A lot of parameters affect the performance of the system as a whole. These are the technical characteristics of the equipment, and the number of running and running programs, and the volume of the hard disk and its performance. But the latter depends not only on the frequency of rotation of the plates. In many ways, the performance of the disk, and therefore the system as a whole, also depends on how the files are placed on the disk. If the files are written to the disk in consecutive sectors, then reading them will require less time than if they were written in chunks to various free disk spaces at the time of recording.

Statistics say that if the number of fragmentary recorded files on a disk does not exceed thirty percent of their total number, then the operating conditions of the disk and its performance are close to optimal values. If up to half of the files are defragmented, then the speed of working with the disk slows down. At a higher percentage, the disk starts to work in hard conditions, it takes more time to read files. The result is a noticeable slowdown.

There is certainly a way out of this situation. And it consists in periodically checking the disk for fragmented files and optimizing their placement. To perform this work, programs of different developers are used. One of them, O&O Defrag, is offered by O&O Software. The company offers two versions of the program - Professional Edition and Server Edition. The first option is designed to run on a local computer and does not have a network management console, but can act as a client for a server solution. The server version has a console for managing the program over the network. It can be used on both servers and workstations, which provides administrative control and monitoring of the defragmentation process on computers.

Modern Windows systems have their own defragmentation systems, but while they are running, it is extremely difficult to continue performing any tasks on computers. In this regard, the O&O Defrag program has a significant difference: its ActivityGuard component allows you to monitor the execution of tasks on your computer and take this into account when you work. What is it? For example, if a screen saver starts on a computer, it means that other tasks are being performed on it to a lesser extent and, therefore, at this moment you can set a higher priority for the defragmenter or start a job that was suspended during a high computer load. The component takes into account the load of the processor and at low load (for example, during your break in work) allocates more resources to the defragmentation process than at other times. ActivityGuard also takes into account the capabilities of laptops - when running on batteries, the program is suspended, which reduces power consumption.

When installing the program, you can choose to use it instead of the standard defragmenter. In this case, the program call is built into the standard interface for working with disks. In addition, during installation, you can select the automatic disk defragmentation mode. The OneButtonDefrag O&O module provides disk health monitoring and automatically runs a defrag program in the background if necessary. (This mode can be turned off and on again at any time.)

The program offers five defragmentation methods. Each of them provides an efficient file defragmentation process that allows you to continue working with other applications. The methods differ with the resources used and the principle of placing files on the disk during the defragmentation process. The least resource intensive method is STEALTH. Its distinguishing feature is a small requirement for the memory used and additional disk space used for work. This ensures the fastest defragmentation process. Recommended for file servers with a large number of files and very large disk resources (greater than one terabyte).

The SPACE method is very close to the previous one, but it provides better defragmentation of files and maximum reduction of free space into a single zone. This method is recommended for disks with a significant number of fragmented files. The method is less productive than the previous one. Therefore, it is recommended for processing disk arrays with a volume of more than one hundred gigabytes or with the number of files more than one hundred thousand (the previous method works well with the number of files that are several times larger).

The following methods are a variation of their base type, COMPLETE, but differ in how files are sorted on disk. The method requires more resources than the previous ones, but provides maximum system performance after defragmentation. The first kind of method is sorting files by last access time. The most rarely used files are placed at the beginning of the disk, those that have been accessed recently are placed at the end. Such a reorganization of files allows you to spend much less time on defragmentation in the future, since the most "moving" files will be located at the end of the disk. The method is recommended for use on servers where it is required to provide the highest data access performance.

The following method sorts by the date the files were last modified. Files that have been modified recently are placed at the end of the disk. The oldest ones are at the top. This strategy is recommended for defragmenting database servers. And finally - the COMPLETE method with file sorting by name. This method is most applicable to system drives and to drives that contain rarely modified files. It should be noted that the last three methods are not recommended to be mixed with each other, nor with methods that do not perform structural reorganization of the file system. Selecting one of them, you need to use it for this disk.

A few notes about defragmentation. As noted, this process requires additional disk space. And it should be the larger, the larger the size of the files to be defragmented. You should also remember that you should try to avoid changing or moving files during defragmentation. O&O Defrag calculates the best positions for the files it moves before and during operation, and any change will affect these calculations. The consequence is an increase in the time to complete the operation due to additional recalculations.

If you set the option to automatically run the defragmentation process, you can set a minimum threshold (percentage of defragmentation of files), before which the process will not start. Generally speaking, performing disk defragmentation on a regular basis is a significant factor in increasing performance. To this end, the program has a built-in task manager. With it, you can create an unlimited number of disk defragmentation tasks with individual settings for each of them. For each disk, you can set your own defragmentation time, select the required method, and threshold. In addition, the program has the ability to automatically determine the moment when defragmentation is required. If this option is selected, the program will automatically determine the time of the next launch based on heuristic methods. The more fragmented the disk, the more often the program will run. If this condition is corrected, the program launches will be less frequent.

Defragmentation tasks can be fine-tuned to suit your needs. So, you can choose one of four levels of recording information in log files (they differ in the degree of detail). You can specify files that should not be defragmented. It is possible to perform a disk check before starting defragmentation. For partitions located on different media, you can set the defragmentation to run in parallel. If the partitions are located on the same physical medium, they will always be processed sequentially, in alphabetical order.

The defragmentation process is not performed automatically. In this case, the sequence of actions is set by the user. First, the disk is analyzed (and before that, you can run the verification procedure). As a result, a report is generated that gives a detailed view of the state of the disk. The report window has four tabs. The first one shows general information about the disk - the total volume, data about the file system and the use of clusters. The second tab shows a list of defragmented files and the number of separate fragments for each. The third is a list of files that cannot be moved even if they are defragmented. The last tab shows the generalized results of the disk analysis. The most inquisitive users can, in addition, see which specific files occupy a particular cluster. To do this, use the main window of the program, which shows the clusters of the disk under study. To view, just select the cluster you are interested in and click on it with the mouse pointer. In the window that opens, there will be a complete list of files that are included in this cluster.

In addition to the information that can be viewed through the program interface, you can generate an external report. It actually contains all the same data, but it can be saved (it is formed as an html page), printed, sent to someone.

In general, the program is very interesting and convenient. The ability to run from the command line allows you to embed it in various scripts. And the network version is of particular interest to the system administrator.

Many factors can affect the performance of an operating system. This is not only the technical characteristics of the equipment, but also the number of running applications, the size of the hard drive, and so on.

Users should periodically check the disk for fragmented files and optimize their placement. To perform this action, you can use a special professional program.

Password for all archives: 1progs

O&O Defrag Pro is a fairly powerful program designed to defragment your hard drive. This software product is able to work with different file systems, namely NTFS5, NTFS, FAT, FAT32. The program runs in the background.

The free version of the program can be used without restrictions for only one month, after which you need to activate O&O Defrag Pro. On our site you can download the O&O Defrag Pro key absolutely free of charge to activate this software product.

The following defragmentation modes are available to users:

  • COMPLETE/Name
  • COMPLETE/Access
  • SPACE
  • STEALTH
  • COMPLETE/Date

Currently, O&O Defrag Pro is one of the most famous and best hard drive defragmentation applications. The program has rich functionality.

The main features of the program:

  1. Defragment individual folders and files through the context menu.
  2. Wizard for automated and regular defragmentation.
  3. There are five kinds of varied methods for disk defragmentation.
  4. Creating a normal defragmentation in automatic mode.
  5. Support for all known drives today.
  6. Increased performance for the hard drive.
  7. Increased performance for the operating system.
  8. Several modes for formatting a disk.

The main advantages include the following: five methods for defragmenting, working with external USB devices, an intuitive interface, support for the Russian language, obtaining information about the hard drive. In addition, users can use flexible settings to exclude certain files from defragmentation.

Program analogues

See similar programs in our selections of programs

Over the years of my admin practice, more and more often I come across such a phenomenon as "terrible hatred" or "total boycott" of defragmentation. , once in three or four years, and then under the threat of strangulation with a mouse from an admin who accidentally ran in :)

What caused this, of course, I understand (more precisely, I’ve heard enough :)), they say all this is very long, you won’t really use the computer during the process, and in general it’s absolutely not clear why all these squares are shmagvatiki, and “smart” people write on the Internet that it (this very defragmentation) is not needed and generally only spoils the disk.

Defragment your hard drive with O&O Defrag Free

At one time, I suggested using such a defragmenter as Defragler, which, in fact, I wrote in this article: " Defragmentation program". Such recommendations were caused by the fact that of all the free defragmenters I know, this one was the most high-quality in terms of results, because not all programs of similar specificity do their job equally well, as well as the most minimalistic and user-friendly.

Actually, you can download the program (from the developer's website).

Installation is extremely simple and I will not dwell on it.
After installation, a reboot may be required (rarely), and the following program setup wizard window will appear:

Where we need to uncheck all the checkboxes, if they are set, because we definitely don’t need defragmentation in the background or on a schedule for home needs.

Next, in the program window, we go to the settings page (green button called "Settings") and perform some additional configuration, namely, check the "" checkbox and uncheck the "Create reports", " Write events to the Windows event log", as well as " Show O&O Defrag icon in the task tray (Must login again to display)". Of course, you can leave the last checkmark (because it is responsible for displaying the program icon), but then it’s up to anyone .. Personally, I don’t like it when a lot of things are near the clock, especially when there is no urgent need for it, since the program can be launched and shortcut and it is not necessary to keep it in the tray for this.

Afterword

Here are the things.

What's nice - the addition to the program is checking for errors with the help (the checkmark we put " Check drive(s) before defragmentation and abort upon error"), and the quality of the defragmentation itself is not in doubt - the system starts to run noticeably faster, programs load almost instantly, and paid analogues do not find anything forgotten during reanalysis, i.e. any fragmented data that O & O "forgot".

If you have any questions, then, as always, I will be happy to answer them in the comments.

» I have already touched on the topic of disk defragmentation. O O Defrag Professional is a very efficient and powerful defragmentation software for hard drives, flash drives and solid state drives.

The main advantages of O O Defrag Professional edition include the following:

  • five defragmentation methods.
  • Full defragmentation of the hard drive in almost any case.
  • Working with external USB drives.
  • Support for 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, XP.
  • Convenient, intuitive interface.
  • The ability to obtain a large amount of information about the disk regarding defragmentation.
  • Ability to run defragmentation according to plan.
  • Possibility of parallel and sequential execution of operations on disks.
  • Disk defragmentation when the operating system boots.
  • Automatic disk optimization.
  • Flexible settings for excluding files from defragmentation.
  • Activity monitoring.

There are a lot of opinions about the importance and necessity of disk defragmentation. Considering a large number of factors (type of drive, file system, cluster size, size of stored files, operating system, frequency of disk use, and so on), hard disk defragmentation will have a different “utility character”. Now (mid-2011) there is an active transition from hard disk drives to solid state drives (SSD). Flash drives are the most popular devices for "transferring information in your pocket." For hard disk drives, fragmentation has a more detrimental effect on performance than for solid state drives and flash drives (memory cards). However, for SSDs, disk defragmentation plays a "wear-reduced role". Many articles have already been written about this.

It is worth noting the specific area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "hard drive" - ​​the Windows registry. To check and defragment it, I recommend the TweakNow PowerPack system utility.

The review will include the latest, at the time of this writing (07/19/2011) stable English version of O O Defrag Professional 14.5.543 x64 (Operating system - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (build 7601), x64).

System requirements for O O Defrag Professional 14.5.543 x64. O O Defrag Professional edition does not impose special system requirements on the system. If your PC meets the system requirements of the operating system installed on it, then O O Defrag Professional will work.

  • 50 MB free disk space for installation.
  • Access right Administrator level.
  • Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Vista, XP. 32 and 64 bit versions are supported.

Main window O O Defrag Professional

The main window of O O Defrag Professional (figure below) can be roughly divided into three areas.

  1. Menu.
  2. Disk table.
  3. Disk information.

The menu area is visually divided into five groups.

  1. defragmentation.
  2. Reports.
  3. File system.
  4. Options.

Region Disk table by default contains twelve columns.

  1. Disk. Volume letter.
  2. Name. Volume label.
  3. Action. Displays the status of the action being performed on the drive.
  4. Status. Percentage of completed action.
  5. Total files.
  6. Fragmented files.
  7. fragmentation percentage.
  8. The size. Disk size.
  9. Free. The amount of free disk space (in gigabytes).
  10. File system.
  11. The current file or folder. The full name of the file (folder) on which the action is currently being performed.
  12. Time left. The time until the completion of the operation.

It is possible to sort in direct or reverse order by any of the columns, arrange the columns in the order convenient for you. If necessary, you can hide or add some columns (picture below) or reset the disk table settings to default. And also specify the alignment of the contents of the disk table (left, right, center).

To area Disc Information(picture below) hard disk defragmentation is presented in a visual form.

Contains five tabs.

  1. Type of clusters.
  2. Tasks. Tasks will be discussed in detail later in the article.
  3. Reports.
  4. Disk status.
  5. File status.

Tab Type of clusters(figure above) contains a graphical representation of the disk file system and a color legend. If desired, you can change any of the colors of the legend. The O O Defrag Professional edition legend contains the following items:

  • Free.
  • Condensed.
  • Defragmented.
  • Fragmented.
  • Reserved for the file system.
  • System.
  • Report files.
  • Blocked.
  • In the process.
  • Directories.

All of them display the belonging of a particular place on the disk to different types of files (or directories). You can customize the display of the graphical representation using the following options.

  • Classic representation of clusters. Will remove the gradient from the clusters. Make them one color.
  • Shadow. Add or remove the shadow cast by each cluster.
  • Cluster size. You can change the color cell display size (diagonally in pixels) to 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18.

With a smaller cluster size, you get a more detailed view of the volume's file system structure. Since, for example, with a color cell size of 18 pixels (figure below), one fragment can contain many different types of files. Information about the content of a particular colored cell can be found by double-clicking on it.

The figure above shows the display of cells in a non-classic way, with a shadow, a gradient and a size of 18 pixels. For example, I will show in the figure below the display of cells in a classic form without a shadow and a 3-pixel gradient. I will also give information about the content of one such cell.

On the tab Reports(picture below) displays all available volume reports.

An example of viewing one of the reports in the browser is shown in the figure below.

Tab Disk Status(picture below) displays brief information about the selected drive.

Tab File Status(picture below) contains a table with information about disk files.

It is possible to filter the list of files by the following criteria.

  • fragmented files.
  • Large fragmented files.
  • Fragmented system files.
  • Large system files.
  • Fragmented locked files.
  • Large blocked files.
  • Large files.

You can sort any of the filtered lists forward or backward by the following columns.

  • File name.
  • File size.
  • Fragments. Number of file fragments.
  • File fragmentation percentage.
  • initial cluster. The number of the cluster where the beginning of the file is located.

O O Defrag Professional has options to customize the program window display style (colors), font size, text direction (right to left), and window transparency for Windows 7 and Vista.

Toolbar

defragmentation

Option Fast start(picture below) will allow you to schedule a defragmentation and / or start immediately.

You can specify automatic disk optimization (in the background), disk optimization when the system is idle, or optimization time (day of the week, hour, minute). You can specify the sign of monthly or weekly defragmentation. It is possible to tell O O Defrag Professional to check the disk file system for errors before defragmenting.

Analysis allows you to perform a forced analysis of the state of the selected disk. Before starting defragmentation, O O Defrag Professional will definitely analyze the selected volume. After the analysis, a graphical representation of the cluster map will be available to you.

In O O Defrag Professional edition 14.5.543 x64, you can choose one of five disk defragmentation methods.

  1. High-speed.
  2. Space.
  3. Full/Name.
  4. Full/Date modified.
  5. Full access.

I took the description of defragmentation methods from the help file (in English) installed with the program. The translation is not literal with its own comments and interpretation.

The speed method uses less (compared to other methods) amount of RAM. It gives good results even on computers with low RAM and little free disk space. The method is to try to fragment and merge files in order to optimize free space. This method is recommended in the following cases.

  • Initial defragmentation of your system's hard drive.
  • Servers with very large disks (for example, larger than 4 terabytes).
  • Computers with a very large number of files (greater than 3,000,000 files).

Method Space. Consolidates its data so that the amount of contiguous free space is as large as possible and reduces the chance of further fragmentation. This method is recommended in the following cases.

  • Initial disk defragmentation of your system.
  • Computers with "weak" hardware and not a lot of free disk space.
  • Servers with large disks (for example, larger than 1 terabyte)
  • Computers with a large number of files (more than 100,000 files).

Method Full/Name previous. However, it provides a larger percentage of the file system performance boost. In addition to defragmentation, it reorganizes the structure of files. Files are sorted alphabetically from beginning to end of the disc, and this results in quick access to files in the directory. When Windows boots up, most of the system files will be read in sequence from the WINDOWS folder and system32. This will reduce system startup time. This method is especially recommended for computers that rarely change files. This reduces the rebuild time required for each defragmentation. This method is recommended in the following cases.

  • All types of servers and workstations.

Method Full/Date modified. A method that is more demanding on hardware resources and takes longer to complete than high-speed and method Space. However, it provides a larger percentage of the file system performance boost. In addition to defragmentation, it reorganizes the structure of files. The files are sorted according to the date they were last modified. Files that have not been modified recently will be placed at the beginning of the disk, and recently modified files at the end. This method is good for file servers or database servers that contain files that never change (such as system files) and files that change frequently (such as database files). This method allows future defrags to run as quickly as possible, as only some files need to be checked and defragmented. This method is recommended in the following cases.

  • For regular defragmentation.
  • Computers with "strong" hardware and plenty of free disk space.

Method Full/Access. A method that is more demanding on hardware resources and takes longer to complete than high-speed and method Space. However, it provides a larger percentage of the file system performance boost. In addition to defragmentation, it reorganizes the structure of files. Files are sorted by the date they were last accessed. Files that are rarely accessed are placed at the beginning of the partition. Files accessed frequently go to the end. Rarely used files are defragmented and not moved in the future. This method allows future defrags to run as quickly as possible, as only some files need to be checked and defragmented. This method is recommended in the following cases:

  • Maximizes file system performance on servers.
  • For regular defragmentation.
  • Computers with "strong" hardware and plenty of free disk space.
  • All types of servers and workstations.

DO NOT apply different defragmentation methods to the same disk! This can significantly slow down the defragmentation process, increase the load on the computer hardware and lead to undesirable consequences of file system fragmentation! It is especially NOT recommended to perform different defragmentation methods for automatic optimization in the background and scheduled scans!

As noted earlier, O O Defrag Professional 14.5.543 x64 has the ability to create tasks to automatically perform the defragmentation procedure. To do this, the program has a large number of options. When creating a task, a window will open in front of you (figure below), containing eight tabs.

  1. Main.
  2. Schedule.
  3. Disks.
  4. Files.
  5. Activity monitor.
  6. Settings.
  7. Actions before defragmentation.
  8. Actions after defragmentation.

Let's take a closer look at these tabs.

On the tab Main(picture above) You set the name, description and action with the computer after completing all the tasks. For example, turn off.

Tab Schedule(picture below) You set the schedule for this task. You can choose to run once (with time and day), weekly (with day/days of the week, period from/to and start time of the task) and run when the screen saver starts (it is assumed that you are not working at the computer).

It is possible to specify the maximum duration of the task and repeat the task later if it did not work at the specified time.

On the tab Disks(figure below) it is possible to specify for each disk separately the defragmentation method, the percentage of data defragmentation at which the task should be performed for this disk, assign defragmentation at boot and add disk files to zones (zones will be discussed later in the article).

Files. This tab (picture below) is in turn divided into three tabs.

  1. Excluded files. Files that do not need to be defragmented.
  2. Files to be defragmented.
  3. Files by size. To reduce the disk defragmentation time, you can specify the file size (select from the drop-down list from 100 MB to 5 GB) that will be excluded from defragmentation.

Tab Activity Monitor(Figure below) allows you to set up system busy tracking for a job. It is very comfortable! For example, you have scheduled a full defragmentation of all disks with a file system check before and after defragmentation. And forgot about it. But, for example, half an hour before the start of the task, you left the computer turned on with Pinnacle running, in which a large movie is saved. If you start the task, despite the PC booting, then defragmenting the hard drive and saving the movie can take a very, very long time.

The activity monitor contains settings in which you specify the percentage of CPU and hard drive loading at which the task will not be launched. It is also possible to specify the name of the program, if it is active, the task will also not be launched. You can specify that the task cannot be started if the computer (laptop) is running on battery power. O O Defrag Professional edition 14.5.543 x64 provides an option to "wake up" the computer from sleep or hibernation.

Tab Settings(picture below) contains general options for the job. Such as:

  • Account for removable media.
  • Account for external media.
  • Special disk defragmentation for solid state drives.

You can specify the creation of reports (their number) and the level of detail.

Tabs Steps before defragmentation(picture below) and Actions after defragmentation look the same. In them, you can import a special file with action commands before and after the task is completed.

The created task is displayed in the main window O O Defrag Professional on the tab (picture below).

You can also delete, run and edit the task there.

I took the description of defragmentation zones from the help file (in English) installed with the program. The translation is not literal with its own comments and interpretation.

Dividing a disk into zones allows you to logically distinguish between critical and non-critical data. A special algorithm checks that after defragmentation, the data on the disk is optimally organized. It also checks the placement of files in zones, depending on the settings. For example, system files that need to be accessed frequently and as quickly as possible are separated from other data such as movies and music. This will reduce the percentage of file fragmentation, reduce the time of defragmentation and reduce the load on the system during defragmentation. O O Defrag Professional edition 14.5.543 x64 already has several zones configured. They are optimal for most users. However, you can create your own (picture below).

Setting up O O Defrag Professional edition

The O O Defrag Professional settings window (picture below) is divided into five tabs.

  1. Main.
  2. Disk defragmentation on boot.
  3. Automatic optimization.
  4. Files. This tab is discussed in more detail above.
  5. Activity monitor. This tab is discussed in more detail above.

Main. This tab (figure above) contains the following settings:

  • checking the disk for file system errors before defragmenting and canceling defragmentation if an error is found.
  • Optimize multiple physical disks in parallel.
  • Optimization according to the features of the disk file system.
  • Account for removable media.
  • Account for external media.
  • Special defragmentation for solid state drives.
  • Distribution of files by zones.
  • Enable\disable automatic optimization.

You can specify the creation of reports (their number) and the level of detail. It is possible to display the O O Defrag Professional icon in the taskbar near the clock.

Defragmentation on boot. On this tab (picture below), you can set disk defragmentation when the operating system boots (on each boot, only on the next one).

Tab Automatic optimization(picture below) contains settings that will help you schedule defragmentation (and a method for each drive separately) in the background.

A little inconvenient is that you need administrator-level access rights to run the program. Unfortunately, the official site does not support Russian or Ukrainian language for the interface and/or help system. A small disadvantage is the fact that when O O Defrag Professional is open and a new media is connected to the computer, such as a flash drive, this media is not displayed in the program. To add it to O O Defrag Professional, you have to restart the program.

As you can see from the review, O O Defrag Professional edition 14.5.543 x64 has a lot of options for defragmentation. The developers have taken care of the owners of laptops, and the owners of "strong" workstations and servers, and users of "office" computers. System administrators will find the jobs feature in O O Defrag useful. When installing O O Defrag Professional 14.5.543 x64, it offers to install a proprietary screen saver into the system, add a defragmentation call to the Explorer context menu (to defragment a specific file at the user's request) and install O O Defrag Professional edition as the default defragmenter in the system. Also, O O Defrag Professional has the ability to check for version updates from the developer's site.


Distribution size: 13.6 MB
Spreading: shareware O&O Defrag - handy defragmenter with wide functionality. The program supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS and EFS file systems, can work with large volumes up to several terabytes, and stands out with two unique technologies. Thanks to ActivityGuard technology, the utility monitors the activity of the computer and ensures that the defragmentation process is carried out in the background without being noticed, reducing or increasing its activity in a timely manner. And support for OneButtonDefrag technology allows you to fully automate the defragmentation process and carry it out in accordance with user-defined settings when a certain level of fragmentation is fixed on the disk. Defragmentation can be performed on demand or automatically - according to a schedule or when the computer is inactive ("Screen Saver Mode"). The program works even with fairly small amounts of free space (5%) and allows you to run the defragmentation process not only for one, but also for several or even all disks installed on the computer. There is also selective defragmentation of files and folders, however, it is implemented in a way that is not quite usual for defragmenters - through the explorer context menu. But it does not provide for the consolidation of free space into a single area. In addition, O&O Defrag may have problems processing individual files if the program cannot find a free disk area of ​​sufficient size - in this case, the utility, having fixed a certain percentage of the work done, for a long time (if not forever) "thinks about life", and the process often has to be removed. After that, you can make the program work again only by manually starting the O&O Defrag service. So, in our opinion, not everything is perfect in the algorithm of this program. At the same time, in fairness, it should still be noted that if the named problem is not observed on a particular disk, then the program does its job perfectly. The demo version of the program (there is no Russian-language localization) is fully functional and operational for 30 days. The commercial version costs $49.95. In practice, using O&O Defrag is easy. The program window has four tabs - the "Defragmentation" tab combines tools for analyzing and defragmenting disks. The "Jobs and Reports" tab provides management of reports on the work done, the "View" tab provides access to information about the disk and files (disk map, disk status, etc.). ), you can download updates and view help information from the "Help" tab. Analysis of selected disks is launched by clicking on the "Analysis" button or by selecting the "Analyze" command from the context menu. Based on the results, detailed statistics are provided in several versions: in the form of a disk map showing empty space, an MFT area, defragmented files, etc. (by clicking on any block, you can see all the files it contains) and a disk status pie chart indicating the level its fragmentation. The program provides five defragmentation methods that differ in optimization strategies: Stealth, Space, Complete/Access, Complete/Modified and Complete/Name. The first two methods allow you to achieve results in the shortest possible time, but are less effective. These methods are recommended for initial defragmentation of never-before-defragmented drives. If you select the Stealth method, the program tries to optimize the available free disk space, while not all files are defragmented, and no optimization of their placement is provided. The developers recommend using this method to defragment disks with a very large number of files (more than 500,000) and/or with very little free space (5%). The Space method aims to increase the size of contiguous free areas and ensures defragmentation of all files, but can only work if there is a large enough free disk space and a relatively small number of files; recommended for background defragmentation. Even more free disk space is required in the Complete/Access, Complete/Modified and Complete/Name methods, which provide a complete defragmentation of all available files (including large and system files, as well as the MFT area) with optimization of their placement. The difference between these methods is in the optimization strategies. Thus, with the Complete/Modified method, files are located taking into account their modification, which is effective on disks where some files, in particular, databases, are regularly modified. And when you select the Complete/Name method, the files are sorted in alphabetical order - this is useful for quickly launching system libraries on disks where files are rarely modified. Defragmentation of one or several selected disks is started by selecting the desired defragmentation method from the context menu (or by pressing certain keyboard shortcuts) or immediately for all disks installed on the computer by clicking on the "Defragment Computer" button (in the latter case, the Space method is used automatically).

To speed up the defragmentation process, analysis and movement of individual files can be excluded - such files are specified directly in the program settings ("Settings" button, "General" tab).

Offline defragmentation is also provided (defragmentation before the OS starts, which allows you to defragment locked system files) - this mode is enabled in the program settings ("Settings" button, "Offline Defragmentation" tab).

Paragon Total Defrag 2009

Developer: Paragon Software Group
Distribution size: 17.4 MB
Spreading: Shareware Paragon Total Defrag is a defragmenter offered both standalone (only in the English edition) and as part of Partition Manager and Home Expert solutions. The first of these solutions is positioned as a universal tool for working with partitions and data on hard drives and allows you to perform any standard operations with partitions, as well as a number of other actions, including disk defragmentation. The second solution is a hard disk maintenance software package that can solve almost any problem that may arise during the operation of a hard disk, quickly and with only minimal computer experience. Both solutions have Russian-language localizations and are offered to Russian users at more attractive prices (490 rubles and 690 rubles, respectively), so purchasing Paragon Total Defrag as part of them is more reasonable. Paragon Total Defrag is a powerful and efficient defragmenter, yet relatively easy to use. It supports FAT16 / 32, NTFS, Linux Ext2 / 3 and Linux ReiserFS file systems and, unlike most similar solutions (and in this article, unlike all other utilities), it can perform not only background, but also full low-level defragmentation systems. As a result, an almost zero level of fragmentation is provided, and the files are placed taking into account the optimization strategy. This process is carried out in the mode of exclusive access (with restarting the computer) to the partition and turns out to be quite lengthy - at the same time, there can be no question of any possibility of access to the computer for this period. During defragmentation, all files are processed, including large (even more than 128 GB) and system files, as well as the MFT area, and the contents of temporary files can be ignored. It is possible to rewrite the MFT in a more compact way (MFT compression), which also improves the speed of accessing files on NTFS partitions. Defragmentation is performed with a minimum amount of free disk space (1%), and with such a minimum of free space, not many defragmenters can work. But it is impossible to use Paragon Total Defrag for any kind of selective defragmentation (defragmentation of folders and files or free space), since nothing of the kind is provided in this utility. There are also no automation options, which, however, is quite logical, since running low-level defragmentation on the machine is at least unreasonable. The demo version of the program is functional for 30 days, but has limited functionality - some of the operations in it work only in virtual mode. The cost of the commercial version is $29.95. By default, the program window has three panels - two basic horizontal and one additional vertical, which is easy to disable through the command menu. The horizontal panels display disks and operations with them (the top of the panels also has access to help), and the vertical one contains tabs with help information. The technology of working with Paragon Total Defrag is, in general, simple. First, in the "Disk Map" disk map, you should select the desired disk, and then start the operation of interest - that is, disk analysis or defragmentation, and then patiently wait for the end of the process. True, there are some nuances here - the program performs a preliminary disk analysis immediately after selecting it in the disk map, however, for a more detailed analysis, you will have to use the Partition > Defragment > "Analyze Fragmentation" command. If the disk is not bootable, then the program will carry out such an analysis and display the results without rebooting the system, otherwise you cannot do without it. In addition to disk analysis, you can also test its surface (Partition > "Test Surface"). As for defragmentation (the "Defragment Partition" button or the Partition > Defragment > "Defragment Partition…" command), there are two modes for its implementation - fast (Fast mode) and slow (Safe mode), which are selected through the program settings (Tools > settings). By default, "fast defragmentation" (Fast mode) is launched for the selected partition, however, if in the current operating system (say, the system partition is selected), the program cannot get the access to the partition it requires, then it will offer to restart the computer in a special mode. Before rebooting, you will need to define the settings for the operation, in the list of which you can refuse to save the contents of the Pagefile.sys and/or Hiberfile.sys files and set the desired data sorting option (sort files according to their size or the time they were last updated).

In "Fast mode" access to the computer is not blocked, and the operation is relatively fast and can be stopped if necessary. But when defragmenting in this mode, a power outage, hardware failure, or system failure can lead to data loss (this is a problem with all defragmenters). If the "Safe mode" is set, such a sad outcome of events is completely excluded, since a copy will be created for each file beforehand. True, this will take a lot of time, and there can be no talk of any activity on the computer during the defragmentation period, so it is wiser to start the process at night. Interrupting the process and restarting the computer during defragmentation in this mode is completely unacceptable. But everything will be reliable, and the results of defragmentation will be better, since the program will be able to access all the files. For comparison, we recall that when defragmenting in the background (that is, through the API), some part of the files (that is, those files that the program could not access) always remain fragmented.