Windows Vista Defrag? NOT!

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One of the so-called "nice" new features of Windows Vista is the "rebuilt" defrag engine. Problem is, I don't like it. Why? I like to SEE what's being defragged, and I like to SEE a visual representation of what my filesystem looks like.

The main reason for this is that I can choose different defrag methods (such as with O&O Defrag) and get better file ordering. Also, when I get to see what's happening, it helps me to identify files I know I don't need and I can delete them, and do a follow-up defrag.

Unfortunately, O&O doesn't have anything out for Vista yet (yes I know you can Orca the MSI, but I ain't doing that!). Diskeeper isn't ready for Vista either.

Frankly, I don't know what these people have been doing all this time. They knew Windows Vista was coming out, the defrag API has been readily available to them to get their products ready. What, were they waiting for Godot?

At any rate, Raxco, which makes PerfectDisk, has a free 150 day trial of their Vista-compatible beta, and it works great. Also, Auslogic has a free defrag that is Vista compatible, but it doesn't offer control of defrag method or offer boot-time defragmentation.

Suggestion: Delete your Paging file before defragging (requires a reboot, and don't forget to press the "SET" button). You can then do the boot-time defrag, which takes care of your MFT and System files, and have a nice fast hard drive. Then, go back to Control Panel / System and restore your Paging file.

Always run the Disk Cleanup Wizard before defragging, and get rid of unwanted .tmp and .bak files.

Happy Vista-ing!
Peter has been active on the C# and other MS newsgroups, has had samples at gotdotnet.com (now codegallery.com) that have been downloaded over 56,000 times, and has written numerous articles for eggheadcafe.com, for which he is a co-founder, and MSDNAA sites. He has also been a technical reviewer on books from Prentice Hall, Manning and other publishers. Peter was a Microsoft MVP for 10 years. Peter was born and raised in New York City, and after a stint as a jazz musician playing contrabass with the Robert Hunt Trio, migrated to sunny Florida, where he was hired as a rookie Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch in Orlando, specializing in Corporate Services. It was at Merrill that Peter realized computers and technology were his forte. He spent his last few years at Merrill developing real – time computerized trading and and stock charting program using advanced technical analysis indicators, some of which are his own inventions. In 1997, he moved on to architect and serve as lead developer on a number of innovative web-based and middleware solutions for the healthcare and financial services industry.

Comments

  1. Anonymous11:53 AM

    FYI - "Diskeeper Corporation has announced Microsoft Windows Vista™ platform support for the Diskeeper 2007 product line."

    http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/solutions.asp

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:17 PM

    http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:33 PM

    JkDefrag is great BUT from his site
    "The Microsoft defragmentation API on Vista can defragment and move the MFT, but JkDefrag cannot use this capability yet."

    ReplyDelete

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