A disk defragmenter is a key element in your toolkit for keeping your PC running optimally. Disk fragmentation occurs through normal everyday use of your PC; over time your system becomes unable to store related data on your disk in a sequential (contiguous) manner, and is therefore forced to "fragment" your files across different physical locations of your hard drive. This fragmentation increases the number of times your hard drive must spin (or "seek"), which slows down the process of reading and writing files. Defragmentation software compresses files and free space back into contiguous blocks.
Defragmenting your hard drive on a regular basis is a sound housekeeping habit; a chore that most home users should do once a month.
Our top top recommendation here is Diskeeper Lite, an older free version of Executive Software's current commercial Diskeeper product. It's simple to use, has a good graphical interface and performs very well – despite being at version 7 while it's commercial sibling is at version 10. It is possible to update to version 9 of Diskeeper Lite (our thanks to Vashek Weis for this tip) by downloading Intel's large (89MB) Desktop Utilities package available from the Intel site. If you unzip the file you'll find Diskeeper V9 Lite in the folder ../3rdparty/Diskeeper/. Neither the read-me file nor the License Agreement prohibit downloading and using this program on a single computer, so it appears to be a perfectly legitimate way to obtain the program.
We've had a few complaints from subscribers about Diskeeper's annoying nag screen. You can remove the nag screen by following the instructions I published in my newsletter here. Unfortunately, Diskeeper does not work with Vista.
If you want an alternative to Diskeeper, try the open source JKDefrag. It's highly effective and yet light on resources. As a bonus you can set it up as a screensaver; that way your disks will always be defragged without getting in the way of your work. Unlike Diskeeper, it's compatible with Vista and has a 64-bit version available as well.
If you want more options you may want to consider these:
Auslogics Desk Defrag is fast, has a nice disk map, lots of stats and is really easy to use. It's pretty basic, but the simplicity and speed make up for any missing bells and whistles.
Even more simple is IObit SmartDefrag. It works away in the background to keep your PC constantly defragged. It's available only in beta at the moment, but the feedback we've received has been excellent. A true "set and forget solution”.
Another possibility is Contig from SysInternals, a robust command line utility which defrags one file at a time. It's fast and safe, but the command line can turn off users. Fortunately, eXcessive software has built an excellent user interface for Contig, called Power Defragmenter, that turns Contig into a really usable product.
Diskeeper Lite
Website: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Diskeeper_Lite_d1207.html
Author: Executive Software
Date: October 18, 2002
Download File size: 12.1MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95-XP
64 Bit Capable: No
Other languages supported:
Additional Software Required:No
Other relevant information:
JkDefrag
Website: http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
Author: Jeroen Kessels
Date: December 3, 2007
Download file size: 465kB
Versions: Windows, command line, screensaver
License: Free, Open Source
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000-Vista
64-bit capable: Yes
Other languages supported: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information: Numerous other GUIs are available for users with special needs.
Auslogics Disk Defrag
Website: http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/index.php
Author: Auslogics
Date: December 6, 2007
Download file size: 1.57MB
Versions: Windows
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000-Vista
64-bit capable: Yes
Other languages supported:
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information: Free for home and corporate use
IObit SmartDefrag
Website: http://www.iobit.com/SmartDefrag/index.html
Author: IObit.com
Date: December 5, 2007
Download file size: 1.85MB
Versions: Windows
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000-Vista
64-bit capable: No
Other languages supported:
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information:
Contig
Website: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/Contig.mspx
Author: Microsoft
Date: March 21, 2007
Download file size: 55kB
Versions: Windows
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows NT-Vista
64-bit capable: No
Other languages supported:
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information:
Power Defragmenter GUI
Website: http://www.excessive-software.tk/
Author: Excessive Software
Date: May 15, 2006
Download file size: 473kB
Versions: Windows
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000-XP
64-bit capable: No
Other languages supported:
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information:
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/idu/