Distribution size: 13.6 MB
Spreading: shareware O&O Defrag is a convenient defragmenter with wide functionality. The program supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS and EFS file systems, can work with large volumes reaching several terabytes in volume, and is distinguished by two unique technologies. Thanks to ActivityGuard technology, the utility monitors computer activity and ensures that the defragmentation process is carried out unnoticed in the background, promptly reducing or increasing its activity. And support for OneButtonDefrag technology allows you to fully automate the defragmentation process and carry it out in accordance with user-specified settings when a certain level of fragmentation is fixed on the disk. Defragmentation can be performed on demand or automatically - according to a schedule or when the computer is inactive (screen saver mode - "Screen Saver Mode"). The program works even with fairly small amounts of free space (5%) and allows you to run the defragmentation process not only for one, but also for several or even all disks installed on the computer. There is also selective defragmentation of files and folders, however, it is implemented in a way that is not quite usual for defragmenters - through the Explorer context menu. But it does not provide for the consolidation of free space into a single area. In addition, O&O Defrag may have problems processing individual files if the program cannot find a free disk area of sufficient size - in this case, the utility, having recorded a certain percentage of the work done, “thinks about life” for a long time (if not forever), and the process often has to be filmed. After this, you can get the program working again only by manually starting the O&O Defrag service. So, in our opinion, not everything is perfect in the algorithm of this program. At the same time, in fairness, it should still be noted that if the named problem is not observed on a particular disk, then the program copes with its task perfectly. The demo version of the program (there is no Russian localization) is fully functional and operational for 30 days. The commercial version costs $49.95. In practice, using O&O Defrag is easy. The program window has four tabs - the "Defragmentation" tab combines tools for analyzing and defragmenting disks. The "Jobs and Reports" tab provides management of reports on the work done, the "View" tab provides access to information about the disk and files (disk map, disk status, etc. ), from the "Help" tab you can download updates and view help information. Analysis of selected disks is started by clicking on the "Analysis" button or selecting the "Analyze" command from the context menu. Based on the results, detailed statistics are provided in several versions: in the form of a disk map showing empty space, MFT area, defragmented files, etc. (by clicking on any block, you can see all the files it contains) and a pie chart of disk status indicating the level its fragmentation. The program provides five defragmentation methods, differing in optimization strategies: Stealth, Space, Complete/Access, Complete/Modified and Complete/Name. The first two methods allow you to achieve results in the shortest possible time, but are less effective. These methods are recommended for initial defragmentation of drives that have never been defragmented before. If you select the Stealth method, the program tries to optimize the available free disk space, but not all files are defragmented, and no optimization of their placement is provided. The developers recommend using this method to defragment disks with a very large number of files (more than 500 thousand) and/or with a very small amount of free space (5%). The Space method is aimed at increasing the volume of adjacent free areas and ensures defragmentation of all files, but can only work if there is a sufficiently large free disk space and a relatively small number of files; recommended for background defragmentation. Even more free disk space is required in the Complete/Access, Complete/Modified and Complete/Name methods, which provide complete defragmentation of all existing files (including large and system files, as well as the MFT area) with optimization of their placement. The difference between these methods is in the optimization strategies. Thus, with the Complete/Modified method, files are arranged taking into account their modification, which is effective on disks where some files, in particular databases, are regularly modified. And when you select the Complete/Name method, the files are sorted in alphabetical order - this is useful for quickly launching system libraries on disks where file modification is rare. Defragmentation of one or more selected disks is started by selecting the desired defragmentation method from the context menu (or by pressing certain keyboard shortcuts) or for all disks installed on the computer at once by clicking on the "Defragment Computer" button (in the latter case, the Space method is automatically used).
To speed up the defragmentation process, the analysis and movement of individual files can be excluded - such files are specified directly in the program settings (the "Settings" button, the "General" tab).
Offline defragmentation is also provided (defragmentation before the OS starts, which allows you to defragment locked system files) - this mode is enabled in the program settings (the "Settings" button, the "Offline Defragmentation" tab).
Paragon Total Defrag 2009
Developer: Paragon Software GroupDistribution size: 17.4 MB
Spreading: shareware Paragon Total Defrag is a defragmenter offered both stand-alone (in English edition only) and as part of the Partition Manager and Home Expert solutions. The first of these solutions is positioned as a universal tool for working with partitions and data on hard drives and allows you to perform any standard operations with partitions, as well as a number of other actions, including disk defragmentation. The second solution is a software package for hard drive maintenance, which can be used to solve almost any problem that may arise during the operation of a hard drive, quickly and with only minimal computer experience. Both solutions have Russian-language localizations and are offered to Russian users at more attractive prices (490 rubles and 690 rubles, respectively), so purchasing Paragon Total Defrag as part of them is more reasonable. The Paragon Total Defrag program is distinguished by its wide functionality and effectiveness of defragmentation, and at the same time, it is relatively easy to use. It supports FAT16/32, NTFS, Linux Ext2/3 and Linux ReiserFS file systems and, unlike most similar solutions (and in this article - unlike all other utilities), it can perform not only background, but also complete low-level defragmentation systems. As a result, an almost zero level of fragmentation is ensured, and files are placed taking into account the optimization strategy. This process is carried out in exclusive access mode (with a reboot of the computer) to the partition and turns out to be quite lengthy - and there can be no talk of any possibility of access to the computer during this period. During defragmentation, all files are processed, including large (even more than 128 GB) and system files, as well as the MFT area, and the contents of temporary files can be ignored. It is possible to rewrite MFT in a more compact way (MFT compression), which also increases the speed of accessing files on NTFS partitions. Defragmentation is performed with a minimum amount of free space on the disk (1%), and not many defragmenters can work with such a minimum of free space. But it is impossible to use Paragon Total Defrag for any kind of selective defragmentation (defragmentation of folders and files or free space), since nothing of the kind is provided in this utility. There are also no automation capabilities, which, however, is quite logical, since running low-level defragmentation automatically is at least unreasonable. The demo version of the program is operational for 30 days, but has limited functionality - some of the operations in it work only in virtual mode. The cost of the commercial version is $29.95. By default, the program window has three panels - two basic horizontal and one additional vertical, which can be easily disabled via the command menu. The horizontal panels display disks and operations with them (the top panel also has access to help), and the vertical panel contains tabs with help information. The technology for working with Paragon Total Defrag is generally simple. First, you should select the desired disk in the “Disk Map”, and then start the operation of interest - that is, analyze the disk or defragment it, and then patiently wait for the process to complete. True, there are some nuances here - the program performs a preliminary analysis of the disk immediately after selecting it in the disk map, but for a more detailed analysis you will have to use the Partition > Defragment > "Analyze Fragmentation" command. If the disk is not bootable, then the program will conduct such an analysis and display the results without rebooting the system, otherwise it cannot be avoided. In addition to analyzing the disk, you can also test its surface (Partition > "Test Surface"). As for defragmentation (the "Defragment Partition" button or the Partition > Defragment > "Defragment Partition..." command), there are two modes for its implementation - fast mode and slow (Safe mode), which are selected through the program settings (Tools > Settings). By default, “fast defragmentation” (Fast mode) is launched for the selected partition, however, if in the current operating system (say, the system partition is selected), the program cannot get the access it requires to the partition, then it will offer to reboot the computer into a special mode. Before rebooting, you will need to determine the settings for the operation, the list of which allows you to refuse to save the contents of the Pagefile.sys and/or Hiberfile.sys files and set the desired data sorting option (sort files according to their size or the time they were last updated).
In the "Fast mode" mode, access to the computer is not blocked, and the operation is carried out relatively quickly and can be stopped if necessary. But when defragmenting in this mode, a power outage, hardware failure, or system failure can lead to data loss (this is a problem with all defragmenters). If you set the "Safe mode" mode, such a sad outcome of events is completely excluded, since a copy will first be created for each file. True, this will take a lot of time, and there can be no talk of any activity on the computer during the defragmentation period, so it is wiser to run the process at night. Interrupting the process and rebooting the computer when defragmenting in this mode is completely unacceptable. But everything will be reliable, and the results of defragmentation will be better, since the program will be able to access all files. For comparison, recall that when defragmenting in the background (that is, through the API), some part of the files (that is, those files that the program could not access) always remains fragmented.
Disk defragmentation refers to the process of optimizing the logical structure of a disk, in which the files stored on it are organized. Defragmenting a disk helps to increase the speed of reading and writing data stored on it, therefore, increasing the speed of programs installed on this disk. You can defragment the disk using built-in Windows tools or use special programs.
Disk defragmentation using built-in Windows tools
Open " My computer", right-click on the disk selected for defragmentation and select " Properties", a window will open (Fig. 1).
Go to the " Service"(Fig.2).
In order to defragment the disk, click on the " Run defragmentation"(Fig. 3).
You can analyze and defragment it. However, it is worth considering that standard Windows tools may use outdated defragmentation algorithms. Special programs have been developed for deeper disk defragmentation. We will talk about one of them in the continuation of this article. We'll talk about Auslogics Disk Defrag.
Disk defragmentation using Auslogics Disk Defrag program
You can download Auslogics Disk Defrag from the official website using this link.
Program installation
Following the installation wizard instructions, click " Next", then read and accept the terms of the license agreement, select " I accept the agreement» click « Next" Select the folder to install the program, click " Next", and then the folder for storing shortcuts, also click " Next", then creating an icon on the desktop. After that, click " Finish" This completes the installation of the program.
Working with the program
The main window of the Auslogics Disk Defrag program is shown in Figure 4.
Go to the " Algorithm"(Fig.6).
We recommend that you check the boxes next to the items shown in the figure. Using these steps, you can increase the speed of programs installed on your computer. Look at the rest of the Auslogics Disk Defrag settings tabs. For example, you can enable the disk defragmentation scheduler at a specific time (tab " Scheduler"). After that, click " OK", You will return to the main program window (see Fig. 4). After this, it makes sense to check the degree of fragmentation of the selected disk. To do this, in the main program window, select the menu item “ Action" and press " Analysis of the selected"(Fig.7).
The disk analysis process will begin. After its completion, you will see the result (Fig. 8).
The analysis showed that the disk has a fairly high percentage of fragmentation - 51%. To defragment the disk, select " Action", and then " Defragmentation and optimization" The disk defragmentation process will begin. Please note that the process of defragmenting and optimizing the disk may take a long time. Upon completion, Auslogics Disk Defrag will present the result (Fig. 9).
From the figure you can see that now the percentage of disk fragmentation is 29%. This is because not all files can be defragmented successfully. To view a detailed defragmentation report, click on the link " View detailed report" After this, it makes sense to check the disk for errors and correct them if found. To do this, select “ Action", and then " Check for errors» -> « Checking and correcting the selection» If you have several local disks, it is better to check them separately. If you are checking a non-system drive for errors, the check will take place fairly quickly. After its completion, you will see the following message (Fig. 10).
In order to demonstrate this message, we specifically connected a removable drive F to the computer, on which no operating system is installed, and checked only this drive to check for errors.
If you are checking the disk on which the operating system is installed for errors, Auslogics Disk Defrag will display the following message (Fig. 11).
In this case, click " Y", and then Enter. After this, restart your computer.
In this case, before loading Windows, the system disk will be checked for errors. Just wait a few minutes, after which the Windows system will boot.
This completes the process of working with Auslogics Disk Defrag.
You can leave your wishes and questions related to the program on our website.
If your computer has a mechanical drive on rotating hard drives, then as it fills with information it will work slower and slower. This occurs due to fragmentation of files on the disk. And if you do not take any measures, this will lead to a tenfold decrease in the reading speed of some files. But file operations are the slowest operation, which, even under ideal conditions, is the biggest bottleneck affecting performance. And therefore, any slowdown in reading or writing leads to downtime in the computer. After all, the processor and RAM, instead of working at full capacity, are used only for a couple of percent, the rest of the time waiting for data to arrive from the slow drive. To avoid this sad situation, it is necessary to periodically perform an operation to defragment files. If the hard drive is heavily fragmented, then such an operation can increase the performance of the computer several times. For these purposes, you can use the standard defragmentation program built into Windows. But it does not have any settings and for this reason is not always convenient to use. Therefore, many users prefer to use third-party programs, which have many more features. One such program is a popular hard drive defragmenter called Auslogics Disk Defrag. This program has a completely free version, which is most often enough to solve everyday problems.
Why does file fragmentation occur?
Any information storage device is an address space. Those. By specifying the address of a cell or sector, you can read or write information to it. The address is usually the numeric number of the memory cell. Therefore, in fact, one drive is a long tape of cells, numbered from zero to N bytes. When the first file is written to an empty drive, it is written to the very beginning of the drive. The second file is written immediately after the first. And so on. If programs only wrote files and did not erase them, then fragmentation would not occur. The files would be written entirely one after another until the free space on the disk runs out. This is exactly the case with optical discs - you can write and append files to them, but you cannot erase them. And there is no fragmentation there.
But in real work, files are often deleted. And therefore, empty areas of very different sizes are formed on the disk in various places. When new files are written to disk, these spaces are used. And since the sizes of the new files do not coincide at all with the sizes of the resulting voids, many files cannot be recorded continuously, in one piece. In this case, only part of the file is written to the first free area. The next part of the file is written to the second free area. And so the process of filling free areas continues until the entire file is written. As a result, it turns out that file fragments are scattered across the disk. Hence the name of the phenomenon - “fragmentation”. In order to read all these fragments, the read head of the disk is forced to move repeatedly. And since each such movement leads to a significant time delay, the speed of file processing decreases sharply.
The situation is even worse when periodic additions to the file occur. Each such addition occurs in a new place that happens to be free. And if during normal copying of files the number of fragments can be in the tens, then with regular addition the number of fragments can be several hundred, and sometimes even a couple of thousand. To correct this sad situation, the so-called hard drive defragmentation.
Installing and running a defragmentation program
To download Auslogics Disk Defrag, just go to official page program and click the “Download” button.
As a result, in a few seconds all the necessary files will be installed and the program will automatically start.
Initial situation analysis
When defragmenting a hard drive, a large amount of information is moved, which takes a lot of time. Therefore, before starting the process, you should evaluate its feasibility and select the most optimal mode of operation of the program.
First, you need to select the logical drives for analysis by checking them and unchecking the remaining drives.
After this, select the “Analysis” operation from the drop-down menu.
The same can be done using the main menu item “Action / Analyze selected”. Once the analysis is complete, a map of the status of the disk clusters and the fragmentation percentage (i.e., what portion of the used disk capacity contains fragmented files) will be displayed.
In the files tab, you can view in detail which files are stored in the form of fragments and how many of these fragments each file has. Moreover, if you select the desired file in the list, the clusters used to store it will be highlighted on the map.
By clicking on the column headings you can sort files by name, path, size and degree of fragmentation. This helps to fully evaluate the picture, even if the number of files in the list is in the thousands.
Defragmentation Strategies
After viewing the list of the most fragmented files, you can decide how often these files are used and what to do next. In our program for defragmenting a hard drive, the following options are possible:
If all these files are extremely rarely used, the number of fragments is extremely small, and the file size is large, then you don’t have to waste time on defragmenting them. This will have virtually no effect on performance. In this case, a speed increase can be obtained by performing slow optimization, which will consolidate free space by moving all files (even unfragmented ones) to the beginning and end of the disk. This will reduce further fragmentation when writing new files. The optimization mode takes a long time to work, but also gives the best results;
If most of the fragmented files are used at work, and there is no particular need to consolidate free space, then you can select the mode of simple defragmentation of the entire disk, in which the program will transfer data from fragmented files without affecting other files. This mode is much faster;
If you don’t need to defragment all of the files, but only those needed for work, then right in the list of files you can start defragmenting the selected files through the context menu.
Regular defragmentation, as well as full optimization of the selected disk, can be started both through the “Action” main menu item and through the drop-down menu.
In the list of files, defragmentation of individual files can be started by right-clicking and selecting the “Defragment selected” menu item.
It is important to note that in order to successfully process large files, there must be a supply of free space on the disk where these files could be moved entirely. If the amount of free space is less than the file size, then the file will not be defragmented, and in full optimization mode it will be moved in its fragmented state to the end of the disk (so that it does not interfere, so to speak).
conclusions
With Auslogics Disk Defrag Free, a free hard drive defragmentation program, you can not only do regular hard drive defragmentation, but also perform deep optimization with file redistribution. A separate convenient feature is the function of defragmenting selected files, thanks to which you can significantly reduce the amount of work to the required minimum and thereby save time and computer resources. Thanks to the interactive cluster map, you can explore the location of each fragmented file in detail. All these features significantly exceed the capabilities of a standard system defragmentation utility. And you can use them completely free of charge if you download Auslogics Disk Defrag Free and install it on your computer.
Have you ever thought about the question: how to make the OS faster? The free HDD defragmentation program IObit Smart Defrag will help. Let's take a closer look at how to work with this application.
What it is
The application is configured optimally by the developers. You don’t have to change anything, but I recommend adjusting the operation of some parameters.
Section "Auto-defragmentation"
Edit the “Pause when usage is more than 100%” setting. I recommend setting it to 40. Then the program will not interfere with your work on the PC. 
Schedule
Activate it to run the utility on a schedule. Determine the HDD defragmentation method and set up a schedule. 
Loading optimization
When downloading, files are fragmented and cannot be moved when the PC is running. To activate this function, set the switch to the “On” position. 
On the “Specific” tab, specify which files cannot be fragmented while the system is running. 
Before starting the program, clear your PC of unnecessary information: browser cache, temporary and junk files. This will free up space on the HDD. The quality of defragmentation will be higher. Do this in the Cleaning section.
How to use the program
The application configures the optimization order for each disk individually. Use the items “Auto-defragmentation”, “Optimization at startup”.
I recommend using the “Smart Defragmentation” button. Click on it and select the desired operating mode of the program. It is proposed to use the following options:
- Analysis;
- Defragmentation quickly;
- Optimization of large files;
- Optimizing free space on HDD.
Select HDD, then as in the screenshot. 
The application will graphically show the status of the files. Look at the number of fragments, the percentage of fragmentation (less is better). The utility will offer a recommendation for action. I was suggested "Defragmentation and Optimization". 
Click “Smart defragmentation”, then the suggested option. It will be recommended to clear your PC of unnecessary information.
The defragmentation process takes a long time. Depends on the power of the PC and the capacity of the disk drive.
How to optimize the game
You will notice an increase in gaming performance.
Loading optimization
Set up the configuration, select the areas for which optimization will be performed. The following optimization options are available:
- Paging and hibernation files;
- MFT file tables (a database with data on the contents of an NTFS file system volume);
- System files;
- Registry.
Conclusion
The performance of the system as a whole is affected by many parameters. These include the technical characteristics of the equipment, the number of running and running programs, the size of the hard drive and its performance. But the latter depends not only on the rotation speed of the plates. In many ways, the performance of the disk, and therefore the system as a whole, depends on how the files are placed on the disk. If files are written to the disk in consecutive sectors, then reading them will take less time than if they were written in chunks to various free disk spaces at the time of recording.
Statistics say that if the number of fragmentarily recorded files on a disk does not exceed thirty percent of their total number, then the operating conditions of the disk and its performance are close to optimal values. If up to half of the files are defragmented, the speed of working with the disk slows down. At a higher percentage, the disk begins to work under harsh conditions and takes longer to read files. The result is a noticeable slowdown in work.
There is, of course, a way out of this situation. And it consists of periodically checking the disk for fragmented files and optimizing their placement. To perform this work, programs from different developers are used. One of them - O&O Defrag - is offered by O&O Software. The company offers two versions of the program - Professional Edition and Server Edition. The first option is designed to work on a local computer and does not have a network management console, but can act as a client for a server solution. The server version has a program management console over the network. It can be used on both servers and workstations, which provides administrative control and monitoring of the defragmentation process on computers. 
Modern Windows systems have their own defragmentation systems, but while they are running, it is extremely difficult to continue performing any tasks on the computers. In this regard, the O&O Defrag program has a significant difference: its ActivityGuard component allows you to monitor the execution of tasks on your computer and take this into account when working. What is it? For example, if a screen saver is running on a computer, this means that other tasks on it are being performed to a lesser extent and, therefore, at this moment you can set a higher priority to the defragmenter's work or start a job that was suspended during high computer load. The component takes into account processor load and, when the processor load is low (for example, during a break from work), allocates more resources to the defragmentation process than at other times. ActivityGuard also takes into account the capabilities of laptops - when running on battery power, the program is suspended, which reduces power consumption.
When installing the program, you can choose to use it instead of the standard defragmenter. In this case, the program call is built into the standard interface for working with disks. In addition, during installation you can select the automatic disk defragmentation mode. The O&O OneButtonDefrag module monitors the status of disks and automatically runs a defragmentation program in the background if necessary. (This mode can be turned off and on again at any time.) 
The program offers five defragmentation methods. Each of them provides an efficient file defragmentation process so you can continue working with other applications. The methods differ in the resources used and the principle of placing files on the disk during the defragmentation process. The least resource-intensive method is STEALTH. Its distinguishing feature is the low requirement for memory used and additional disk space used for operation. This ensures the fastest defragmentation process. Recommended for file servers with a large number of files, as well as very large disk resources (more than one terabyte).
The SPACE method is very close to the previous one, but it better ensures file defragmentation and maximum reduction of free space into a single zone. This method is recommended for disks with a significant number of fragmented files. The method is less productive than the previous one. Therefore, it is recommended for processing disk arrays with a capacity of more than one hundred gigabytes or with a number of files of more than one hundred thousand (the previous method also works well with the number of files several times larger).
The following methods are a variation of their base type - COMPLETE, but differ in the principle of sorting files on disk. The method requires more resources than the previous ones, but ensures maximum system performance after defragmentation. The first type of method is to sort files by last access time. The most rarely used files are placed at the beginning of the disk, those that have been accessed recently are placed at the end. This reorganization of files allows you to spend significantly less time on defragmentation in the future, since the most “mobile” files will be located at the end of the disk. The method is recommended for use on servers where the best performance for data access is required. 
The following method sorts by the date the files were last modified. Files that have been modified recently are placed at the end of the disk. The oldest ones go to the beginning. This strategy is recommended for defragmenting database servers. And finally - the COMPLETE method with sorting files by name. This method is most applicable for system drives and for drives that contain files that rarely change. It should be noted that the last three methods are not recommended to be mixed either with each other or with methods that do not perform structural reorganization of the file system. Having chosen one of them, you need to use it for this disk.
A few notes about performing defragmentation. As noted, additional disk space is required to complete this process. And it should be larger, the larger the size of the files to be defragmented. You should also remember that you should try to avoid changing or moving files during defragmentation. O&O Defrag calculates the best positions for the files it moves before and during operation, and any change will affect these calculations. The consequence is an increase in the time to complete the operation due to additional recalculations. 
If you set the option to automatically run the defragmentation process, you can set a minimum trigger threshold (percentage of files defragmented), below which the process will not start. Generally speaking, defragmenting disks on a regular basis is a significant factor in increasing performance. For this purpose, a task manager is built into the program. With its help, you can create an unlimited number of disk defragmentation tasks with individual settings for each of them. For each disk, you can set your own defragmentation time, select the required method, and the trigger threshold. In addition, the program has the ability to automatically determine the moment when defragmentation is required. When you select this option, the program will determine the time of the next launch based on heuristic methods. The more fragmented the disk, the more often the program will run. If this condition is eliminated, the program will launch less frequently.
Defragmentation tasks can be quite precisely customized to suit your requirements. Thus, you can choose one of four levels of recording information in log files (differing in the level of detail). You can specify files that should not be defragmented. It is possible to check the disks before defragmentation begins. For partitions located on different media, you can set defragmentation to run in parallel. If the partitions are located on the same physical medium, they will always be processed sequentially, in alphabetical order.
The defragmentation process is not performed automatically. In this case, the sequence of actions is specified by the user. First, the disk is analyzed (and before that, you can run the verification procedure). As a result, a report is generated that gives a detailed picture of the disk's condition. The report window has four tabs. The first shows general information about the disk - total volume, file system data and cluster usage. The second tab shows a list of defragmented files and the number of separate fragments for each. The third is a list of files that cannot be moved even if they are defragmented. The last tab shows the generalized results of disk analysis. The most curious users can also see which specific files occupy a particular cluster. To do this, use the main program window, which shows the clusters of the disk under study. To view, just select the cluster you are interested in and click on it with the mouse pointer. The window that opens will contain a complete list of files that are included in this cluster. 
In addition to the information that can be viewed through the program interface, you can generate an external report. It contains virtually all the same data, but it can be saved (it is generated as an html page), printed, or sent to someone.
In general, the program is very interesting and convenient. The ability to run from the command line allows you to embed it in various scripts. And the network version is of particular interest to the system administrator.
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