What is hard drive defragmentation and is it necessary? Disk defragmentation - what is it for and how to do it, Windows programs and special utilities
06.04.2015
Greetings friends! The topic of this article will be defragmentation of hard disk. Mostly beginners do not know about this process, which is what causes the hard drive to fill with fragments.
On each hard drive of each computer user, thousands of files are saved and the same number are deleted. In their place, thousands of files are again installed, and then deleted with the same number.
Let me now try to explain this process in understandable human language.
Let's say you have bookshelves in your room. On each shelf all the books are sorted by name i.e. from a to z.
The hard drive is in the same condition without fragments. But one day, all the books were mixed up, the sorting order was disrupted and, ultimately, a complete house. The hard drive containing fragments is in approximately this state.
The newly purchased computer works with high speed and productivity. Over time, the computer begins to slow down over time. In such situations, if you observe that the hard drive begins to crackle and operate noisily, this signals one thing, it is time to perform defragmentation (reverse fragmentation)
Defragmenting a hard drive on Windows 7 is done in two ways:
Let's look at the first way to use the built-in program. This method has significant disadvantages. The process does not defragment some system files and the process itself takes a very long time.
Let's go start open all programs, then move on standard choose official Select the one that opens from the list disk defragmentation
Basically, in all cases, this partition is the system partition (the partition where the operating system windows).
After selecting, click Analyze disk. When the analysis is complete, click disk defragmentation.
Defragmentation hard drive with Auslogics Disk Defrag Free
This is a convenient free program that will help defragment your hard drive, while at the same time increasing the performance of your computer, which improves your performance.
This program has a number of advantages over analogues:
- Optimizes Windows system files located on the hard drive to increase system speed.
- The developers have provided one feature that allows defragmentation of one folder or one file
- The program has a very useful idle mode that works automatically
- This program optimizes free space on your computer
- Flexibility in setting parameters hard drive defragmentation Convenient and intuitive interface
This program is being improved every month. In this article we will look at the version of the program
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0. The counter for this program has reached 11,000,000 users.
While writing an article this version programs are in English only.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0 can be downloaded from the official website.
When installing, no special knowledge or effort is required; we perform a normal installation. Launch the program
and preferably makes adjustments in the settings to improve the defragmentation result.
Let's go to settings(settings) open program settings(program settings) go algorithm ( algorithms ) . Next, insert a check mark in all items.
- Delete temporary files before defragmentation - this function allows you to clean your hard drive of debris stored on it,
- This frees up free disk space. These files (garbage) are a sufficient number,
- to slow down the hard drive defragmentation process.
- Skip fragments larger than 10MB - fragments with such memory increases the reading time.
- Defragmenting such fragments does not provide any benefit except that it will only waste time.
- Move system files to the beginning of the disk - this function allows you to move those files forward
- on which the speed of the process and time depend. The structure of the hard drive is such that it has the highest speed
- readout is located at the beginning of the hard drive.
- Defragment in VVS - compatible mode - this feature prevents the growth of the VVS saving area,
- which occurs when moving files and reduces the risk of copying previous VVS data.
When setting these settings, the speed of the defragmentation process improves.
Hard drive defragmentation process
Open the program, select the section, this is basically system partition(C), right-click and select Analyze(c).
After analysis, the program will reveal a map of results and tell you whether defragmentation is necessary.
The red cubes on the map are fragments. If the message Advice defragment disks appears at the bottom of the results, this means that the program recommends defragmentation. And if there is no message, we leave everything as is; there is no limit on the number of fragments on the disk.
Basically if the result shows fragments less than 10% then state of hard disk is good.
The process takes from 5-15 minutes, it mainly depends on how many files are on your hard drive.
- If you defragment your hard drive frequently, you will increase the wear and tear on the drive.
- So I advise you to do defragmentation if necessary.
- During the defragmentation process, leave the computer alone. Due to this, defragmentation time is reduced.
- If for some reason you need a computer, you can use the program with the priority set to low.
- To do this, go to settings, hover your mouse over defragment priority and select Low priority.
- For the process to proceed normally, I advise that the disk has free space of 10% of the total memory.
Scheduler defragmentation function.
There are times when your computer is always on. In this case, it is better to use a scheduler.
To enable the scheduler, go to settings(settings) click scheduler(Cluster Map).
Mark the section defragment automatic(Defragment automatically) ticked. Next we configure this function according to your conditions.
Example settings:
- When selecting the When PC is idle mode, select the time.
- Every day mode (daily) - set the time for daily checking.
- Weekly mode - set the day for defragmentation.
- Monthly mode - select the day and time to start the process.
If you install the scheduler on a laptop it will not work when using battery.
Attention: for the scheduler to work, Auslogics program Disk Defrag Free must be in active mode, i.e. should be running.
In order for the program to start along with windows, go to settings(settings) select program settings(programm settings) and go to the tab general(general) check the box as in the picture.
That's all the question is: how to do it hard drive defragmentation reveal. If you have any questions, write comments. I hope the information was useful!
Disk defragmentation - this will be the topic of this article. Here you will learn about what disk defragmentation is and why it is needed.
Defragmentation- the process of updating and optimizing the logical structure of a disk partition in order to ensure that files are stored in a continuous sequence of clusters. After defragmentation, reading and writing files speeds up, and therefore the work of programs, due to the fact that sequential read and write operations are performed faster than random accesses (for example, a hard disk does not require head movement). Another definition of defragmentation is: redistributing files on a disk so that they are located in contiguous areas.
Long files occupy multiple clusters. If writing is done to an empty disk, then clusters belonging to the same file are written in a row. If the disk is full, it may not have a solid area large enough to accommodate the file. However, the file will still be written if there are many small areas on the disk, the total size of which is sufficient for recording. In this case, the file is written in several fragments.
The process of breaking a file into small pieces when writing to disk is called fragmentation. If there are many fragmented files on the disk, the read speed of the media decreases, since searching for clusters in which files are stored on hard drives takes time. On flash memory, for example, search time does not depend on the location of sectors, and is practically zero, so defragmentation is not required for them.
Defragmentation is most often used for file systems such as File Allocation Table for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, since programs for working with them usually do not provide any means to prevent fragmentation, and it appears even on an almost empty disk and a light load.
In addition to slowing down your computer for file operations (such as reading and writing), file fragmentation negatively affects the health of the hard drive because it forces the drive's positioning heads, which read and write data, to constantly move. To eliminate the problem of fragmentation, there are defragmenter programs, the principle of which is to “assemble” each file from its fragments. A common disadvantage of such programs is their slow work- the defragmentation process usually takes a very long time (up to several hours).
Manual defragmentation and fragmentation prevention:
Despite the fact that among programs of this kind there are quite intelligent ones, you can do a good defragmentation on your own. To do this, it is enough to create a new partition on the disk with a file system, and then simply copy the files that will be stored on it to this logical disk. During such copying to an empty disk, data is written sequentially, without fragmentation. In addition, the process of writing files itself takes several times less time than defragmentation using programs.Knowledge file structure and the principles of operation of the hard drive helps to greatly reduce file fragmentation due to the correct organization of the user’s work. This organization consists of first recording onto a blank disk those files that are intended to be stored for a long time: favorite films, archives, music. Those files that are not planned to be stored for a long time are better written to the end of the disk: deleting them will not cause fragmentation of other files.
It helps to use a separate partition for frequently changed files. For example, in Unix-like operating systems, user data and settings (/home directory), temporary files (/tmp), protocols, caches, etc. (/var) are often located on separate partitions.
File systems:
- FAT: MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 4.x contain a utility Defrag. The DOS version is based on Norton SpeedDisk, version for Windows - on .
- NTFS Note: Windows NT 5 and later contain a defragmenter based on Diskeeper. Windows NT 4 and earlier did not have built-in utilities for defragmentation.
- ext2: uses offline defragmenter e2defrag.
- ext3: e2defrag can work with ext3 only if it is temporarily converted into ext2. Instead, you can use a filesystem-independent defragmenter - for example, Shake.
- ext4: An online defragmenter is planned that works by creating extents and moving files into them.
- XFS: online defragmenter xfs_fsr.
$sudo xfs_fsr -v /dev/sdX1
- Also in the GNU/Linux operating system, the command to move files is often used mv, which can read files from one partition and write a defragmented version to another, and then move the files back. For example, the following example defragments all files in the /home/user folder (/mnt/user is the mount point of the empty partition)
$mv /home/user /mnt/user
$mv /mnt/user /home/user - Information about file fragmentation can be obtained using the utility filefrag from the package e2fsprogs.
How often should you defragment hard drives?
This depends on how hard your hard drive is used. Previously, software manufacturers recommended defragmenting the disk once a month. For a home computer used occasionally in the evenings and not too intensively, this frequency, in my opinion, is even excessive. Once every two months, or even three, is quite enough. If home computer is used intensively - new games are constantly installed, movies are downloaded, old files are deleted, then once a month is a completely adequate defragmentation frequency.If the PC is used constantly and intensively, as they say, both in tail and mane, then once every 3-4 weeks is a completely normal option for defragmentation. In this case, it may be wise to schedule this process to run automatically. The only advice is to choose a time when the computer is used least intensively, since during defragmentation, working with the PC may be impossible or difficult, since this process “eats up” quite a lot of resources.
How to defragment a hard drive?
There are special programs for defragmentation. There are quite a lot of them. I don't recommend using the standard one Windows defragmenter. It works for a long time and is not very high quality. There are successful defragmentation programs, both paid and free. I will list only the most notable of the free and paid defragmenters.Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- Very powerful program to defragment the hard drive. PerfectDisk uses a single-pass defragmentation method taking into account S.M.A.R.T., which ensures fairly fast program operation.
PerfectDisk has all the functions necessary for high-quality defragmentation, including: defragmentation of any files in one pass, the ability to consolidate directories at the OS boot stage, successful work with large drives, defragmentation of MFT and all system files. Work with RAID volumes is supported.
PerfectDisk can defragment not only local disks, but also network ones, and in this case profiles are used to facilitate setting up tasks network planning defragmentation and fully customizable logging.
Key features of PerfectDisk:
- Better performance for PCs and laptops.
- Most complete remedy for management, configuration and operation different conditions support for large storage drives.
- Automatic defragmentation and background optimization.
- OptiWrite™ to prevent fragmentation.
- S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring physical disks.
- Additional reports and customization of management functions.
- Support for large storage drives.
- SMARTPlacement Technology - a patented method for optimizing defragmentation strategy, reduces total time work and resources involved
- Space Restoration Technology - technology for optimizing free space into as large blocks as possible.
- Patent-pending Resource Savert - technology to increase defragmentation speed.
- Defragment files and free space in one pass.
- Defragmentation of individual files.
- Ability to work from the command line with similar graphical interface possibilities.
- Automatic update of components via the Internet.
- Designed for today's advanced users looking for optimal PC performance.
Program:
Developer:
OS:
License: Freeware
- Free program for defragmenting your hard drive for Windows. It is a logical continuation of the JkDefrag program, but has a different interface and is not distributed as open source. A minimalistic defragmenter distributed under the GNU license.
In addition to its immediate purpose - defragmentation - the program can optimize files on the hard drive. To do this, it includes standard scripts:
System Disk (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) - these scripts are created specifically for system disks. They place MFTs and folders at the 30% mark of the disk and create zones from the beginning of the disk with divisions for boot files used by most programs, regular files and rarely used files with gaps between each of the zones. Scripts differ in execution speed and, accordingly, in the quality of defragmentation and optimization. The fastest and simplest of these scripts is Daily, the longest and best is Monthly.
An acid-colored diagram appears in a small window, changing as MyDefrag works.
Main features of MyDefrag:
- Version that works from the command line - for work without installation.
- The standard version of the program is fully automated; you just need to run it with the selected parameters.
- Two defragmentation algorithms.
- DLL library (for use when working with programming languages).
- Task Scheduler.
Program:
Developer:
OS:
License: Freeware
- This is a free utility that provides users with a powerful and easy-to-use hard drive defragmentation tool that works with FAT16/32 and NTFS file systems in 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems Microsoft systems Windows.
Like all other programs of this kind, the Auslogics Disk Defrag utility is designed to defragment the file system through optimization and maintenance work, as well as organizing files to improve the performance and speed of programs and the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The program has an easy-to-use interface and simple management, provides information about the current state of the system, allows you to change the priority of work, can protect data on your computer from viruses, and has a built-in task scheduler. Auslogics Disk Defrag uses numerous file checking algorithms, thanks to which defragmentation occurs several orders of magnitude higher than in the standard Microsoft Windows defragmenter, and is also capable of detecting errors on the hard drive and quickly eliminating them. After all operations on files, the utility provides the user with a full report on all actions taken.
Main features of Auslogics Disk Defrag:
- Easy to use graphical interface.
- Automatic check.
- Optimize your entire file system with one click.
- Consolidation of free disk space.
- Task Scheduler.
- Efficient organization of the MFT file table
- Defragmentation of selected files or individual folders.
- Supports hard drives larger than terabytes.
- Minimum consumption system resources.
- A complete report on all performed program actions.
- International support.
- Ability to defragment multiple disks simultaneously.
Program:
Developer:
OS: NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- A very powerful program for defragmenting hard drives under Windows, can work with FAT, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 file systems, Volume/Stripe Sets arrays, replace standard OS defragmentation utilities, work in background, on a schedule and built into the Microsoft Management Console.
Five defragmentation modes are available to the user: STEALTH, SPACE, COMPLETE/Name, COMPLETE/Date and COMPLETE/Access. It should also be added that in addition to the regular (Professional) version of Defrag Pro, its network (Server) version is also available, designed for working in local networks, and it is also possible automatic operation(launch upon reaching a certain level of fragmentation), the ActivityGuard function for monitoring system resources while the program is running, and the ability to defragment the page file and system files (registry, MFT, etc.) at the system boot stage.
Key features of O&O Defrag:
- If necessary, the program checks the volume of errors before defragmentation.
- The defragmentation procedure can be scheduled for a specific time, or can be performed when the computer is typically idle.
- Defragmentation can be run in the background so that the user barely notices it is running.
- Defragmentation can be launched in screensaver mode.
- Feeding area: classify various files on different zones according to their level, use and apply different methods to get files in the corresponding zones.
- Special support for laptops.
- Support for removable drives.
- Easy to use even without experience.
- Five various methods defragmentation.
Program:
Developer:
OS: NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Freeware
- This is a free utility that provides users with a powerful and easy-to-use tool to defragment their hard drive. The utility was created by the British private company Piriform Limited and written in C++. The utility can process separate files, groups of files or entire disk partitions. Supports file systems NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT.
Unlike similar programs, Defraggler has useful opportunity Quickly and easily defragment only selected files, rather than processing the entire disk.
After launch and analysis of hard disk Defraggler will display a list of all fragmented files. Just select the files you are interested in and you will see their location on the disk, and Defraggler will defragment them in a few seconds.
Portable version:
Defraggler Portable - This special version Defraggler, designed to work with removable media information such as USB flash drive, Memory Stick, iPod/MP3 players and other devices.
Key features of Defraggler:
- Organization empty seats on the disk to prevent further fragmentation.
- Fast defragmentation.
- Defragmentation free space on disks.
- Scheduler to automatically start defragmentation.
- Providing complete interactive map fragmented files.
Program:
Developer:
OS: NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- A program for defragmenting a hard drive, originally created for VAX systems, and later released for Microsoft Windows. It is the primary product of Diskeeper Corporation, (formerly Executive Software) based in Burbank, founded on July 22, 1981.
Among the main features and differences from other defragmenters are the real-time defragmentation mode, as well as intelligent system accelerating access, which is based on optimizing frequently used applications, which can significantly increase the speed and performance of the system as a whole. The program allows you to perform defragmentation both manually and automatic modes. In addition, the utility optimizes the system to improve speed and performance.
A new feature that has appeared in Diskeeper is automatic defragmentation, that is, a built-in scheduler. Automatic defragmentation occurs on the fly. Diskeeper does not require the creation of a schedule, as it works constantly, using resources only when the PC is idle. In most cases, scheduling is not used, and disk performance remains at a high level.
Diskeeper can defragment and move system files, including MFT data, that are not accessible to many other programs, which makes a significant contribution to increased performance. This function is carried out until full load operating system, when the files are not yet in use and they can be accessed.
Another feature of Diskeeper is Intelligent File Access Acceleration Technology (I-FAAST). As it runs, I-FAAST determines how often files are being used, then arranges them based on a hard drive speed test. Thanks to this, Diskeeper speeds up file access and helps prevent fragmentation. The I-FAAST function is only available in Professional Premier, Server and Administrator editions.
Proprietary IntelliWrite technology, using automatic defragmentation, allows you to further reduce the percentage of data fragmentation on disks and thus increase overall system performance. There are six versions of the software: Home, Professional, Professional Premier, Server Standard, Server Enterprise and Administrator.
Key features of Diskeeper:
- An advanced defragmentation algorithm that is constantly being improved by developers.
- Low consumption of system resources, work in the background.
- The ability to defragment partitions with a small amount of free space.
- Full support for 64-bit and server versions of Windows.
- Supports volumes with no size restrictions.
- Logging of all performed operations.
- Convenient graphical shell.
- IPv6 protocol support.
- Advanced network settings.
Program:
Developer:
OS: NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Freeware
- a free utility that effectively defragments hard drives while optimizing their performance.
All you need is to simply install Smart Defrag, and then the program will do everything itself “set it and forget it.” IObit Smart Defrag defragments files unnoticed by the user, without loading system resources at all. You can configure defragmentation on a schedule, set the program to start when Windows starts, minimize to the system tray, stop working when switching to battery power, turn off the computer at the end of the defragmentation process, and so on. It can defragment without optimization, with quick optimization, or full optimization to choose from.
Key features of Smart Defrag:
- Defragments disks automatically in the background.
- Works great with the latest large hard drives.
- Scheduled defragmentation.
- Uses “Safe Intelligence” technology, which decides How and When it is best to defragment a particular disk. Thanks to this, the disks will not be damaged due to incorrect or untimely defragmentation.
- Shutting down your computer
- Convenient to use.
- Completely free. Can be used both on home computers and in offices.
- Minor fixes and improvements.
- Multilingual support (including Russian).
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- A utility for defragmenting and optimizing hard drives. Thanks to original technology, Paragon Total Defrag performs low-level defragmentation, providing almost zero level of disk fragmentation. Thanks to exclusive access to the disk file system, Paragon Total Defrag allows you to speed up and optimize all critical system files and metadata, including MFT (Master File Table), directories, and swap files.
When working with a file system just begins, fragments of its files are located side by side, forming a single whole. Over time, as a result of creating and deleting files, files and their fragments end up in different sectors of the hard drive, which first causes its operation to slow down, and then its performance to decrease.
Total Defrag – A new comprehensive product for complete defragmentation and optimization of the file system. It is based on Paragon's own developments and performs low-level defragmentation of the entire hard drive, minimizing the level of file fragmentation.
Key features of Paragon Total Defrag:
- Defragmentation of disks/volumes, including RAID systems online/offline.
- Defragmentation of GPT and MBR disks.
- Defragmentation of dynamic volumes.
- Two defragmentation modes: Fast and Safe. Safe Mode– slower, but it allows you to protect data in the event of a power outage during the defragmentation process.
- Unique algorithms for low-level defragmentation and system optimization.
- 9 different defragmentation strategies.
- Defragmentation of important system files during reboot mode.
- Ability to speed up application launch.
- Maximize file system performance.
- Complete optimization of the file system, including systematization of folders and files virtual memory, master file table (MFT), metadata, registry files, etc.
- Defragmentation with a minimum of free space (less than 1% of unallocated space on the hard drive is required).
- Bootable CD with a version of the program that runs directly from the CD.
- It has become faster thanks to an improved defragmentation mechanism.
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- Small, but quite fast in operation and highly customizable defragmentation utility. UltimateDefrag allows you to look at the defragmentation process in a new way. Firstly, the program prompts the user to determine in which places on the hard drive his files should be stored. According to the program developers, on any hard drive there are areas from which calling files is faster, and there are also areas when accessed which the device responds more slowly.
The user is asked to place those files that he accesses frequently in faster areas of the disk, and archives and rarely used files in slower areas. Thus, work is accelerated both due to the fact that the disk is not fragmented and due to the fact that access to the necessary files is provided faster. Finally, proper placement of files makes it possible to speed up the defragmentation process itself, since it can exclude those areas of the hard drive where unused files are stored.
Key features of UltimateDefrag:
- Defragmentation all system NTFS files: MFT, swap file, $Logfile, Hyberfile, $USN ChangeJournal and more. Not only can you defragment them, UltimateDefrag allows you to specifically place them where you like for optimal performance on both 64-bit and 32-bit Windows.
- Defragmentation Simulation allows you to simulate defragmentation in a compressed amount of time. Perfect for those complex defragmented routines where you want to squeeze every millisecond of performance from your hard drive. Defragmentation simulation also accurately estimates the time defragmentation will take based on your current options.
- File Drag and Drop - Allows you to drag and drop a file or full list files, to whatever position you want it to be on your hard drive.
- True File Usage Tracking tracks your files' behavior, usage frequency, fragmentation rate, degree of fragmentation and places them optimally.
- FragProtect is an algorithm that places files in a manner that minimizes the rate of re-fragmentation to the slowest rate according to the laws of entropy as they relate to your files on your hard drive.
- An even faster defragmentation engine makes an intelligent decision about how to defragment each fragmented file it encounters so that it defragments the file in the fastest possible time. A 2 Gbps file can be defragged after a few seconds when certain conditions are met.
- Auto Defrag lets you tune the exact performance you want and shows you your disk performance gains.
Program: Vopt
Developer:
OS: Windows NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30-day trial)
- Disk defragmentation program for Microsoft Windows. Software developer - Golden Bow Systems. Vopt is considered one of the oldest defragmenters; its first versions worked under MS-DOS. It is still often claimed that Vopt has better performance than embedded Windows Disk Defragmenter.
Vopt gained popularity due to the high speed of file reorganization and the unobtrusiveness of this process when running in the background. The utility supports file FAT systems, FAT32 and NTFS, can work with large volumes, the size of which can reach 16 TB, and has a very effective defragmentation algorithm. It can defragment all files, including large files, system files and the MFT area, and can defragment automatically on a schedule (daily, weekly, on system startup, during downtime, etc.) or on demand. In the second case, the user is allowed to select a defragmentation method, change the priority of this operation and adjust optimization parameters. The program can be launched from the command line.
The program has a number of additional functions for cleaning disk space - deleting temporary files, clearing browser caches, automating the defragmentation process, and others. Also, Vopt, as well as most modern defragmenters, has a built-in system to protect against the loss of defragmented files in the event of failures (for example, an unexpected power outage).
Main features of Vopt:
- Quick analysis and defragmentation of hard drives.
- Scheduling automatic disk defragmentation.
- Cleaning the system of junk files.
- Changing the size of the paging file and cache.
- Displays running processes and CPU and RAM resource consumption.
- Multilingual support (including Russian).
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Shareware (30/40-day trial)
- A shareware program that provides users with a powerful and easy-to-use tool for defragmenting their hard drive. The program was created by the German private company Ashampoo.
Ashampoo Magical Defrag is based on the principle of set it and forget it, but still also offers an extensive range of options. The Job Manager provides you with a variety of defragmentation jobs, each of which can be configured individually, and a Job Scheduler that offers editable time settings for each job. Thanks to the Defragment now function, you can start non-stop defragmentation with just one click of the mouse.
Additionally, you can also run any preset defragmentation job at any time, regardless of the scheduled time, by simply clicking Run Job. Another feature of the program is SSD protection, which prevents software from involving the SSD in the defragmentation process. Because of their nature, SSDs don't need to be defragmented and will wear out much faster if you continue to defragment them. The built-in Screensaver allows you to monitor the progress of defragmentation and comes with various designs.
Key features of Ashampoo Magical Defrag:
- Automatic Defragmentation: Automatically defragments your hard drives every time your computer is idle.
- No interference with other programs: Stops automatically every time you start using the computer, or when any other program starts running.
- Set it and forget it: You no longer have to worry about defragmenting your hard drives. Ashampoo Magical Defrag takes care of everything for you.
- Multi-user support: Once you have installed Ashampoo Magical Defrag, it will also work in regular user accounts without administrator rights. The program even works when users are not logged in yet!
- Fragmentation protection keeps your hard drives free from fragmentation for a long time using an intelligent algorithm. Therefore, you will never have to worry about lost performance due to fragmented volumes again.
- Battery Monitoring automatically pauses Ashampoo Magical Defrag whenever the laptop is switched to battery power.
- Statistics: Displays full statistics according to the current state of defragmentation.
- Improved defragmentation mechanism.
- The job manager takes into account individual defragmentation strategies.
- Multiple defragmentation jobs.
- Task planner for individual time management.
- Defragmentation: Run permanent defragmentation with just one click.
- Start Job: Start any predefined defragmentation job from Job Administration, regardless of the predefined list of jobs.
- SSD protection.
- Volume analysis with status report.
- Screensaver showing various designs for graphical visualization of the current defragmentation progress.
- A completely new skin for the user interface.
- Multilingual support (including Russian).
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows XP/Server/Vista/7 (32bit/64bit)
License: Freeware
- free defragmentation program and hard optimization disk that works with FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. DiskTune supports 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows XP/Server/Vista/7 operating systems.
To move files securely, DiskTune uses System API Windows utilities Defrag.exe and Windows operating system service - „ Shadow copy volume” (Volume Shadow Copy), which allows you to copy files that are in at the moment time, work is carried out even with system and locked files.
Also, to protect the hard drive from overheating, DiskTune uses S.M.A.R.T technology. (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology), with the help of which it monitors the main characteristics of the drive and, if the hard drive overheats, DiskTune stops the defragmentation process.
Key features of DiskTune:
- Supports 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
- Allows you to easily create and run jobs.
- Uses the “Volume Shadow Copy” service.
- Allows you to defragment only selected folders.
- Allows you to defragment the master file table (MFT).
- Uses S.M.A.R.T technology. to protect the hard drive from overheating.
- Supports several hard drive defragmentation modes.
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
License: Freeware
- This free defragmenter disks with open source code. The program can process any system files, including the registry and page file. Works quickly, efficiently and reliably.
UltraDefrag supports scheduled work, defragmentation of the entire disk or individual folders/files, and it is possible to turn off the computer after the task is completed. The result of defragmentation can be recorded in an HTML report.
Key features of UltraDefrag:
- Supports FAT, exFAT and NTFS.
- Defragmentation of all files, including system and NTFS meta files.
- Full disk optimization that processes all files.
- Fast disk optimization - mainly processes fragmented files.
- MFT optimization.
- Exclude files by name, number of fragments and size.
- Writing debugging information to a log file.
- Disks that need checking CHKDSK program, are excluded from processing.
- You can set useful actions after defragmentation is complete.
Program:
Developer:
OS: Windows 2000 (SP4) or higher
License: Shareware (14-day trial)
- a compact and easy-to-use utility designed to defragment hard drives. The mst Defrag program allows you to defragment both manually and in the background. In the latter case, mst Defrag constantly monitors changes in data on hard drives- a list of changed (added) files is created, which will be defragmented in the next downtime of the computer. Thus, the utility does not occupy RAM during active use computer, and therefore is practically invisible to the user.
The mst Defrag defragmenter is available in three versions: Home, Professional and Server Edition. Unlike Home Edition, mst Defrag Professional and mst Defrag Server Edition include the ability to work on a local network, thereby allowing you to defragment network drives.
Main features of mst Defrag:
- Uses mst technology Battery-Guard to save laptop battery.
- Uses mst I/O-Guard technology, which, when defragmented, allows you to use only unused computer resources.
Program:
Developer:
OS: Win 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7
License: Freeware
- a free utility for analyzing and defragmenting local disks. Optimizes and defragments disks to obtain maximum performance system operation. There is an automatic defragmentation option, which will run when the computer is in standby mode, and a scheduler function, with which you can set up a scheduled launch.
When defragmentation is complete, automatic shutdown. Having also indicated the load level of the processor and hard drive, the utility pauses its work when it reaches it. Supports FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, NTFS and EFS file systems. To defragment your hard drive, Disk SpeedUp allows you to exclude certain files and folders that do not need to be defragmented.
Key features of Disk SpeedUp:
- Automatic and intelligent defragmentation of hard drives.
- Supports FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, NTFS and EFS file systems.
- Run defragmentation of hard drives on a schedule.
- Allows you to exclude certain files and folders.
06.04.2015
Greetings friends! The topic of this article will be hard drive defragmentation. Mostly beginners do not know about this process, which is what causes the hard drive to fill with fragments.
On each hard drive of each computer user, thousands of files are saved and the same number are deleted. In their place, thousands of files are again installed, and then deleted with the same number.
Let me now try to explain this process in understandable human language.
Let's say you have bookshelves in your room. On each shelf all the books are sorted by name i.e. from a to z.
The hard drive is in the same condition without fragments. But one day, all the books were mixed up, the sorting order was disrupted and, ultimately, a complete house. The hard drive containing fragments is in approximately this state.
The newly purchased computer works with high speed and performance. Over time, the computer begins to slow down over time. In such situations, if you observe that the hard drive begins to crackle and operate noisily, this signals one thing, it is time to perform defragmentation (reverse fragmentation)
Defragmenting a hard drive on Windows 7 is done in two ways:
Let's look at the first way to use the built-in program. This method has significant disadvantages. The process does not defragment some system files and the process itself takes a very long time.
Let's go start open all programs, then move on standard choose official Select the one that opens from the list disk defragmentation
Basically, in all cases, this partition is the system partition (the partition where the Windows operating system is installed).
After selecting, click Analyze disk. When the analysis is complete, click disk defragmentation.
Defragment your hard drive with Auslogics Disk Defrag Free
This is a convenient free program that will help defragment your hard drive, while at the same time increasing the performance of your computer, which improves your performance.
This program has a number of advantages over analogues:
- Optimizes Windows system files located on the hard drive to increase system speed.
- The developers have provided one feature that allows defragmentation of one folder or one file
- The program has a very useful idle mode that works automatically
- This program optimizes free space on your computer
- Flexibility in setting parameters hard drive defragmentation Convenient and intuitive interface
This program is being improved every month. In this article we will look at the version of the program
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0. The counter for this program has reached 11,000,000 users.
At the time of writing this article, this version of the program is only in English.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0 can be downloaded from the official website.
When installing, no special knowledge or effort is required; we perform a normal installation. Launch the program
and preferably makes adjustments in the settings to improve the defragmentation result.
Let's go to settings(settings) open program settings(program settings) go algorithm ( algorithms ) . Next, insert a check mark in all items.
- Delete temporary files before defragmentation - this function allows you to clean your hard drive of debris stored on it,
- This frees up free disk space. These files (garbage) are a sufficient number,
- to slow down the hard drive defragmentation process.
- Skip fragments larger than 10MB - fragments with such memory increases the reading time.
- Defragmenting such fragments does not provide any benefit except that it will only waste time.
- Move system files to the beginning of the disk - this function allows you to move those files forward
- on which the speed of the process and time depend. The structure of the hard drive is such that it has the highest speed
- readout is located at the beginning of the hard drive.
- Defragment in VVS - compatible mode - this feature prevents the growth of the VVS saving area,
- which occurs when moving files and reduces the risk of copying previous VVS data.
When setting these settings, the speed of the defragmentation process improves.
Hard drive defragmentation process
Open the program, select the partition, this is mainly the system partition (C), right-click and select Analyze (c).
After analysis, the program will reveal a map of results and tell you whether defragmentation is necessary.
The red cubes on the map are fragments. If the message Advice defragment disks appears at the bottom of the results, this means that the program recommends defragmentation. And if there is no message, we leave everything as is; there is no limit on the number of fragments on the disk.
Basically, if the result shows fragments less than 10%, then the condition of the hard drive is good.
The process takes from 5-15 minutes, it mainly depends on how many files are on your hard drive.
- If you defragment your hard drive frequently, you will increase the wear and tear on the drive.
- So I advise you to do defragmentation if necessary.
- During the defragmentation process, leave the computer alone. Due to this, defragmentation time is reduced.
- If for some reason you need a computer, you can use the program with the priority set to low.
- To do this, go to settings, hover your mouse over defragment priority and select Low priority.
- For the process to proceed normally, I advise that the disk has free space of 10% of the total memory.
Scheduler defragmentation function.
There are times when your computer is always on. In this case, it is better to use a scheduler.
To enable the scheduler, go to settings(settings) click scheduler(Cluster Map).
Mark the section defragment automatic(Defragment automatically) ticked. Next, we configure this function to suit your conditions.
Example settings:
- When selecting the When PC is idle mode, select the time.
- Every day mode (daily) - set the time for daily checking.
- Weekly mode - set the day for defragmentation.
- Monthly mode - select the day and time to start the process.
If you install the scheduler on a laptop it will not work when using battery.
Attention: For the scheduler to work, the Auslogics Disk Defrag Free program must be in active mode, i.e. should be running.
In order for the program to start along with windows, go to settings(settings) select program settings(programm settings) and go to the tab general(general) check the box as in the picture.
That's all the question is: how to do it hard drive defragmentation reveal. If you have any questions, write comments. I hope the information was useful!
Defragmentation hard disk necessary to combine all fragmented files into groups. Essentially, it arranges certain parts of the file. This allows you to quickly read the data stored in this file when accessing it. Naturally, after defragmenting the hard disk The speed of writing data to this media also increases. After grouping scattered files, groups of free clusters appear, located quite close to each other. Now, to record new information, there is no need to distribute it between different disk.Defragmentation disk has a positive effect on computer performance and operating system speed. Even if a file was written to a newly defragmented disk, there is no guarantee that it will not end up distributed among different sectors. A huge number of operating system files are constantly changing. This means that clusters are cleared and rewritten multiple times. Naturally, new data for certain files cannot be written “next to” the file itself. Defragmentation of hard disk It is recommended to perform it at least once a month. Remember that this process reduces the number of required movements of the hard drive read head disk. Considering the fact that hard drives have a certain operating life, defragmentation can extend the life of the hard drive. disk. Defragment your hard drive disk possible using regular funds Windows operating system or additional utilities. The choice depends on your preferences, but this process is extremely useful, and neglecting it can lead to irreversible consequences.
Video on the topic
To reduce loading processor, first of all, you need to find out which processes consume a lot of computing power. And after that, either unload the unnecessary process from memory, or remove the program from startup.
You will need
- Computer, task manager, defragmentation program.
Instructions
First call the operating room task manager windows systems. Then click on the processes tab and see which objects are consuming a lot of processor power. If this required program, then don't touch it. Look for processes that you don't need. Just find out this process first. Just go to a search engine and read its description. This way you can log out of the system unnecessary processes that increase loading .
Then enter the word msconfig in the execute window. Go to the tab. Remove all unnecessary programs that you don't need. After all, they, together with windows, can significantly. You can remove all programs; this will not interfere with the operation of the operating system. Leave only the antivirus.
After completing these steps, look at the result. Loading processor You can look in the tasks in the performance tab. If this is not enough, you should carry out. Excessively fragmented files not only slow down the reading and execution of programs, but also take up a significant portion of productivity processor. If you don't want to defragment everything, then do it on system disk(where windows is installed). This will help take some of the load off processor.
Clean the operating system from temporary files. Use CCleaner. In some cases, it frees up several tens of gigabytes of space. It also provides a registry cleaning function. Carry out this operation and you will not only get more free space, but also reduce loading processor.
Video on the topic
If all these steps helped, but the games are running slowly, then update DirectX. This component is designed to effectively manage computer devices in games. With DirectX, games can directly use all of the computer's processing power. In this case, the operating system no longer acts as an intermediary and does not increase the processor load.
No matter how large a hard drive is, it will eventually run out of space. Of course, you can increase the number of treasured gigabytes in a radical way: by purchasing additional disk. But why go this route if you can still find some space on the disk itself?
Instructions
When starting global hard drive cleaning, you need to decide what you really need, no matter how trivial it may sound. Remove everything unnecessary. These could be outdated files, a movie you watched a long time ago, or music that you don’t listen to.
Defragmenting the hard drive on your PC, in this article we will figure out what this process is. Why do many people talk about it as an opportunity to speed up the computer? And also, why run defragmentation at intervals of several months and how will this actually affect the performance of the operating system?
And of course, I will not lose sight of the version of many users who “shout” on every forum that defragmentation for a computer is actually a very harmful process. I will tell you the truth and everything in my head will form a single, correct picture.
What is defragmentation?
Defragmentation is a process that allows you to “arrange the files stored on your hard drive into the most orderly structure, which in turn facilitates faster reading and writing of files”
And here, not even all confident PC users understand what is happening, but what should beginners do? Let's figure out once and for all what this cunning process is that allows you to speed up your computer.
Let's start with the fact that all the files that we write to the computer end up on the hard drive, where they are stored until we need them again. You need to know and understand that initially all your data is recorded in an orderly manner, one by one in "cells" hard drive, they are also represented as clusters. So what’s wrong with this, files are recorded in order and recorded, they don’t bother anyone.
This process takes a lot of time. It depends, of course, on the number of files on your PC, the density of the mess and the overall power of the computer. This will most likely take several hours.
Watch the video: a practical lesson on defragmenting a hard drive.
I hope after so much material and watching the video it became clear to you how and what needs to be done correctly. At least you definitely got the basic knowledge. In principle, this could be the end of the article, but still below I will answer another very important question.
Why is it harmful to defragment a computer in some cases?
Imagine the situation, you have been living with basic knowledge for several years now, periodically, you speed up your computer by doing defragmentation. And everything seems to be fine, but the day comes when on some forum or from friends you hear categorically: “Defragmentation of a hard drive is harmful.” Panic begins, someone simply argues and says that I always do this and nothing, everything works fine.
What to do in this case, who to believe, this is the decision I will try to convey to you. But in fact, every statement can be true. But within the framework of a specific situation. What's the catch and what are the situations?
Yes, everything is simple really. There are two types of hard drives, and in one version defragmentation is useful and necessary, but in the second it is unnecessary and even harmful. Below I will simply write which disks can be accelerated and which are not necessary. All you have to do is find out what type of hard drive is in the current computer configuration and make one of two possible decisions.
So if you have:
- HDD format hard drive - defragmentation is useful and necessary.
- SSD format hard drive - defragmentation is unnecessary and harmful.
If something doesn’t work out or there are new questions, I’m waiting for you in the comments.