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One of the remedies I often recommend for a sluggish system is to defrag the hard drive. For those unfamiliar with the term, defragging involves reorganizing your hard disk by placing files closer together so your operating system can find them more quickly. Your Windows operating system comes with a disk defrag utility of its own, but anyone who has ever used it knows it takes an unbearably long time to do the job. Fortunately there are excellent free defrag utilities you can download to make your system run better immediately.
An intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to defrag a hard drive.
(Credit: CNET Networks)One of my most recommended free defrag apps is Auslogics Disk Defrag, but another program which was recently released might be even better. IOBit's Smart Defrag quickly analyzes your hard drive for fragments and sets to work piecing them back together. It can defrag several drives including partitions simultaneously. It can also optimize file locations and free space to get the best performance out of your hard drive, though this process takes a bit longer. The full scan time for my test machine's 75GB hard drive (without optimization) took just over 4 minutes. While Auslogics Disk Defrag runs in about the same amount of time, it's the added options of Smart Defrag that might make it your No. 1 defrag utility.
Hit the scheduling button to set up when you want Smart Defrag to do its dirty work.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Smart Defrag lets you set up a schedule for defragging your hard drive so you'll never forget to run it. You can set it up to defrag at a certain time every day, every week, every two weeks, or at any interval you want. You also can have it defrag your hard drive every time you log in to your system or even have it set to autodefrag when your computer is otherwise idle. While it remains active in your system tray (unlike Auslogics), the footprint is small and doesn't significantly interfere with other processes.
Enable autodefrag to make sure your computer is always running at peak performance.
(Credit: CNET Networks)One option, which seems small but has long been on my wish list for Auslogics Disk Defrag, is the ability to have Smart Defrag shut down my computer when it's finished. My favorite time to turn on a defrag utility on my home gaming machine is right before going to sleep, and with the autoshutdown feature, I don't have to worry about leaving my system running over night.
Smart Defrag is a free program, but the developer asks for donations if you like the software. My guess is, once you try it out, you might think a few bucks is worth your time for this excellent utility.
If you're already familiar with the excellent Auslogics Disk Defrag, a freeware application that logically rearranges file data and free space, you might be intrigued by Auslogics BoostSpeed. The all-in-one optimizing suite groups together an uninstaller, startup manager, file shredder, and more than 10 other tools to coax your operating system to top performance. Get a tour of BoostSpeed's easy quick-launching interface in the First Look video above and find out why it's an editor favorite.
For fans of Auslogics Disk Defrag--and who isn't?--Auslogics offers up BoostSpeed, a utility suite that'll set you back 30 clams in your quest for a computer that runs like a cheetah.
BoostSpeed rounds up all the Auslogics utilities under one roof.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Disk Defrag is a massively popular piece of freeware, and with good reason. It runs faster and provides more information both during the defrag process and afterwards than the native Windows defragger, and it's free. Effective and providing an essential function, there's no question that your computer runs better for it.
BoostSpeed, while effective, isn't necessarily what every user needs. It bundles Disk Defrag with all the other Auslogics utilities. These include a Registry cleaner, an uninstall manager, a startup manager for boot cycle customizations, RAM and browser optimizers, file shredder, DirectX diagnostic, Windows tweak manager, and several mini apps to manage Windows settings. It also comes with a rescue center that can back up any settings before you change them. No doubt, BoostSpeed gives you your money's worth, at least in terms of services provided. Upgrading also only costs $10, for those who own older versions.
Are they all worth paying for? That depends on what kind of user you are. Most if not all of these features are available as freeware from one vendor or another, and generally one in each category is top-notch or nearly so. Some of the lesser tools, like the tweaks manager and the security feature, didn't live up to my expectations. Tweaks focused on basic functions and wouldn't serve as a replacement for TweakUI, while the security feature merely let me know that I had up-to-date security apps installed. Still, the convenience of having all these tools located under one umbrella is hard to argue with, and even the tools that didn't impress did their jobs free of hitches.
Scan speeds for the other features included here are comparable with those in Disk Defrag. Users also get the convenience of optionally setting the program to run at startup and live in the system tray, making most of the program's functionality no more than a context-menu click away.
The most useful tools are the Disk Defrag, the RAM optimizer, the Registry Optimizer--if you believe that "optimizing" the Registry is more than snake oil--the file shredder, and the performance monitor. The 15-day trial comes unfettered, allowing you to thoroughly judge if BoostSpeed is a program you need.
Hopefully, there aren't too many Windows users left who don't have Auslogics Disk Defrag. In case you don't, though, this is an excellent time to stop using the slow, native Microsoft defragger and upgrade--for free!--to an app that works better and faster: Auslogics Disk Defrag.
Even on older Windows XP systems, the program runs reasonably fast. Chose a hard drive from the drop-down menu to get a read on its stats such as free and used space and get a visual comparison in a pie chart. One click starts the defragging, and along with a visual table representing the various bits and bytes that are being shunted around, you also get a running ticker of the file currently being defragged. Disk Defragger spits out a bar graph and an HTML report at the end, lacking only a final sector map.
In the long list of odious chores, defragmenting your hard drive is right up there with flossing your teeth and washing your dog--or flossing your dog's teeth, for that matter.
There is little agreement on how much--or even whether--defragmenting improves your PC's performance, but having files closer together on the disk reduces the amount of movement required by the drive's mechanical parts. This should make it last longer, though such factors as operating environment and the quality of its components probably have a greater impact on its life span.
Regardless of whether it will actually improve your system's performance and reliability, I do know that there's a better way to defragment your drive than using the utility built into Windows: you'll get the job done in less time by using Auslogics' free Disk Defrag utility.
Windows' own Disk Defragmenter is a slug compared to Auslogics' alternative. At least in XP, you got some feedback while the Windows defragger was working; Vista doesn't give you a clue what's happening after you click the Defragment Now button, other than to let you know that the process could take from a few minutes to a few hours (my bet's on the latter). I know many people scoff at the dancing colored blocks on the map as pointless, but I kinda like 'em.
By default, Vista defragments your drive once a week. You can set the defragmenter to run on a different schedule, though you don't want to defrag when you've got lots of applications open because of it's guaranteed to slow everything down.
The greatest benefit of third-party defraggers such as Disk Defrag is their speed: The program did its work in less than 5 minutes on my Vista machine, while Vista's own defragmenter took more than 20 minutes to finish. And on a tremendously fragmented XP machine, Disk Defrag got the job done in about 40 minutes, which was a third the time required by Windows' own tool.
Before you begin, open the Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Vista), and uninstall any applications you no longer use. Then use a program such as CCleaner to empty your Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files folder, and other locations where clutter tends to accumulate on your PC.
Once you've taken out the digital trash, you're ready to tighten up your hard disk's sectors. Open Disk Defrag, and select your disk or partition to see a pie chart showing its used and free space. Click Next to begin the defragmentation.
View a pie chart showing your used and free disk space prior to beginning to defragment using Auslogics' free Disk Defrag utility.
If you're really bored, you can watch the program work. While the drive's fragmented sectors are cleared out, the process is represented by colored blocks on a disk map. Below this is a progress bar and a list of the names of the files currently being shuffled. You also get a count of the total files processed, as well as the number of fragmented and defragmented files.
XP's built-in defragmenter provides a similar show, but Vista's equivalent doesn't indicate what it's doing, or how much progress it has made.
Track your defrag progress on a map of rectangles representing your drive's sectors.
When the defragmenting is done, you're shown the results, including the percentage of drive or partition space that was recovered. You can see more information in a browser window when you click Display Report, but don't bother clicking the Optimize PC link at the top of the window. That simply leads to a page where you can download the company's $30 BoostSpeed performance-boosting utility. Hey, you can't fault the company for trying to make a buck.
The amount of drive or partition space recovered by the defragmentation is shown when the Disk Defrag utility finishes.
I wish I could say that I'm guaranteed to recoup many times over the time I spent defragging my PCs by having them run so much faster post-defrag. Maybe I'm kidding myself that there's any practical benefit to defragging, but then again, maybe my dog wouldn't smell any worse without a bath.
Tomorrow: Create your own social network in 60 minutes or less.
Auslogics, publisher of the popular Auslogics Disk Defrag, also makes another defragger: Registry Defrag. Does it actually work? Is it all smoke and mirrors, or does using this free program result in faster clock times?
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Though we have several machines here at Download.com running Windows Vista for testing purposes, I have to admit that I haven't yet made the switch at my workspace. Maybe it's because with Windows XP, I like the way things are set up; I like the look; and I can rest assured that all my favorite downloads are going to work without fail. I'm not saying Vista won't support my programs--and I'm sure I'll make the switch at some point--but for now I'm sticking with XP.
Even though XP is my choice for now, as a major-league software nerd, I still try to find ways to improve upon a good thing. Rather than leaving well-enough alone, I continually search CNET Downloads to see what programs I can find to make my OS run even more smoothly. A few downloads I've come across trim down existing applications, clean out system flaws, and keep the whole XP operating system running at optimal speed.... Read more
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I admit I'm a digital pack rat. I have a directory of images on my local drive devoted to LOLcats. I have gigabytes of FLAC files from live concert recordings and MP3 files from music sites such as CNET Download.com Music.
I'm good at regularly backing up my information to DVD and moving some files permanently to backups, but my 160GB hard drive is usually pushing full capacity. To keep my machine running at a speed I like (and deserve!), I have to perform regular maintenance. While there are lots of ways to optimize your hard drive, my basic method requires only three steps. ... Read more
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