Defrag File Wars!!
(Comparing Popular Defrag Applications)

By David Williams 
June 7, 2003

We have all experienced the pleasure of a new system running smooth and fast then after a short six months this same system runs like a near broken-down car.   Typical user habit is to install software and use the PC without much consideration for what is happening at the file system level, but now we need to do something since our PC is running so poorly. First point for most computers is file fragmentation.

How fragmentation occurs

While files are created, modified and grow in size, the operating system has to do something to store your files.  Each time a file is written to the hard drive, there is the potential that there is not enough free space available adjacent to the file you are attempting to save, and this is where computing magic takes over.  What Microsoft does to compensate for this is to write the file in multiple parts across the hard disk and keeps track of where all the parts are stored.  When you come back later and open a file, Microsoft reads the file from all the locations required to present your file to you.  The fact that your file is now located in multiple parts of the hard disk is defined as fragmentation.

Bad news! The fragmentation of files and directories is a major performance problem because the hard disk has to physically jump around to get your file instead of going to one location and getting the requested file.  The files we use the most are the files that will suffer from fragmentation the most.  Operating system files that never change are also affected as we install Microsoft patches and fixes.  So now we have the operating system having to wait for the hard disk to gather required files to ultimately open your file, e-mail, etc.. This is one very common reason why performance suffers

Good news! Windows 98 users learned about running Windows' native ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter early on, but the Microsoft marketing group has people believing that users can just install Windows 2000 or XP and everything will be handled.  Microsoft has rectified the omission of a defrag tool in NT4 and included a built-in defrag tool with Windows 2000, all versions, and Windows XP, all versions.

Built-in defrag tools for Win 2000 and XP unreliable

After using the built-in MS defrag tool, we were stunned at how the tool interpreted the need, or more likely indicated no need, to clean up the file fragmentation. This reviewer could not believe that after a system reported numerous fragmented files and directories, the built-in MS defrag tool indicates no attention is needed.  The speed of the built-in tool is no shining star either, as we were used to using Diskeeper, but a pleasant surprise awaited us.  We made our review choices based on good past experiences and decided to add PerfectDisk, based on the positive reports from recent users. 

Popular defrag applications compared

All the products reviewed perform basic defrag functions and offer additional features for networks.   The MS defrag tool was significantly slower and did not produce results significantly better than the popular Diskeeper 7 by Executive Software or OOG Defrag V4 from Germany nor Raxco’s PerfectDisk 2000 software.  PerfectDisk 2000 does a complete single-pass defrag and optimization the first time you use it, making subsequent defrags very quick.  The other products may need to be run a couple of times, with options, to achieve the same level of de-fragmentation and optimization as PerfectDisk on a badly fragmented drive.

Diskeeper and O&O Defrag both install and replace the built-in defrag as the default tool for defrag functions.  PerfectDisk does not try to replace the built-in tool using the default install.  A nifty feature that differentiates the products is the ability of PerfectDisk to defragment open files. This could be especially helpful for example when running a Web server where log files are always open.

All three products have excellent features for improving performance, handling paging file defrag, MFT defrag, automated operations, and all address both workstations and servers.  We searched each vendor site for limitations on drive size and only found that the Raxco  PerfectDisk Web sites mentions handling terabytes of data right up front, while the other company sites make no mention of disk capacity.

All our vendors have trial download versions of their software that you can download from the vendor’s site; however, we recommend using download.com instead, to avoid having to provide a survey of information to download the trial versions.  For Diskeeper you will still have to provide an e-mail address at download.com, but nothing additional.  The vendors request this information for “support purposes.” 

We can confidently recommend all three products.  The acid test in our case is which product did we choose for our own 200GB main server.  Raxco’s PerfectDisk 2000, Ver. 5 was our choice.  Faster, better and very price competitive.

--David Williams   

David Williams is President of 1 Call Service of Dallas, Texas, and a member of the Board of Directors of NTPCUG.
He may be contacted by e-mail: Click to e-mail David Williams