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The standard Windows defrag utility is perhaps the slowest available. Of
course, it has the tremendous advantage of already being installed on your
computer. You can improve your defrag power in three ways.
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Use a freeware product
Buy a commercial product
Replace the current Windows defrag utility with a different Windows utility
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Use a freeware product.
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The best freeware products optimize the existing Windows defrag utility. We
recommend two:
Power Defrag
available from
Moochers
and
Defrag to Shutdown
available from
Media Horizon
. Power Defrag is slightly
easier to use, while Defrag to Shutdown, as the name implies, can be set to
shut down the computer when it has finished. Both are "set and forget"
utilities, you can just start them up and walk away. Clicking on the "Show
Details" button provides an interesting view of the defrag process.
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Buy a commercial product
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For us, the discussion begins and ends with Norton Speed Disk, the only
commercial product we have ever tried, or felt the need to try. Speed Disk is
both efficient and fun to watch. It is part of a package called Norton
Utilities. Norton Utilities can also be purchased as part of a larger package
called Norton System Works, which includes the highly recommended Norton
Anti-virus. At the time of this writing many Norton products were available as
a
30 day trial offer
shareware programs.
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Replace the current Windows defrag utility with a different Windows utility
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This solution applies only to Windows98 and some forms (32 bit) of Windows95.
The Windows ME defrag utility is vastly more efficient than the Windows98
utility. We have had problems with this method and cannot recommend it.
Others swear by it. For those who wish to try this solution,
The Gazette
offers an
excellent explanation
along with a copy of the ME defrag utility.
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