Defrag - is it necessary to buy a third party utility?

[Dave Horne]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista defrag
does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is there any
real advantage to spend more money for another program?

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not an
issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

 

[Staiger]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista

defrag does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is
there any real advantage to spend more money for another program?

There's been a great deal of discussion in these forums on this topic. I
don't suppose anyone has done a truly scientific test (controlled,
double-blinded, etc) comparing the competition with Vista's own defrag, so
at best all you'll get here is a set of strongly-held opinions.

Having said that, the informed consensus seems to be that no, there is no
advantage in using a third party defragger. They make various claims about
how they optimise the file layout, etc. But remember that Vista does some
of that anyway.

Until there is some *real* evidence that a third party defragger makes a
genuine, consistent and noticeable improvement I'm going along with the
informed consensus and sticking with Vista's own.

Steve

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Third party disk defragmenters give you more options, not just in the way
that they defragment, but also when they defragment..

I use Diskeeper 2007 and it allows me to set time periods when
defragmentation will definitely not run, thereby not affecting performance
while I am trying to be productive..

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista
defrag does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is
there any real advantage to spend more money for another program?

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not
an issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Robert Moir]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista
defrag does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is
there any real advantage to spend more money for another program?

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not
an issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

http://rhymeswithgeek.com/blogs/som...-1_2900_-You-can_2700_t-measure-it_2E00_.aspx

http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2007/04/defrag-mosaic.html

 

[Adam Albright]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista defrag
does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is there any
real advantage to spend more money for another program?

Depends. Third party versions generally to a better and faster job.
Microsoft's built-in defrag routine is far from complete and it is
slow and gives little feedback. Still it is generally good enough.

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not an
issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

The bottom line is since Vista requires NTFS the importance of
defragging isn't as important as it was under FAT 32. While generally
still a good idea to do if only once in awhile before things get out
of hand.

What do I do? I disabled Microsoft's version from the start because I
already had a better third party version. I don't let it run on
automatic either. I just take a look at the level of defragemation
about ever 4-6 weeks then decide if or not to do it, usually
overnight. I don't like any defrag crap kicking it when it wants to.
That always causes a performance hit and if you do a lot of disc
burning like I do then can screw up that operation.

 

[Xenomorph]

There are a few free defrag programs that do what Vista's defrag does.

Paying for one is all personal preference. The commercial ones may look
better or boast more advanced features.

 

[Saucy]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista
defrag does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is
there any real advantage to spend more money for another program?

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not
an issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

Windows Vista comes with a good general purpose defragmenter that will keep
you disks in shape and performing well.

If you are interested in specialty defragmenting, then you will need to look
to third party software. Businesses oftern have special needs regarding disk
performance and can greatly benefit from wares from companies such as Raxio.

Saucy

 

[Lang Murphy]

Is it necessary to buy a third party utility to do what Windows Vista
defrag does for free? Apart from the lack of glitz in Vista's defrag, is
there any real advantage to spend more money for another program?

I ask because I am currently using an evaluation program from PerfectDisk
and $40 seems a tad steep; but even if it were cheaper and money were not
an issue, would I still see any real benefit from using it?

No... it's -not- necessary to buy 3rd party defragmenters. That said, some
3rd party defragmenters -will- do a better job at defragging disks. The
question then becomes "Is it worth it to you?" From your post, I would
assume not.

Lang

 

[Huib]

Hi,
Although the defragmentation is not that visibly as in other MS-packages i
didn't neither buy a third party program.
The questions i have is, when activation the defrag:
-it starts checking and when it tells that there is no need for defrag
....one has to beleive it...
-starting nevertheless the defrag takes a very long time (i do know it runs
in the background) but even doing no other activities it runs very long.
-i performed it once and restarted it again, the logic should be that i runs
now faster ...but no?
-further i suppose if one take any partition it is applicable for all?

Any technically information is welcome (but the comments above are for me no
reason to by a third party program).

Regards
Huib

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

Third party disk defragmenters give you more options, not just in the
way that they defragment, but also when they defragment..

I use Diskeeper 2007 and it allows me to set time periods when
defragmentation will definitely not run, thereby not affecting
performance while I am trying to be productive..

DiskKeeper 2007 has a feature I've found works well. it automatically
defrags when the system is idle. I've not noticed any impact on system
performance. It also defrags files that Windows doesn't do and the
interface is very well put together.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

 

[Dave Horne]

I've read all the replies ... thanks to everyone who responded!

At this point I do not think I'll be buying a third party defragger.

Thanks, DH

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?JethroUK=A9?=]

Just my two-penneth

1/ As dull as disk-degramentation is I used to like to see the old XP one at
work - It at least gave the sense of a job being done and an inckling as to
whether it was going to be a long job - so for that reason i don't like
Vista version

2/ Old Defragmenter wasn't very intelligent - aswell as defragmenting files
it would also 'shuffle' all files to one end (to leave one big space instead
of lots little ones i expect) - trouble with this was that you only need to
delete one tiny file and even though no file was fragmented it would spend
the whole night 'shuffling' every-single-file to the front - any intelligent
defragmenter would have noticed no files were fragmented and left them alone

3/ I dont like that there is actually no evidence that Vista defragmenter is
working in the background save the chattering of the drive and the poor
performance (both reminisent of some trojan exporting all your personal
files while you play maj-hong) - there should at least be an icon in the sys
tray so you can cancel/pause it if you're working