Defrag Tools
Monday, September 17, 2007 by Leo the Lion | Discussion: Community
I have been using Norton Systemworks for years to keep my PC clean and tidy but recently I noticed that the file defrag and optimization tool was not doing as good a job as I expected. Tried the Windows tool that comes with XP and that was no better so I went in search of something different and visted quite a few sites to see what other users were using and what they recommended. One of the most popular tools appeared to be PerfectDisk. I downloaded the free trial and I must say that I am very impressed. WWW Link
So what do you guys use and what experiences do you have?
So what do you guys use and what experiences do you have?
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AtlanticCanadianScot
Reply #22 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:39 PM
Reply #22 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:39 PM
well Leo, after reading your last reply + considering your credentials + track record, out of respect + admiration for your knowledge in this matter + experiencing the results I already have from the contributor's submissions + recommentdations to this thread, I am definitely up for a trial + eval of your highly recommended TuneUp Utilities...don't know how much better my lap could perform than it is already but I am up for 'seeing to believe'...will let you know the result...rest assured
Zoomba
Reply #23 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:45 PM
Reply #23 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:45 PM
I'd like to second the original suggestion of MST Defrag. I use it at home and it has some outstanding features such as on-the-fly defrag. It'll watch you disk and try and defrag as things happen, keeping the disk from ever getting TOO fragmented.
BoXXi
Reply #24 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:49 PM
Reply #24 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:49 PM
I use "DiskTrix Ultimate Defrag". It's very clever, it takes the data that you use the most and places it at the edge of the disk platters so that it can be accessed faster. Cool eh?
Leo the Lion
Reply #25 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:10 PM
Reply #25 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:10 PM
Zoomba, that does look like a good prog too. Bryan, I see Ultimate Defrag has a very good article and write up on Softpedia. Thanks guys for your input 
Leo the Lion
Reply #26 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:21 PM
Reply #26 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:21 PM
initiatedsean441, good luck with your trial of TuneUp. The only issue I had with TuneUp was the TuneUp System Optimizer. This is just one application amongst the many 'tune ups' that this software offers. You'll see when you enter this app that one of the tasks is 'optimize your computer configuration'. I clicked one of the options under 'Use of Computer' and for some reason it messed with my internet connection. May have been me not paying attention to the option I chose but I put it right within five minutes. Otherwise just go through all of the options that TuneUp offer and click the tasks you want it to perform and I think you will be amazed at the 'before and after' result.
Leo the Lion
Reply #28 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:49 PM
Reply #28 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:49 PM
c242, Yep and if Defraggler is anywhere near as good a CCleaner it will certainly be a 'top player' but I stayed clear of it at this stage as it was 'beta' and still needs some work
AtlanticCanadianScot
Reply #29 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:55 PM
Reply #29 Monday, October 8, 2007 1:55 PM
yup, with you on that eval Leo...tried Defraggler + although it has an impressive interface + really admire what its counterpart CCleaner does for cleanup after an installation, its results were not lasting...the afortmentioned apps in Reply #19 truly had the most lasting effects + impact
Leo the Lion
Reply #30 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 2:29 AM
initiatedsean441, let us know if you try TuneUp and how you got on?
Reply #30 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 2:29 AM
yup, with you on that eval Leo...tried Defraggler + although it has an impressive interface + really admire what its counterpart CCleaner does for cleanup after an installation, its results were not lasting...the afortmentioned apps in Reply #19 truly had the most lasting effects + impact
initiatedsean441, let us know if you try TuneUp and how you got on?
AtlanticCanadianScot
Reply #31 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 11:44 AM
Reply #31 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 11:44 AM
well hey Leo...was doing the family thing all this weekend as it was Thankgiving here in Canada...while at my Mother's place for dinner on Monday, was definitely looking forward to installing + running TuneUp Utilities 2007 to see the effect + how thorough it would be as her desktop definitely needed something as it was terribly sluggish + I was ready to re-format but stopped short of that due to not being able to get all of her subscribed licences back from IncrediMail so wasn't about to lose that on her...well, lemme tell ya, TuneUp Utilities gets a high five from me for what it offers in its utilities suite of repair apps + really does thoroughly optimize + clean up the registry as well as C drive leaving a system much more efficient; corrected + optimized her Internet settings to something better, cleaned out all of prev app install files + reg entries that I thought were removed w CCleaner + PConPoint...the Utility really is generously packed with repair apps that are a must for anyone who hasn't reformatted or done a fresh 'restore' in a while;the subscription price really is a bargain for all that it does + offers;bonus points it also has settings to schedule a 'maintenance' at whatever cycle is considered appropo to keep whatever repairs were done maintained...+ today, now that I have time, will try it on my wireless laptop...bottom line, excellent referral Leo..thx
Leo the Lion
Reply #32 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:48 PM
Reply #32 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:48 PM
intiatedsean441, That's great to know. And you make a very interesting observation on the effectiveness of CCleaner. I ran CCleaner before TuneUp on one of my machines and I was surprised at the number of additional problems that TuneUp found. Yep, CCleaner is good at what it does but there are obviously better out there. OK, it does not have the number of different tools that TuneUp has but if you compare those parts of Tuneup which do the same job as CCleaner then I have to say that TuneUp wins hands down. Plus there are all the other apps in TuneUp to put your machine in even better shape.
Thanks for your feedback. I am not an expert when it comes to these types of tools and it's nice for people like you to join in with things like this because it helps us all see what is out there in the market and make an informed choice.
My free 30 day trial on TuneUp runs out in a few days time and I'm going to buy it and PerfectDisk. I think this will be money well spent.
Thanks for your feedback. I am not an expert when it comes to these types of tools and it's nice for people like you to join in with things like this because it helps us all see what is out there in the market and make an informed choice.
My free 30 day trial on TuneUp runs out in a few days time and I'm going to buy it and PerfectDisk. I think this will be money well spent.
WeatherBound
Reply #33 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 2:04 PM
I have tried this program and it does ok job. I don't no how compare it to any other program except Cclean. I did not really notice any speed up time on reboot, but Cclean did not speed it up much either.
Im going to give tuneUp Utilities a try. I will let you know the out come.
Nice Post Leo the Lion
Reply #33 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 2:04 PM
Has anyone tried Advanced WindowsCare Personal?
I have tried this program and it does ok job. I don't no how compare it to any other program except Cclean. I did not really notice any speed up time on reboot, but Cclean did not speed it up much either.
Im going to give tuneUp Utilities a try. I will let you know the out come.
Nice Post Leo the Lion
Leo the Lion
Reply #34 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 4:51 PM
Reply #34 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 4:51 PM
Thanks, WeatherBound. After Using TuneUp and PerfectDisk I noticed only a small redusction in boot up time but after that I found when I was working with various apps open, chopping and changing and opening others my whole system sped up dramatically. I also found that there were quite a few processes that I was not using that were hogging memory and TuneUp has a nice little device which tells you what they are. Blinkin' iTunesHelper and a few others that I did not need running had their legs chopped off which also helped with the speed issue.You will see that there are numerous ways to bring your system up to it's best with TuneUp and it's very easy to use and understand. I'm a simple soul and if it's all about clicking a button and letting the prog do the rest then that's fine and dandy by me.
BigDogBigFeet
Reply #35 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 7:45 PM
Reply #35 Tuesday, October 9, 2007 7:45 PM
I've used TuneUp Utilities for close to 2 years now. Excellent programs. They just plain work well. The 2 programs in the suite that are great for everyday maintenance are the Registry Cleaner and the Storage Cleaner. Both are activated either directly or by scheduling 1-click maintenance to autorun.
It also includes a straight forward way to manage all auto-start programs(doesn't work on everything though). The average user will find numerous unneeded and unwanted programs that have installed themselves on your computer many without your knowledge that now autorun evertime you reboot. I have a system with a gigabyte of RAM running XP and it was reduced to under 500 MBs until I got TuneUp Utilities and cleaned house on them. Now back to around 700 MB's after reboot and that's no joke.
TuneUp Utilities includes a Registry defragger(speeds up hard disk access times), but does not include a hard disk defragger, I use MS's standard XP hard disk defragger for that chore. Anyway enough from me. Good post Leo!
It also includes a straight forward way to manage all auto-start programs(doesn't work on everything though). The average user will find numerous unneeded and unwanted programs that have installed themselves on your computer many without your knowledge that now autorun evertime you reboot. I have a system with a gigabyte of RAM running XP and it was reduced to under 500 MBs until I got TuneUp Utilities and cleaned house on them. Now back to around 700 MB's after reboot and that's no joke.
TuneUp Utilities includes a Registry defragger(speeds up hard disk access times), but does not include a hard disk defragger, I use MS's standard XP hard disk defragger for that chore. Anyway enough from me. Good post Leo!
Leo the Lion
Reply #36 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 1:05 AM
Reply #36 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 1:05 AM
Thanks, BigDogBigFeet. You make some very valid points and I had similar expereiences. I saw Yrag around on the boards a while back and I wonder, with his wealth of experience, if he has any feedback? Gary?
Leo the Lion
Reply #38 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:23 AM
Reply #38 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:23 AM
Thanks, Gary. Never seen the jv16 Powertools software before but it looks good and I will give the 30 day trial a whirl on one of my machines. On the PerfectDisk link, yep I think it's the best defragger out there, that I've tried and many people who have been using it for sometime won't look at anything else. Thanks for your input
XX
Reply #39 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:26 AM
Reply #39 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:26 AM
I won't buy or even look at program that has word Norton or Macfee in it.
WeatherBound
Reply #40 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:01 PM
Reply #40 Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:01 PM
So far my opinion on TuneUp 2007 is that it did find 395 things in the registry to clean up or fix that Advanced WindowsCare Personal and Cclean missed.
Did not however really notice any new speed on my computer.
It did pick up and warn me of a start up program that is according to TuneUp is a spyware and should be deleted. All of them said I have 15 start up programs. all Except Tune UP Utilities give the Blank.exe which is to bad.
Tune up utilities also has different names for those 15 start up Programs. All other programs are the same names and show the Blank.exe so i can look it up online
Advanced WindowsCare Personal has a button to do the online search to make it easy to look up the blank.EXE.
All in all I do like TunUp 2007 but wish i new why it gives different names on startup Programs.
Advanced WindowsCare Personal is free and did ok but did miss 395 things in the registry.
Did not however really notice any new speed on my computer.
It did pick up and warn me of a start up program that is according to TuneUp is a spyware and should be deleted. All of them said I have 15 start up programs. all Except Tune UP Utilities give the Blank.exe which is to bad.
Tune up utilities also has different names for those 15 start up Programs. All other programs are the same names and show the Blank.exe so i can look it up online
Advanced WindowsCare Personal has a button to do the online search to make it easy to look up the blank.EXE.
All in all I do like TunUp 2007 but wish i new why it gives different names on startup Programs.
Advanced WindowsCare Personal is free and did ok but did miss 395 things in the registry.
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Reply #21 Monday, October 8, 2007 12:27 PM