Seeing the Windows Defragmenter Defrag

[Lisandro]

There is only one defragger/optimizer

Indeed there are others...

You can try the much much better Iobit Smart Defrag than Vista one, for free: http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html?Str=download

[CharleyO]

***

Firstly, since the task runs automatically every Wed. at 1:00 AM, there really is no need to run it manually as there was in XP or earlier.

If a computer is not running at 1:00AM Wednesday, how is this to take place?   

Not everyone leaves their computers on 24 hours a day. That is why manual scheduling is needed.

Does Vista run so poorly that it needs defragging once a week?   

For the general user, that really is not a good thing to need defragging that often.


***

[sunrisecc]

Tasks are usually defined to run at a specific time or as soon as possible afterwards. Hence if your computer is not on at Wednesday @1:00AM, it will run as soon as you next boot up. Background tasks do not impede a user from working.
WRT the running of it weekly, you obviously did not read the articles linked above. On the other hand, nothing prevents you from changing the schedule to what you want. The times I mentioned earlier are the default times.

However if you are stuck in thinking of the defrag methodology prior to Vista, there are additional papers on the PerfectDisk site. These papers do not only relate to defragging  using PerfectDisk but defragging in general.

When I first started in computers over 40 years ago (yes before PCs existed) every job/task was a batch job. In the 40 years, I have seen jobs when I used to run a datacenter move from batch to foreground to background. I do miss the days when I would re-sequence a disk/defrag, shutting down all users, and reading a newspaper while it ran. Today I am able to post in this forum, defrag my drive and drink tea at the same time.

[Hard_ROCKER]

***

Firstly, since the task runs automatically every Wed. at 1:00 AM, there really is no need to run it manually as there was in XP or earlier.

If a computer is not running at 1:00AM Wednesday, how is this to take place?  

Not everyone leaves their computers on 24 hours a day. That is why manual scheduling is needed.

Does Vista run so poorly that it needs defragging once a week?  

For the general user, that really is not a good thing to need defragging that often.


***

Trying to start a flame again like in that other FF thread ? I'm not even going to reply to that comment about Vista running poorly.


Naturally there are ways to edit the default defrag tasks, just fire up Task Scheduler and play with it as much as you like. Set it to run at a different time or when the computer boots up or change the default arguments to something that suits you etc etc. The Task Scheduler is a really cool thing and one can do alot in it. For example i set up a complete backup of my c: partition through there.


Why defragging is necessary ? On the JkDefrag page is a very simple explanation that everyone should understand. Here is a quote:

Defragmentation and optimizing will not only make a harddisk faster, but also lengthen it's life span. The disk will have less work to do and therefore have less wear and tear. Secondly, the sorting optimization strategies (see the "-a" option) will refresh all the magnetic data on your harddisk. However, defragmenting and optimizing is work, so excessive defragmenting and optimizing can actually cause more wear and tear than it prevents. JkDefrag is therefore set for "fast" optimization by default, intended to be used on a daily basis. The other optimizations should only be used occasionally.

Running a defrag once a week is definitely not excessive defragging and is actually for those of us that move alot of data on our partitions not enough.

[sunrisecc]

I remember in Win98, most could not run the supplied defrag unless in safe mode. Otherwise defrag would get to 7% and never complete. Weren't those little coloured squares pretty? 

[Hard_ROCKER]

If i am completely honest here, i have ALWAYS used 3rd party defrag programs on my machine. sunrisecc will no doubt remember speedisk.exe from the Norton Utilities for DOS programs and then later Speed Disk for Win, those were my first defrag programs ...

[sunrisecc]

I paid $70Cdn for the program.

[Hard_ROCKER]

Donn Edwards posted a new blog on Boot Time Defragmentation yesterday:

http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2008/12/boot-time-defragmentation.html