trust. I've seen enough bad software with that name on it to be wary, although I truly can say that I haven't seen a lot of unhappy users of that particular product.

On a workstation, I just don't see the problem with rebooting occasionally, say every few days at least, to accomplish boot-time defragmentation of files that Microsoft deems should be defragged that way. With servers, I don't know. Can you allow access to a server while you're defragging the MFT? Not me, thanks.

Regards,
Jim

 

[sharkeeper]

format.com.

Cheers!

 

[Adul]

more info on disk keeper http://www.diskeeper.co.uk/



<< Microsoft considers it very unsafe to defragment the MFT on line. To do so can lead to data corruption and system crashes. Diskeeper avoids any risk to your system by preventing fragmentation on the MFT before it can develop.

First, the MFT is defragmented using Diskeeper's boot-time defragmentation feature, then Frag Guard maintains this consolidated state.
>>

 

[Alfred]

speeddisk can defrag MFT, also all those system files at system32\config. It is what diskeeper can't do.

Speed disk again.

Alfred

 

[Biggs]

I'm a bit confused, which one of the two does online defragmentation of the MFT?

 

[jaywallen]

Biggs,

The Norton defragger does online MFT defragmentation, which is precisely what Microsoft warns against. Executive Software's Diskeeper, Raxco's Perfect Disk, O&amp;O Defrag (and perhaps others, as well) all do MFT and other &quot;special&quot; file defragging at boot time, which is when MS says it should be done.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Biggs]

Really, Jim? What if you defrag while not connected to the 'Net?

 

[Shudder]

I never really liked Speeddisk's optimizer.

It seems to throw it in a better logical area, but that doesn't mean the OS likes it. I find after &quot;optimizing&quot; my hard drive, I get TONS of thrashing a day or so later and my files are much much more fragged than they were before I did it.

I'd say diskeeper does a better job.

 

[jaywallen]

Heh-heh. In this case &quot;online&quot; means with the operating system online. MS considers it dangerous to move the MFT around while the OS is on line and using it as the reference for finding files on the drive.

Regards,
Jim