*Great* Windows Defragmenting Freeware

Ron Thorne · June-10th-2006, 09:33 PM

As the owner of a dinosaur, Win98 OS, I've had more than my share of frustration trying to properly and thoroughly defragment our hard drive, until a couple of weeks ago when our son Justin turned me onto a lifesaver. It's FREEWARE and called Diskeeper Lite.

Windows is notorious for having problems with its defrag utility, but this baby solves it. You can buy a home version for $29.95 with a Set-It-And-Forget-It mode, but I'm delighted with the free version which I'm using on a daily basis. What a difference it's made in the performance of our pc! It takes :15mins or less, depending on how fragmented things have become, and it gives you a report as to how fragmented your system was and whether it's 100% defragmented or some fragments still linger. It also gives you a warning if your system becomes dangerously fragmented.

It's the same technology used for the full Diskeeper software you purchase, but is a manual-only version. It works for all Windows operating systems from Win98 through XP.

Here's a link for the download for this fine piece of software.

Enjoy!

letchhausen · June-10th-2006, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

As the owner of a dinosaur, Win98 OS

Umm, why? Is your hardware old?

Ron Thorne · June-10th-2006, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by letchhausen

Umm, why? Is your hardware old?

I'm not certain if I correctly understand your question, letchhausen. If you're asking if I consider Windows 98 "old", my answer would be yes. It works fine for me, but it's definitely not the most current or preferred Windows OS available. It is newer than Windows 95, though.

If you're asking why I'm so concerned about defragmenting, I've learned more in the past two weeks than ever before about how disc fragmentation can cause problems, sometimes serious ones. Windows built-in Defrag utility SUCKS! It's always been problematic.

Why is it crucial to defrag your drives daily?

Disk fragmentation causes crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures. The number one reason for performance bottlenecks is fragmentation. Even the best hardware will eventually slow down unless the drive is defragmented daily.

The disk drive is by far the slowest of the three main components of your computer: CPU, memory and disk. If the drive isn't defragmented the fastest CPU in the world won't improve your system's performance, because information from the disk simply can't be delivered fast enough.

The various editions of Diskeeper run on the Intel® x86 platform (including the Intel Pentium™ and Pentium-compatible CPUs from other manufacturers) running Microsoft Windows XP (Professional / Home / Tablet PC / Media Center editions), Windows 2000 (all Professional and Server editions), Windows Server 2003 (all editions), Windows NT 4.0 (all Server and Workstation editions), and Windows 95 / 98 / Me. For more information on compatibility read the Microsoft Knowledgebase article about Diskeeper, view our product compatibility list, or select the type of environment your computers run in from the following choices: Home User, Small Business or Corporate/Government.

I stand by my recommendation to download and use this freeware. I'm almost certain that you'll notice better performance with your pc. I know that I've experienced considerable improvement, beginning with the time it takes for startup.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

moneyp · June-11th-2006, 02:12 AM

I've never had a problem with Windows defragmenting, but okay.

Time to upgrade, Ron. New PCs are getting cheaper all the time.

Ron Thorne · June-11th-2006, 02:39 AM

An upgrade is in the works, thanks. In the meantime . . .

letchhausen · June-11th-2006, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

I'm not certain if I correctly understand your question, letchhausen.

Actually my question was whether you were still using Windows 98 because your hardware was too old to upgrade. Since the newer iterations of Windows have higher memory and cpu requirements, people with older hardware tend to stay with the older OS's. I certainly understanding the point of defragging but I never used Windows 98. I went to NT, 2000 and now use XP. The defragging utility there works just fine. My main home machine is about 5 years old so I'm not on the latest hardware though I have a work machine (at home) that's a fairly new Compaq, both of these boxes run XP.

An upgrade would be good. Computers are so cheap now. I used to build my own out of parts but now it's more expensive to do that.....

June-11th-2006, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I've never had a problem with Windows defragmenting, but okay.

Time to upgrade, Ron. New PCs are getting cheaper all the time.

I'm waiting until after the first of the year to even consider upgrade, until that new MS thingy that replaces XP comes out. Probably doesn't have anything to do with what y'all are talking about...everytime I go to defragment the 'puter says either that I don't need to or it makes very little difference.

letchhausen · June-11th-2006, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzbluescat

I'm waiting until after the first of the year to even consider upgrade, until that new MS thingy that replaces XP comes out. Probably doesn't have anything to do with what y'all are talking about...everytime I go to defragment the 'puter says either that I don't need to or it makes very little difference.

Well, Vista ships in January but let me tell ya, I would give that at least six months until the first service pack comes out. You know that January release (delayed from it's target xmas season ship date) is gonna be just a bit better than beta. I'll let others do Microsft's bug checking then when they roll out a service pack to fix 'em all, I'll upgrade. I was going to buy a new box this year but I'm going to see what happens chipwise next year and perhaps spring for some dual core 64 bit goodness. Or get this years chip cheap next year and overclock it........

clinthopson · June-12th-2006, 11:42 AM

Thorny,

A lot of us have trouble with old hardware.

RBS · June-12th-2006, 10:17 PM

Let me be the first to thank Ron for giving of himself. Again.

Nefertiti · June-13th-2006, 04:45 AM

I think fragmentation is a minor problem, compared to the many stability issues in Windows 98 (or any other DOS-based Windows).

I've never seen anyone want to return to Windows 98 after using Windows 2000, XP or even NT4 (which works with very old hardware too) for some time.

Kevin Bresnahan · June-13th-2006, 09:23 AM

Somewhere in my foggy memory banks lays the info I need.... isn't the defragmenter in Windows 2000 & Windows XP already Diskeeper Lite? I know that the old defragmenter in 95 & 98 was slow as molasses but the one in XP is super fast. They licensed it from someone and I could swear it was Diskeeper Lite.

I do agree with Ron that defragmenting one's hardrive is very important. It greatly improves the life of your hardrive. The less fragmented your hardrive, the less "work" your hardrive has to do to reconstruct your files to use/open them. It's also critical to improving boot-up. Many people are amazed at how much faster their machine is when I defrag their hardrive.

Kevin

Ron Thorne · June-13th-2006, 04:46 PM

I believe you are correct in making a connection between Diskeeper and MS Windows, Kevin. When I launch Diskeeper Lite I see a Microsoft Logo and a reference to Microsoft BackOffice - 1997/1998.

The difference in performance since utilizing Diskeeper Lite has been very noticeable, from boot-up speed to overall speed of doing various tasks. It's almost like experiencing an upgrade, frankly.

WHAT IS FRAGMENTATION?

Disk fragmentation occurs when a file is broken up into pieces to fit on the disk. Because files are constantly being written, deleted and resized, fragmentation is a natural occurrence. When a file is spread out over several locations, it takes longer to read and write. But the effects of fragmentation are far more widespread: Slow performance, long boot-times, random crashes and freeze-ups — even a complete inability to boot up at all. Many users blame these problems on the operating systems, when disk fragmentation is often the real culprit.

I was simply trying to offer a new "tool" for those for whom it might provide some assistance. If you don't need it, that's cool.

letchhausen · June-14th-2006, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

I was simply trying to offer a new "tool" for those for whom it might provide some assistance. If you don't need it, that's cool.

Thanks Ron, I think some of us were just jumpin' in to talk about computers. I know I was......I can hardly wait to overclock one of those Pentium 805 D chips to 4 Ghz with a watercooler.........

Ron Thorne · June-14th-2006, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by letchhausen

I can hardly wait to overclock one of those Pentium 805 D chips to 4 Ghz with a watercooler.........

Then you may be interested in downloading and installing yet another goodie I found recently . . . Motherboard Monitor.

I've been monitoring a potentially failing cooling fan, and this freeware has been absolutely indispensable in providing me with up-to-the-minute fan speed, case temp, etc.

clinthopson · June-14th-2006, 11:16 AM

Besides having various kinds of security software in place (which seems not to have stopped the worm which is affecting some of my email), I run the disc clean up included in the Windows program about once a month and the de-frag every three months or so.

It seems to keep my computer sprightly and peppy.