best freeware defragmenter

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Henley
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike Henley

i found dirms, buzzsaw and sysinternals pagedefrag great in
combination; each is quite small, non-intrusive, and they work great.
I had a professional version of diskeeper 8 which i've uninstalled as
i felt those three freeware tools did a better job and didn't interfer
with my work as they were hardly noticeable resource-wise and they
were no problems i had with any of them.

I wonder what people think of the argument that they're better than
diskeeper 8 professional at their effectiveness and whether you think
i'm mistaken. I also wonder what other software out there that might
be better than them that i don't know about.
 
Mike said:
i found dirms, buzzsaw and sysinternals pagedefrag great in
combination; each is quite small, non-intrusive, and they work great.
I had a professional version of diskeeper 8 which i've uninstalled as
i felt those three freeware tools did a better job and didn't interfer
with my work as they were hardly noticeable resource-wise and they
were no problems i had with any of them.

I wonder what people think of the argument that they're better than
diskeeper 8 professional at their effectiveness and whether you think
i'm mistaken. I also wonder what other software out there that might
be better than them that i don't know about.
Click to expand...
O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware works best for me.
I did try dirms/buzzsaw to.
 
i found dirms, buzzsaw and sysinternals pagedefrag great in
combination; each is quite small, non-intrusive, and they work great.
Click to expand...

Dirms and Buzzsaw: www.dirms.com
Page Defrag: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml
I had a professional version of diskeeper 8 which i've uninstalled as
i felt those three freeware tools did a better job and didn't interfer
with my work as they were hardly noticeable resource-wise and they
were no problems i had with any of them.
Click to expand...

I was using DiskKeeper 7, and I did likewise. My major complaint with it
was that even though I explicitly said that no, I did not want it to
aUtomatically do anything, I'd find sometimes that my performance just
ground down a CRAWL, and I'd find that damned DiskKeeper service running and
sucking up 100% of the system cycle time, despite every single configuration
option being set to "no, only run manually".

In contrast, Buzzsaw has zero load, and dirms only runs manually, so I'm no
longer sidelined by a rogue defrag process running amok any more.
 
: On 14 Oct 2003 07:19:27 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
:
: > i found dirms, buzzsaw and sysinternals pagedefrag great in
: > combination; each is quite small, non-intrusive, and they work great.
:
: Dirms and Buzzsaw: www.dirms.com
: Page Defrag: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml
:
<snip>
: --
: My (e-mail address removed) account is used solely for newsgroup postings.
: Any mail sent to me which does not include "NEWSGROUP POSTING" in the
: subject will be automatically deleted by my spam filter.

These aren't for ME or below. :-(
 
I actually quite like O&O but it seemed to scan at the same time as it
defrag (if you have anti-virus program installed) 8(

Regards,

Mike said:
i found dirms, buzzsaw and sysinternals pagedefrag great in
combination; each is quite small, non-intrusive, and they work great.
I had a professional version of diskeeper 8 which i've uninstalled as
i felt those three freeware tools did a better job and didn't interfer
with my work as they were hardly noticeable resource-wise and they
were no problems i had with any of them.

I wonder what people think of the argument that they're better than
diskeeper 8 professional at their effectiveness and whether you think
i'm mistaken. I also wonder what other software out there that might
be better than them that i don't know about.
Click to expand...
O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware works best for me.
I did try dirms/buzzsaw to.
 
William de Haan said:
On 14 Oct 2003 07:19:27 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
Click to expand...
I was using DiskKeeper 7, and I did likewise. My major complaint with it
was that even though I explicitly said that no, I did not want it to
aUtomatically do anything, I'd find sometimes that my performance just
ground down a CRAWL, and I'd find that damned DiskKeeper service running and
sucking up 100% of the system cycle time, despite every single configuration
option being set to "no, only run manually".
Click to expand...

Since I'm running Win98se & I don't really know if it is relevant to
the issue, the following may be of no significance to you, but I
thought I'd mention it.

I was using the latest version of Diskeeperlite, but came to feel that
it's huge size & apparent effect on my system was negative compared to
the benefits.

I was surprised when one day a Diskeeper messsage popped up informing
me that I needed to defrag, not realizing it had been monitoring my
system. Like you, I prefer to do things manually, maintaining running
processes to a minimum.

I discovered this entry in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:

SET Path=%Path%;"C:\Program Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperLite\"

I suspected this might have something to do with it, but my inquiry in
this NG came up empty.

hth

blue
 
Wednesday, October 15, 2003, 9:19:42 AM, bluemoon wrote:
b> I discovered this entry in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:

b> SET Path=%Path%;"C:\Program Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperLite\"

b> I suspected this might have something to do with it, but my inquiry in
b> this NG came up empty.

Diskeeper isn't starting up automatically upon boot?

You can use this small program:
http://mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml to view and disable startup
items.
 
Setting a PATH just tells Windows where to find something...it doesn't tell
it to execute anything.
 
-^..^- said:
I actually quite like O&O but it seemed to scan at the same time as it
defrag (if you have anti-virus program installed) 8(
Click to expand...

You leave your antivirus program running when defragging? That's unusual.


Aaron
 
: > On 14 Oct 2003 07:19:27 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
:
: > I was using DiskKeeper 7, and I did likewise. My major complaint with it
: > was that even though I explicitly said that no, I did not want it to
<snip>

<snip again>
: I was surprised when one day a Diskeeper messsage popped up informing
: me that I needed to defrag, not realizing it had been monitoring my
: system. Like you, I prefer to do things manually, maintaining running
: processes to a minimum.
:
: I discovered this entry in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:
:
: SET Path=%Path%;"C:\Program Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperLite\"
:
: I suspected this might have something to do with it, but my inquiry in
: this NG came up empty.
:
: hth
:
: blue

The path statement doesn't execute anything, and is nothing to worry about, but it does take up a bit of environment memory. It's also unusual for a Win program to specify a path, since it usually starts in its own directory, and can thus find the files it needs.

I get that popup message too. It only appears after I've activated DiskKeeperLite 7.0.418, defragged, then exited the program.

There is a monitoring program left running as a TSR, Dkservice, which shows in the Task List (the list you see when pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL). I don't know how much resources Dkservice uses, and don't like that it runs without informing me.
 
Since I'm running Win98se & I don't really know if it is relevant to
the issue, the following may be of no significance to you, but I
thought I'd mention it.
Click to expand...

I don't run 9x systems (everything is either Mandrake Linux or NT based
Windows), so probably not.
I discovered this entry in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:

SET Path=%Path%;"C:\Program Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperLite\"

I suspected this might have something to do with it, but my inquiry in
this NG came up empty.
Click to expand...

No, all that does is add the DiskKeeper directory to the search path. By
doing so, you could type "Diskkeeper" in a command shell, and it would
execute. Without that PATH statement, you would have to type
C:\Program Files\Executive Software\DiskeeperLite\Diskkeeper" in order to
start the program running.

However, it will have no effect on starting anything, it only gives the DOS
shell the list of directories to search for when you enter a program name at
the command line.

Thanks anyway.
 
On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 14:58:05 GMT, "Dugie"

There is a monitoring program left running as a TSR, Dkservice, which shows in the Task List (the list you see when pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL). I don't know how much resources Dkservice uses, and don't like that it runs without informing me.
Click to expand...

Same here. That's why I disabled it.

Regards, John.
 
: > On 14 Oct 2003 07:19:27 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
:
: > I was using DiskKeeper 7, and I did likewise. My major complaint with it
: > was that even though I explicitly said that no, I did not want it to
<snip>

There is a monitoring program left running as a TSR, Dkservice, which shows
in the Task List (the list you see when pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL). I don't know
how much resources Dkservice uses, and don't like that it runs without
informing me.

I just checked on my XP and it shows Dkservice using 880KB. Hardly enough to
get worried about IMHO.

===

Frank Bohan
¶ Put no trust in cryptic comments.
 
John Fitzsimons said:
On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 14:58:05 GMT, "Dugie"
Click to expand...
shows in the Task List (the list you see when pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL). I
don't know how much resources Dkservice uses, and don't like that it runs
without informing me.
Same here. That's why I disabled it.

Regards, John.
Click to expand...

You might take a look at WINSONAR. It informs you of any new programs being
run. Although it is a bit of a nuisance until you have all approved programs
accepted, I would not be without it.

http://digilander.libero.it/zancart/winsonar/index.htm

===

Frank Bohan
¶ The attention span of a computer is as long as its electrical cord.
 
Aaron said:
You leave your antivirus program running when defragging? That's unusual.


Aaron
Click to expand...

I've always kept my AV running when defragging, whether using Diskeeper or
the native defragger in XP. No apparent ill effects.

===

Frank Bohan
¶ The generation of random numbers should not be left to chance.
 
AnYoNe said:
Mike Henley wrote:
O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware works best for me.
I did try dirms/buzzsaw to.
Click to expand...

I just tried o&o defrag v4 professional and uninstalled it, it's a
strange app. It seems to have glowing reviews online but in my
experience it's pretty werid; it seems to take days to defrag a
partition and meanwhile i felt it interferred with thing i was doing
despite having an auto-sense thing to measure resources. Also unlike
diskeeper or buzzsaw which reside in the tasktray, i have no idea when
o&o would launch into action and sort things out once i close the app.
I have set the threshold thingie and yet wonder if it just springs out
or activates itself to deffrag once my system is fragmented.

Why did you find it better than dirms\buzzsaw, or what exactly about
dirms\buzzsaw that you didn't like
 
Why did you find it better than dirms\buzzsaw, or what exactly about
dirms\buzzsaw that you didn't like
Click to expand...

Okay, O&O seems to work, but it seems to work better for NTFS than for
FAT32. I converted my FAT32 to NTFS and it worked well.
 
I've always kept my AV running when defragging, whether using Diskeeper or
the native defragger in XP. No apparent ill effects.
===
Frank Bohan
Click to expand...

Running programs cannot be defragged. Shutting down 'all'
processes first enables a more complete defrag. WinME
defrag completes by the time I get my teeth brushed. But
then I don't run my AVs except when necessary either, so
different strokes for different folks. :-)

BoB
For the duration of Swen, my address is inoperative.
 
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