Recommend me a good HDD defrag prog...

[EY2K]

besides Diskeeper 8. I mean holy-shizzle, the prog is an 18 MB download. Aren't there some other more compact defraggers that can get the job done better than WinXP's built in one? What about Norton Speed Disk? Can't seem to find much info on it via Google. Is the latest version 5.x? Been thinking about trying Perfect Disk. Any one?

 

[onelin]

Yes, PerfectDisk. It's under a 5 meg download and there is a 30 day trial. It's also better. link

 

[ZimZum]

XP automatically optimizes your HD based on the programs you use most often when your computer is idle. So while defragging is good on principle it could actually slow your system down.

 

[stephbu]

Prefetch is pretty useful for your most frequently touched stuff. Search on google for 'prefetch defrag' and you'll find a couple of hundred pages that talk about the statistics that the XP VMM keeps on loading pages.

It depends on Task Scheduler to run - so if you nobble that service make sure you run 'defrag <drive>: -b periodically

 

[Hadsus]

Originally posted by: ZimZum
XP automatically optimizes your HD based on the programs you use most often when your computer is idle. So while defragging is good on principle it could actually slow your system down.

Are you serious about this? I wonder how your disk can be automatically optimised by XP when you have file fragments scattered about your HD? Last time I ran speed disk, I had plenty of fragmentation.

 

[ZimZum]

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Originally posted by: ZimZum
XP automatically optimizes your HD based on the programs you use most often when your computer is idle. So while defragging is good on principle it could actually slow your system down.

Are you serious about this? I wonder how your disk can be automatically optimised by XP when you have file fragments scattered about your HD? Last time I ran speed disk, I had plenty of fragmentation.

As you launch and exploit applications, Windows observes your behavior and updates a dynamic file called Layout.ini. After every three days, when it senses that the computer is idle, it rearranges the locations of programs on the system hard drive to optimize their launch and execution.

XP also speeds up and the boot process and optimizes the launch of programs by using prefetching. Windows observes the code and programs that are used immediately upon bootup and creates a list of data to prefetch very early in the boot process. Similarly, as individual programs are launched, Windows keeps track of different files and components are accessed. The next time the application is accessed, Windows prefetches the necessary items to expedite the application's launch.

The prefetch optimizing code exists both within the XP kernel and the task scheduler service. The kernel keeps track of pages that are referenced by a given process immediately after the process is created. The service transforms the recorded pages into prefetch instructions for that process. The next time the process is created, the kernel executes the prefetch instructions, speeding up the creation of the process.

Disk optimization and application/boot prefetching work in tandem. That is, when XP optimizes file system for faster program access, the data it recorded for the application and bootup prefetch processes is factored in to determine optimal file placement on the disks.


Link

Optimized doesn't necessarily mean defragmenting as far as the OS is concerned.

 

[Socio]

You can also try Norton speed disk!

 

[LordSnailz]

Originally posted by: onelin0
Yes, PerfectDisk. It's under a 5 meg download and there is a 30 day trial. It's also better. link

Can you run a defrag program without the computer idle?

 

[stephbu]

Yes albeit with fair impact on performance of the defragger and the programs you run if they touch disk being defragged.

 

[tinyabs]

Originally posted by: ZimZum

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Originally posted by: ZimZum
XP automatically optimizes your HD based on the programs you use most often when your computer is idle. So while defragging is good on principle it could actually slow your system down.

Are you serious about this? I wonder how your disk can be automatically optimised by XP when you have file fragments scattered about your HD? Last time I ran speed disk, I had plenty of fragmentation.

As you launch and exploit applications, Windows observes your behavior and updates a dynamic file called Layout.ini. After every three days, when it senses that the computer is idle, it rearranges the locations of programs on the system hard drive to optimize their launch and execution.

XP also speeds up and the boot process and optimizes the launch of programs by using prefetching. Windows observes the code and programs that are used immediately upon bootup and creates a list of data to prefetch very early in the boot process. Similarly, as individual programs are launched, Windows keeps track of different files and components are accessed. The next time the application is accessed, Windows prefetches the necessary items to expedite the application's launch.

The prefetch optimizing code exists both within the XP kernel and the task scheduler service. The kernel keeps track of pages that are referenced by a given process immediately after the process is created. The service transforms the recorded pages into prefetch instructions for that process. The next time the process is created, the kernel executes the prefetch instructions, speeding up the creation of the process.

Disk optimization and application/boot prefetching work in tandem. That is, when XP optimizes file system for faster program access, the data it recorded for the application and bootup prefetch processes is factored in to determine optimal file placement on the disks.


Link

Optimized doesn't necessarily mean defragmenting as far as the OS is concerned.

You missed the important part, this key will start ur computer much faster (in 1-2 cycle of the progress bar in windows splash screen)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher
Original=3
New Setting=5

Windows XP just speed up the time to your desktop. Other tasks like driver initialization and services ran in background. So when you run a program right after startup, you'll need to wait for it to finish initializing the necessary drivers and services.

 

[tw1164]

It depends on Task Scheduler to run - so if you nobble that service make sure you run 'defrag <drive>: -b periodically[/quote]

What is the -b flag do? I can't find that flag in help file

 

[stephbu]

You won't find it in the help file - it's a hidden flag

-b means process prefetch analysis and defrag/arrange the results.

It doesn't do the whole disk