Smart Defrag 5 Review

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 7, 2016
Software
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38

Smart Defrag is a free defragmentation program for all versions of the Windows operating system starting with Windows XP.

File fragmentation can cause a number of issues on systems running Windows, but the most common one is that the loading of files takes longer than it should.

Think of fragmented files as data that is stored in several different locations on a hard drive. It takes more time naturally to load data from all these different locations than from a single location where all of a file's data is stored in.

Defragmentation tools for Windows are designed to movie the bits and pieces of a file closer together to improve loading performance.

Smart Defrag

smart defrag 5

Smart Defrag's installation is uneventful. You can select a different installation folder and uncheck the desktop icon creation option if you want but that is about it.

The program displays all hard drives connected to the PC it is run on right after start.

Each hard drive is displayed with its name, type, and free and total space. The resolution of the window determines how many drives and other options are displayed on the screen at once, and scroll icons indicate that there is more to explore in this regard.

A Trim option is displayed for Solid State Drives, while auto defrag (PRO version only), boot time defrag and disk cleanup options are displayed for platter-based drives.

You may run smart defrag right away, which analyzes all drives first and runs the most appropriate option afterwards.

If you want more control over the process, hover the mouse cursor over the icon on the right of the option to display available tasks.

smart defrag options

You may want to start with an analysis of platter-based drives connected to the PC which should not take longer than a minute even for large drives.

Smart Defrag reveals the number of fragments and fragmented files that it found during the scan, and the overall fragmentation rate on top of that.

The program displays a reocmmendation, e.g. fast defrag but that option is not actionable there. What you need to do instead is select "smart defrag" instead or move the mouse over the arrow next to it to select the recommended action.

smart defrag analysis

Naturally, you are not limited to selecting the recommended action. You may pick any of the other actions listed here, for instance to defragment large files only.

The defragmentation of the drive may take a while depending on its fragmentation status and speed. Once you start a defragmentation process, the estimated remaining time is displayed by Smart Defrag.

You will also see activity on the map but that is more for show than useful.

A click on details lists all fragmented files, but there is no option unfortunately to select individual files here for defragmentation.

Smart Defrag displays an option on the main screen (scroll if you don't see it) to add files or folders that you want to defrag. If you are running Windows 8 or newer, you will also see an option to "optimize apps" which will either run a defrag or TRIM operation depending on whether the Windows drive is a Solid State Drive or a platter-based hard drive.

Game Optimize

game defrag

Games can benefit a lot from defragmentation as they consist of a lot of files and are fairly large usually.

The option of Smart Defrag enables you to add games on your hard drive to run defrag operations on them. Please note that you can only add games that are not stored on a Solid State Drive, and that you cannot pick a game folder but only an executable or link file.

It is suggested to use the custom folder defrag option instead if you want to defragment a game folder.

Boot Time Defrag

smart defrag 5 boot time defrag

The third and final option provides you with the means to improve system startup by optimizing the following items:

  1. Page File and Hibernation file defragmentation.
  2. MFT defragmentation.
  3. System File defragmentation.

The two additional options displayed here, the defragmentation of Registry files and specified files, is only available in the Pro version.

If you enable the option, defragmentation will occur on system boot. The default interval is set to 7 days but you can change that in the program options.

Settings

The settings are quite extensive and provide you with lots of customization options. Use them to schedule defragmentation jobs, to exclude files or folders, replace the default Windows Disk Defragmenter with Smart Defrag, or configure boot time defrag in detail.

Smart Defrag Alternatives

The following alternatives are available as well for Windows:

Verdict

Smart Defrag 5 is a powerful disk defragmentation software for the Windows operating system. It detects Solid State Drives and prevents defrag jobs on SSDs which is a good thing.

What's missing is a better option to defrag individual files or folders after an analysis. While you could switch between analysis mode and custom file defrag modes, it is not very comfortable and something that should be improved in future versions.

Summary
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Author Rating
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2.5 based on 29 votes
Software Name
Smart Defrag
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
System
Landing Page
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Comments

  1. criticatlarge said on April 27, 2021 at 10:37 pm
    Reply

    well I’d like to know what you think about Smart Defrag’s fixit ‘recommendations” ..
    (it says) I have
    62.9GB junk files (and just what, exactly, constitutes a ‘junk’ file?)
    224 redundant registry entries
    4 startup items
    35 “intermet improvements”??
    22 “system optimizations”???
    100771 !!!! privacy traces
    and 2 system weaknesses.

    and you get a listing, of sorts. so inSTEAD of having “Advanced System Care”
    crunch all this stuff… how can I do that manually and perhaps more carefully
    using the list-o-stuff SmartDefrag sez needs to go???

    …what would REALLY help is being able to circumvent the 4G memory limitation on
    this not-so-bad Lenovo T510. why hasn’t anyone figure out how to use SD cards to
    boost your processing? or something really wierd like external USB 3.x RAM???
    now THAT would be innerestin’…..

    thanks.

    ps I dunno but it’d be nice to get a reply email with our original post text..
    which doesn’t happen, mostly, I find I have to archive it myself during composition
    to avoid timeouts on certain sites. good thing I can abuse AOL draft folders.
    think of them as a cornucopia of miscellany, errata and factoids.
    I do!
    (and is there a prize for ‘most bookmarks’? it’s really tough being an informationholic…)

  2. janni said on April 9, 2016 at 5:51 pm
    Reply

    an unreliable, potentially harmful program: It failed to detect my 2 SSD’s on my small Aspire S5 301 notepad.
    It classified them as HDD’s, -presumably because they are in a Raid array.
    I use ASC 9 but I’m not touching this one from Iobit.

    1. Roger said on April 16, 2016 at 1:43 pm
      Reply

      There are arrows next to HDD, which when you click on them will manually change the drive type to SSD. You only need to do this once.

  3. Khidreal said on April 7, 2016 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    and like… if windows already has a defrag tool, why would I in my perfect sense install any program to do THE SAME TASK, and slow down my computer? aren’t HDD’s defragmented the same way? so why using a program?
    and, if I defrag my computer, why tha heck would I defrag a game’s folder? isn’t it already defragmented?

    1. Roger said on April 16, 2016 at 1:46 pm
      Reply

      No, you are wrong. Every defrag software defrags differently. While the included defrag software from Microsoft works very well and automatically does a defrag weekly, in some cases 3rd party defragmenters can do a better job at placing files for better system performance.

      So while you don’t actually need to use a 3rd party defragmenter, they may improve system performance.

      1. Roger said on April 19, 2016 at 2:55 am
        Reply

        The amount of hard drive space used by any defrag software is going to be insignificant. Smart Defrag uses about .02% of my hard drive space.

        Adding more registry entries does not impact computer performance at all, due to the way Microsoft designed Windows.

        Actually, when you remove programs, they are removed. You can find files with recovery programs, becuase the data used does not get overwritten until you start writing more data to the hard drive. What you’ve been told about these files being read when you boot your computer is quite simply not true. Once, files are deleted, Windows no longer see them.

      2. Khidreal said on April 17, 2016 at 9:32 pm
        Reply

        and how much performance improvement will I get? 1%? that’s what? 400 milliseconds (0.4 seconds) faster? it’s pointless for me to install something just because it “does a better job”… here is what usually happens to a computer, specially when you download things from piriform, iobit and some others:
        – creates folders: more space used. more time to defrag. more archives for your computer to read
        – creates registry entries: more things for your computer to read
        – probably it will install some service (example: skipUAC): one more service (apart from all the 100 services from windows it-self) starting on boot
        – and 90% of all software leave traces behind: registry keys in case you install the soft again, folders with logs, etc

        and, as final touch, when you uninstall programs, they are not really removed as you probably know, since why the recovery tools, like recuva. when the computer boots, it WILL find those files and the computer has a number of set tries before going to the next file. what happens is that the computer will loop on trying to access that file. meaning, more time to boot. so leaving the program installed is better to your booting time than removing it. (my brother told me this years ago when he was studying IT. I don’t have such knowledge).

        so, again, even if smart defrag gives me 10% more speed, why would I install it? for me makes no sense, but hey, not here to judge anybody, everyone is free to install and use whatever they want!

  4. brixy said on April 7, 2016 at 5:38 pm
    Reply

    You people, who are having problems with unwanted installations – use Unchecky! – to keep your checkboxes clear!
    https://unchecky.com/

    I’m using default windows defrag, btw

  5. seeprime said on April 7, 2016 at 4:03 pm
    Reply

    I downloaded and installed it. It’s the first version of Smart Defrag that did not come packed with at least two additional IoBit programs that were unwanted and unneeded. It runs quickly also. This is an improved product. I hope it stays that way, without added garbage that has to be unchecked during installation.

  6. Karbi said on April 7, 2016 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    The Windows 10 has a built-in scheduled task for defragmentation.
    Do we still need to run these third party software to optimize the disk’s performance?
    How good or bad is Windows program when compared to these third party softwares?

    1. CHEF-KOCH said on April 7, 2016 at 2:13 pm
      Reply

      No it’s not necessary, Windows own is enough. Don’t believe the hype ^^

  7. didihu said on April 7, 2016 at 12:53 pm
    Reply

    For me the best defrag tool is Puran defrag
    http://www.puransoftware.com/Puran-Defrag.html

    1. ustavio said on April 8, 2016 at 2:17 am
      Reply

      Puran doesn’t indicate support for windows 10. Seems to lack updates past 2013.

  8. CHEF-KOCH said on April 7, 2016 at 11:38 am
    Reply

    Doesn’t contain any spyware/malware.

    I downloaded directly from official page which redirect to Majorgeeks.

    3E93B616F3D58D7FAC4E99FD62C7DB252B8EE16B VirusTotal .. only two troll Antivirus (DrWeb/Rising) detect it [Rising is dead btw].

    1. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 12:42 pm
      Reply

      I just downloaded Smart Defrag 5.0.2.766 – sd5-setup – MD5 = D997C85CC2A5F492D8430A1086397531 from MajorGeeks and submitted the file to VirusTotal which displays indeed for the above mentioned file :

      DrWeb Program.Unwanted.1183 [dated] 20160407
      Rising PE:Malware.Generic/QRS!1.9E2D [F] [dated] 20160407

      VirusTotal page : preview DOT tinyurl DOT com/hxd5ohh

      Well, DrWeb is neither a newcomer nor a fantasist security analyzer, is it?
      No IoBit here, once again, but “Awaiting moderation” alive.

    2. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 12:11 pm
      Reply

      Official page redirected to MajorGeeks? What official page, if I may ask? Page mentioned in the article leads to IoBit’s download page.
      Majorgeeks ontherwise has it’s own download server, indeed. So IoBit could mention MajorGeeks instead of Cnet, that is if they were respectful of the user, of course.

      Glad to know VirusTotal detects nothing. Thanks for the info, I won’t have to waste any more time.

      —> Awaiting moderation, AGAIN? What for this time? I’m starting to be close to fed up about WordPress’ hysteria, or incompetence.

      1. Roger said on April 16, 2016 at 1:48 pm
        Reply

        On occasion the IObit website will redirect to MajorGeeks,

  9. me said on April 7, 2016 at 10:44 am
    Reply

    All those 3 defrag programs contains unsafe/spyware routines.

    1. T J said on April 7, 2016 at 2:12 pm
      Reply

      @ me

      I just tested Defraggler dfsetup221.exe with Virustotal. It showed 1/57. Only ESET “found” a problem. I think that ESET is flagging a false positive. MBAM and Emsisoft ( installed on my Laptop ) have never flagged any Piriform products as containing Trojans/Viruses. Guess what? Piriform’s programs are always clean.

    2. ilev said on April 7, 2016 at 11:01 am
      Reply

      The portable version of Smart Defrag does not contains unsafe/spyware.

      1. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 11:49 am
        Reply

        Only the portable version?!

    3. Chris Granger said on April 7, 2016 at 10:57 am
      Reply

      Evidence?

      1. Jeff-FL said on April 7, 2016 at 2:28 pm
        Reply

        “Evidence?”

        That they were hosted on CNet is usually all the evidence one would need.

      2. me said on April 7, 2016 at 11:41 am
        Reply
  10. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 10:23 am
    Reply

    Impossible to get the download : iobit’s smartdefrag page mentioned here at ‘Landing page’ proposes to download ‘Smart Defrag 5’ which sends to cnet which calls dw dot cbsi dot com … blocked as a well known tracker.

    IoBit as usual a very complicated company with software I’ve already had spotted by HitmanPro. Nevertheless I wished to see how this latest ‘Smart Defrag’ would be analyzed by VirusTotal. But, unable to download it.

    Martin, I truly believe that you’re making a mistake when evoking software crafted by IoBit.

    P.S. : my comment is awaiting moderation. AGAIN?!

    1. Khidreal said on April 7, 2016 at 5:47 pm
      Reply

      it’s funny, because I just went to the link provided above, clicked the big green button saying: free download and all my browser did was opening a blank tab that vanished after 1 second and my downloader just came in with a file called: sd4_setup.exe with the exact size of 9.6MB… this means NO redirect to Cnet’s website or others. check if you have some adware on your computer or if you installed something that can make advertisements or something like that on your browser. for that task I use soft organizer since windows control panel does not shows every installed program and soft organizer does.

      1. Khidreal said on April 10, 2016 at 12:39 am
        Reply

        Tom Hawack, I think it’s my firefox configuration. I disabled every extension I have, and turns that the download started the same way as if I had all my extensions running.
        my firefox configs are the default. probably is something about my computer configs? don’t know, maybe it’s even my router, it has a in-built firewall… indeed, a “problem” for who has skills…

      2. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 11:03 pm
        Reply

        @khidreal, the only explanation I imagine (I don’t actually “see” it) is your Adblock Plus settings which must interfere somewhere in the javascript process. The download link (the first, green) won’t run without javascript enabled. Looks like this script is handled on your browsers (both include Adblock Plus did you say) by this very Adblock Plus and the configuration you’ve set. Otherwise I can’t even imagine, it’s above my skills, would require a coder to investigate.
        Main thing is it works for you. But I’m wondering why that link downloads sd4_setup.exe and not sd5_setup.exe, that is not normal.
        I’ll stop speculating at this point. Mainly because I’m not curious enough to carry on theory when I have no practical issue in view. Pragmatism this time. But anyone with curiosity and coding knowledge as companions should have his brain cells triggered by your experience. I’m already gone :)

      3. khidreal said on April 7, 2016 at 8:29 pm
        Reply

        Tom Hawack, thank you!
        well, it is indeed sd4 for some reason, but I downloaded and the version was correct. maybe it was a mistake from Iobit…
        anyway, I always try to keep my PC clean, I try to don’t install crapware, well, I try to keep only what I need, whan I don’t need gets deleted or uninstalled. I am also like you regarding to privacy and security. regarding to Smart Defrag 5, this was my procedure:

        1- open the link provided above
        2- click the green button: free download (notice: the website says 8.81MB)
        3- a new windows was open with the link: JAVASCRIPT:// and closed after 1 second
        4- download link received. sd4_setup.exe (notice: 9.60MB)

        did that procedure with FIREFOX and VIVALDI. I got the file on both browsers, but a thing I noticed was that on step 3, javascript:// was with firefox, and on vivaldi I got a link: todayuniversebits.com BUT both browsers say that todayuniversebits is the host entity despite firefox does not show’s the link on the address bar.

        also, I scanned the downloaded file on virus total: got 1/56. Dr.Web was the antivirus showing it as a threat. the file is most likely clean, there is a huge probability of being a false positive.

        my configs:
        – firefox: all recommended and default. extensions: Adblock plus and self destructing cookies (SDC is a great add-on by the way)
        – Vivaldi: all recommended and default. extensions: Adblock plus and vanilla cookie manager (similar to SDC on firefox)

        and, ofc, no such programs or cookies that put advertisements on the screen! (that’s why the cookie management extensions!)

        hope I helped someone in some way!

      4. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 7:25 pm
        Reply

        It should be sd5_setup.exe and not sd4_setup.exe, but perhaps you’ve mistyped.
        No adware here, believe me. My friends call me “Mr Propre” (“Mr Clean” en English), not that I’m an order maniac when it comes to whatever is not computing (I love chaos as a concept fit for imagination and creation) but I am when it comes to a computer, its components, hard & soft, privacy and security above all.
        I don’t know what your configuration is to have entitled you to download the file without a redirect to CBSi, but it looks good :) Maybe a whatever redirector? Mine (“Skip Redirect”) didn’t skip anything because it’s not a redirect, but a direct link. So I call upon my natural modesty to consider your great luck as one of those things I cannot explain. Modesty always helpful to compensate ignorance. Happy for you, Khidreal (nice pseudonym by the way).

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on April 7, 2016 at 11:26 am
      Reply

      IOBIt may have a couple of reasons for offering downloads exclusively via Cnet. 1) their bandwidth bill is not nearly as high. 2) they get more exposure on Cnet 3) They may even have a deal with Cnet in place, who knows.

      1. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 5:41 pm
        Reply

        @Jeff-FL, when I wrote “what is this” I meant “what is this way of proceeding, a software hunt?”
        Thanks for the CBSi information but basically I was annoyed by having to go through 2 redirects to download an application and furthermore discover that the 2nd redirect (CBSi) was blocked, 1- by a filter included in one of my uBlock origin filters’ list (which can be bypassed of course) then as well by my HOSTS file. This means if needed that the blocked url is no fantasy or false positive. I perhaps reacted a bit excessively (sorry for the bother, Martin) because I felt that two redirects leading at the end to a crappy url was the final straw. 1/4 of latin blood here, but an honest state of mind– Thanks.

      2. Jeff-FL said on April 7, 2016 at 2:26 pm
        Reply

        “Well, Cnet links to dw dot cbsi dot com … what is this?”

        @Tom, CBSi is CBS interactive. CBS is one of the U.S. major broadcast TV networks, and they own CNet, Gamespot and a few other big sites.

      3. T J said on April 7, 2016 at 2:00 pm
        Reply

        @ Tom Hawack @ Maritn

        You can download Smart Defrag at MajorGeeks. I have never had any contaminated downloads from them.
        I NEVER use Cnet because of sneaky wraps on the downloads.

        Link http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/iobit_smartdefrag.html

        OR type majorgeeks smart defrag into your browser

      4. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 11:37 am
        Reply

        My last comment AGAIN awaiting for moderation… it did include above link to cbsi with a dot in place of a period. Does this mean that even a url “broken” with dot is considered as an url? Gosh, does this do it : dw ! cbsi ! com … ?

        No moderation awaiting this time. Worse than Fort Knox.

      5. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 11:29 am
        Reply

        Well, Cnet links to dw dot cbsi dot com … what is this, Software Hunt?
        Not your fault, Martin, but do admit IoBit’s download scheme is complicated.

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on April 7, 2016 at 10:31 am
      Reply

      I’m writing new reviews of programs that I have reviewed several times in the past to redirect all old articles to them. I think the software is still of interest as it is highly popular even though I can understand concerns based on the company’s past.

      1. Tom Hawack said on April 7, 2016 at 11:27 am
        Reply

        Anyway first thing would be for the company to propose a healthy download link. Such practices are not an incentive.

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