Should i defrag freespace

It doesn't address the physical location of the files on the drive, so there can be empty gaps remaining, meaning the free space on the drive is fragmented. Compaction moves the position of files so they nestle together without empty gaps between them. Compaction is complex and time consuming, especially if the drive is nearly full, so most defragmenters compromise by performing modest compaction, but don't worry about some free-space fragmentation.

In some specific instances with the NTFS file system, modest free-space fragmentation actually enhances performance. Initiating defrag of free space will will cause every possible file to be re-located to give the largest possible amount of contiguous free space that can be made available. For average home or office purposes, this normally will not achieve a worthwhile benefit. But if you want to prepare for something like recording a large video file, and the drive is getting full, then defragging the free space first could mean the difference between a clean recording and a fragmented file that glitches.

Boredom Software. Posted 16 April - AM Heh heh at the comments on that link! Share More sharing options Followers 0. Recommended Posts. DanielJG Posted October 31, Posted October 31, Which is better or does it not matter?

Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Posted November 1, Richard S. Aethec Posted November 1, I don't see your point, redhawk. Piriform French translator. Now if you defragged first all file fragments are aligned and there are gaps between each file.

SmartDefrag does use optimization if that setting is chosen - what defraggler does or what it calls it I do not know. Defrag should not have decreased your free space, but if it found and marked bad sectors that would reduce your free space. Did you run disk cleanup first? That finds and displays various files and folders that you may no longer need, like recycle, temporary, temporary internet files, etc.

Not consolidating free space does not prevent this as this would require too many variables to line up:. Typically, none of these three conditions will be met. Additionally, this logic is more concerned about write performance when read performance is more relevant. Consolidating files towards the beginning of the drive rather than leaving them all over the place will improve read performance in some cases, dramatically.

Having said all of that and having only started using SD yesterday Diskeeper trial ran out and, sorry Condusiv, but Diskeeper is far too expensive to install on five machines in the home , I cannot say whether SD can be improved with respect to consolidating files as I've not enough time to make a mess of file placement yet. I can say that SD consolidates the green blocks frequently used files.

The below quote is only part of the concept of IObit's Smart Defrag and should not be taken as a general comment. Certainly, the below quote about the algorithm of the Smart Defrag defrag engine should be taken into consideration.

Intelligently organizes drive data for maximum program performance and long-lasting data contiguity. Smart Defrag is an advanced and patent-suspended technology of IObit. Files are organized by their creation and modified dates.

The theory is that files that have not changed recently are less likely to change in the future. These older files are grouped together so that once Smart Defrag have placed them, future defragmentation passes are less likely to move them again.

Thus, future defragmentation will work much better, keep hard disk healthy as well. The intention of the quote you mention is to point out that defragmentation of free space is not the only factor that should be taken in to account. Please find my thoughts about defragmentation in Think about Defragmentation!!! So far , I like what I'm seeing with Smart Defrag. My point earlier was that packing everything together would neither prevent nor add to fragmentation.

Remember, don't use a defrag software on a SSD hard drive. Yes I like MyDefrag, but feel free to use any defrag software. Edit: Like MyDefrag does both defrag : files and free-space, so there's no need to worry which one offer the best performance.

In case, you just want to know for fun which one is better, than I would said, it's depend of what your computer mostly do: If you write a lot of file, defrag free-space is important. If you read a lot of file, defrag the files is more important.

Community Bot 1. Nettogrof Nettogrof 2 2 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. MyDfrag looks promising, I'll have to compare it to the commercial program I'm currently using and like quite a bit. I had edit my answer, hopefully it will provide you a better answer — Nettogrof.

If you defrag and consolidate both your files and free space regularly after deleting unneeded files, then, regardless of how you typically use your computer, it will be in a state to be able to perform optimally because you'll have the best configuration for either situation.

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