HDD Defragging

[Glenn NK]

I have been using the built-in Windows defragmenting software for years now, thinking all was well.

Two days ago, someone recommended Piriform Defraggler:

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

I had checked my HDD's using Windows, and all was fine, then ran Defraggler - what a shock - my photo storage drive was 24 percent fragmented and it took about eight to ten hours to defragment it using Defraggler. This machine runs Win 7 64 bit.

After the defragging was complete, Lightroom speed was considerably better.

On my Win XP business computer I found similar results. My wife ran Defraggler on her machine and immediately noticed that access to e-mail and the net was much faster.

Anyone else use it?

Glenn.

[Graystar]

I've used it in the past. Dunno why I stopped. I've been using Auslogics Disk Defrag.

I've been using Piriform's CCleaner and it works well so I should look at Defraggler again.

[stuck]

...someone recommended Piriform Defraggler... Anyone else use it?

Yes but not all that often and when I do use it I usually run it two or three times in succession as it often carries out more defragmentation on reuse. I also run the de-frag on boot option as well, so that it can make the page file into one contiguous.. file.

Ccleaner is the other indispensable utility that Piriform provide. I use that every couple of days to clean out temp files.

Ken

[Geoff F]

I have used the basic computer defrag system and had a go with CC Cleaner.

Then I tried the free trial of the AVG PC Tune Up software and Wow! It found over 2,000 unnecessary old files, which other tune up software had missed, and did a 'deep clean' of the hard disc which took over 24 hours!

The downside is an annual charge of £20; but probably worth it for continuous tuning to maximum performance.

[Donald]

I use CC Cleaner and MyDefrag, both recommended and used by my computer supplier - a small independent company in a local town.

[Bobobird]

In the PC world it is "what serves your needs best".

[Glenn NK]

I use CC Cleaner and MyDefrag, both recommended and used by my computer supplier - a small independent company in a local town.

Aren't Defraggler and CC Cleaner by Piroform? Where does MyDefrag come from?

Glenn

[davidedric]

I've decided to give Defraggler a go, thanks for the recommendation. It's now churning its way through my 1Tb drives mirrored as two 500Gb physical drives. Hope it knows what it's doing! All I know is that it tells me it will take > 1day. Fingers crossed

[Colin Southern]

These days I use a solid state drive ... no need to defrag. And they blow conventional HDD performance clean off the planet.

[davidedric]

Good point, Colin. Do you use internal or external ssd's? And if you don't mind what make and size?

[Glenn NK]

I've decided to give Defraggler a go, thanks for the recommendation. It's now churning its way through my 1Tb drives mirrored as two 500Gb physical drives. Hope it knows what it's doing! All I know is that it tells me it will take > 1day. Fingers crossed

Dave:

Don't give up on it. It starts out saying something like 23 hours or >one day, but it will not take than long. It might, however take eight or ten as I experienced. I think what it does is make a wild-eyed guess for the time involved.

The trick is once it's defragged thoroughly, do it every day or so to minimize the time it takes. I have six HDD's to take care of.

@Colin: What do 2 TB HDD's cost? I have two machines each with three HDD's. Sounds like more than a bit of spare change.

Glenn

[jcuknz]

Funny I hadn't thought about defragging what with so much more storage space and changing to broad band for speed
Must do it again and often

[Colin Southern]

Good point, Colin. Do you use internal or external ssd's? And if you don't mind what make and size?

Hi David,

My current "weapon of choice" is a OCZ Revodrive X2 that fits into a PCI Express slot - it cost me about $1800 at the time, but these days I'd just stick a $280 Intel SSD in the PC.

SSDs come in 3 "speed ratings" (not literally, but read on!) - some might think of them as being "slow - medium - and fast", but in reality - compared to a conventional HDD it's more like "Ridiculously Fast" - "Stupidly Ridiculously Fast" and "OMG Stupidly Ridiculously Fast". Even a ridiculously fast model is fine.

Currently I use a 240GB for my boot / working drive, and a mirrored pair of 2TB HDDs drives for general storage. For what it's worth, I've never had an Intel SSD fail - and I've never NOT had an OCZ drive fail (I've had two, and had problems with both -- the first is temperature sensitive, but I've fixed that by installing a fan to blow air across it, and the 2nd caused blue screens in a laptop) (although a firmware upgrade might fix it).

My advice (from my day job as an IT guy) would be to get a 240GB Intel drive as your primary / boot drive - ghost your existing boot partition/drive to it (ensuring enough space) (so move any excess data off it to a conventional drive first) and then sit back and think "hold cr^p why didn't I do this a couple of years ago". You'll get things like booting Windows 7 in under 10 seconds (from the "starting windows" prompt) to loading Photoshop in under 2 seconds.

PS: TO actually answer the question ... Intel - 240GB - 2.5" - Internal.

[stuck]

..I tried the free trial of the AVG PC Tune Up software ... The downside is an annual charge of £20; but probably worth it for continuous tuning to maximum performance.

In my (not so) humble opinion you're wasting your money. Ccleaner will do more than enough to keep your PC tidy for free. I say this as one who is more of a user of a PC than a digital photographer who uses a PC, if you see what I mean.

It's the same with anit-virus. For personal use (unless you frequent the darker sides of the Internet where you are fair game for the bad guys) you need no more than Microsoft's free (and silent / no nag) Security Essentials, plus an occasional full scan with Malwarebytes Anit-Malware, also free.

Ken

[Manfred M]

In my (not so) humble opinion you're wasting your money. Ccleaner will do more than enough to keep your PC tidy for free. I say this as one who is more of a user of a PC than a digital photographer who uses a PC, if you see what I mean.

It's the same with anit-virus. For personal use (unless you frequent the darker sides of the Internet where you are fair game for the bad guys) you need no more than Microsoft's free (and silent / no nag) Security Essentials, plus an occasional full scan with Malwarebytes Anit-Malware, also free.

Ken

You might not want to rely on Microsoft Security Essentials right now - it is the only AV software that failed in AV test certification recently.

http://www.inquisitr.com/422680/micr...s-certificate/

[davidedric]

My advice (from my day job as an IT guy) would be to get a 240GB Intel drive as your primary / boot drive -

I'm seriously thinking of doing this, but migrating to the SSD as my boot drive sounds a bit scary - maybe re-installing Windows (VISTA). I'm a reasonably competent amateur, but I still I think I might have to get a local shop to do the migrate for me

Incidentally, a lot of my non-vital data is already on an external HD, so I think the contents of my existing C: partition will already fit on a 240Gb SSD - maybe that will make it easier!

[Geoff F]

In my (not so) humble opinion you're wasting your money. Ccleaner will do more than enough to keep your PC tidy for free. I say this as one who is more of a user of a PC than a digital photographer who uses a PC, if you see what I mean.

It's the same with anit-virus. For personal use (unless you frequent the darker sides of the Internet where you are fair game for the bad guys) you need no more than Microsoft's free (and silent / no nag) Security Essentials, plus an occasional full scan with Malwarebytes Anit-Malware, also free.

Ken

I had been using the Zonealarm PC cleaner for a couple of years but things were starting to slow down a little. I also had the Spybot software.

A friend recommended CC Cleaner which I tried. It removed all of my passwords and a few other items required for internet use but failed to speed up anything and missed over 2,000 other old files which were found by the AVG version.

So that decided me.

I'm still using the Zonealarm AV software though, which seems effective and good value.

The full AVG system looks good, but that does get expensive if you go for the full package. I use the free basic AVG on my main photo computer which isn't internet connected; just in case I get a problem when friends ask me to edit their tricky photos, which are supplied on a disc or memory stick.

[DollyP]

A friend recommended CC Cleaner which I tried. It removed all of my passwords and a few other items required for internet use

A 'gotcha' with CCleaner is that it will clear out cookies unless you untick the cookies option on IE, plus the same option for Firefox etc. on the applications tab. Cookies are where websites keep track of things like passwords and I generally don't bother about deleting them as they use up so little space. MalwareBytes or Spybot will get rid of any dangerous ones. CCleaner is generally reckoned to be one of the less aggressive cleaners and has a reputation for safety.

With today's large HDDs there is very little to be achieved by frequent defragging, although if HDD space is limited it would help. I usually defrag every few months or when I become aware that my computer is beginning to run slow. NEVER defrag an SSD!

David

[Colin Southern]

I'm seriously thinking of doing this, but migrating to the SSD as my boot drive sounds a bit scary - maybe re-installing Windows (VISTA). I'm a reasonably competent amateur, but I still I think I might have to get a local shop to do the migrate for me

Incidentally, a lot of my non-vital data is already on an external HD, so I think the contents of my existing C: partition will already fit on a 240Gb SSD - maybe that will make it easier!

It's dead easy to do - but - you do need to have a program like Norton Ghost to do it. It's very safe to do because if it doesn't work then you still have your original HDD anyway. If in doubt just take it to "the shop" - but don't let them charge you for more than an hours labour.

If you're after performance though, for gawd sake kick Vista into orbit -- it's terribly slow. In the IT industry we like to say that "Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been in the first place".

[davidedric]

Thanks Colin.

for gawd sake kick Vista into orbit

Yes, I know you are right! The main reason that I haven't done is because I'm nervous about how well it will manage the RAID disks - I just don't know enough, but I assume that Win 7 will have a brand new set of drivers. I'm probably due for an upgrade in the next couple of years (my desktop is now four years old), so I'm also thinking that if I install an SSD I'll get a performance boost now and I can also port that across when I do upgrade.

Thanks for your help. I'll certainly have a look at Norton Ghost. BTW, things certainly run faster after Defraggling (though it seems to get stuck around 93%, even if left running overnight)