Several options are added as start menu entries after installing the latest MyDefrag version on the computer system. This includes running an analysis of all connected hard drives, defragmenting all of them, running a fast optimize script or to optimize flash drives. The real strength of MyDefrag are the extensive command line parameters and scripting possibilities that make it possible to individualize the defragmentation process.

Quite a few graphical user interfaces have been created for JkDefrag in the past. It is very likely that at least some of these will be made available for MyDefrag as well. This will help inexperienced users and those that do not like working with the command line to make use of the full functionality of the file defragmentation software.

MyDefrag is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2009 as well as Windows 2000.

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We covered our share of defragmenting tools in the past including the popular Defraggler, Ultimate Defrag, Joshua’s overview of defragmentation tools but also specialized programs like Page Defrag, Registry Defrag or Source Engine games defrag.

Ultra Defrag is another disk defragmenting software for the Windows operating system. The program is Open Source and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some of its key features is the speedy defragmentation process and the low resource usage while running the process. It comes with an installer or as a portable version and can be run from a graphical user interface or the command line.

The defragmentation software can defrag entire system partitions or single directories and files if it is added to the Windows context menu during installation. The command line version of the disk defragmenting software comes with several advanced options like excluding files from the defragmentation process. Users can also launch Ultra Defrag during system boot to be able to defragment the system files that are locked when Windows is running.

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After installing the defragmenting software it can be accessed by right-clicking a file or directory and selecting the FragExt entry in the context menu. That’s a natural way of performing defragmentation on files. It is however problematic for users who want to defragment their files in one go regularly because that’s almost impossible to achieve with FragExt because of the way it handles directories. The disadvantage that we spoke earlier about is that it will not automatically include subdirectories in the defragmentation process.

Which leaves it to be an excellent effective way of defragmenting files in Windows Explorer. FragExt does add another interesting aspect to Windows Explorer. It extends the File Properties dialog and adds a Fragments tab to it.

This makes it relatively easy to check the fragmentation of selected files. FragExt is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 / 2008 including their 64-bit editions.

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However I came across Piriform Defraggler the other day and I was interested in one feature it had… individual file and folder defragmentation. At first I thought this was pretty superfluous considering it would be difficult to notice much of an effect defragmenting a single file or folder…  however I have a laptop and not a huge hard drive so a complete defragment doesn’t take huge amount of time anyway.

If you have a large hard drive however then this could be a very useful tool. I’m thinking of large music collections or DVD rips which go into the hundreds of gigabytes worth of space.

Using Piriform Defraggler to defragment just your music or video collection could have some kind of small effect on performance. Apart from this it has all the other basic features and even a nice monitoring tool which for some strange reason was omitted from the Vista defragmentation application.

Unfortunately there are no scheduling options but it’s simple and works fast enough to keep most people happy.

For anything more advanced I recommend IOBit Smart Defrag. This has the kind of scheduling options you may be looking for as well the ability to defragment and optimise multiple hard drive partitions.

The best thing about Smart Defrag is that it can be set to start up whenever the computer is left idle. I think schedules are a pain as you might in the middle of something when a scheduled task starts up so instead running when the computer is idle is the best solution.

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When you start Ultimate Defrag for the first time you notice that is is displaying an image of your hard drive in the main pane and information i the left pane. You can select a different hard drive in the left pane or hit the analyze button to analyze the defragmentation level of the hard drive.

Once the hard disk has been analyzed one out of six methods to defragment and optimize the hard disk can be selected from the left pane. This includes the following options:

• Fragmented Files Only: Defragments the hard drive, comparable to the classic Windows defragmentation
• Consolidate: Places all directories next to each other on the hard drive to reduce seek time
• Folder / File Name: Places files and folders on the hard drive based on folder name order
• Recency: ideal for data drives. Sorts files and folders according to last access dates, modify dates and file creation dates.
• Volatile: A variation of the Recency optimization. Will order folders last modification data and files alphabetically
• Auto: The program uses its own optimization algorithm to defrag the hard disk and optimize its performance.

The user can select specific files and folders that should receive the best positions on the hard disk to achieve the best performance possible. This can be for instance the Windows directory, a game, dynamic link libraries or applications. On the other hand files and folders that do not require the best performance can be selected to be placed in the slower sectors of the hard drive. This includes archives, images and backup files.

The help file of Ultimate Defrag is excellent. It gives an explanation of hard disk performance at the beginning, explains all the settings and functions in a non-geeky way and even provides examples of how to optimize computers based on usage, say gaming, office and home.

The Ultimate Defrag Free version is available at Freeware Geeks. I would like to mention that I’m not a lab and I do not have the possibility to check the performance before and after the defragmentation scientifically. My computer is relatively new with not enough files to test the new performance. It does make sense however that this could indeed increase system performance.

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You can check the fragmentation level of a hard drive using the command line and the command defrag.exe c: /a. The tool then checks the specified hard drive and report back if it is fragmented or not.

A script by Ramesh Srinivasan uses this report to determine if a hard drive should be defragmented. The Visual Basic script can be used in the Windows scheduler or simply executed during startup or by double-clicking the file.

I copied the file to a text file and zipped it already. You can download the script here or visit the website above where the script is displayed in text form.

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I’m lazy. I do not want to right-click the drive, select Properties, change to the Tools tab and click on Defragment Now. Fortunately for users like me there is a workaround that adds the option to defragment your hard drive to the right-click menu when you perform that operation on a drive. We only need to add one new key to the registry and the option appears whenever we right-click a drive from then on.

Open your registry by hitting the windows key and R. The run dialog appears, enter regedit and hit enter. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell. If the shell key is missing create it by right-clicking on Drive and selecting NEW, KEY and enter the name shell. Create a subkey the same way naming it defragnow. Double-click the default value on the left side and add a name for the command that will appear in the right-click menu, defrag for instance.

Right-click on defragnow and create a new subkey called command. Double-Click the Default entry on the left side again and enter the following value: defrag.exe %1 -v

Once done close the registry and right-click a drive to see if the new option defrag appears. If it does test it by left-clicking on it, a new window should appear and the defragmentation should automatically start.

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