DEFRAG

Regular defragmentation keeps your disks tidy and avoids the big, disruptive defrag jobs later on. The defragmentation utility in Windows does a pretty good job, so why would you need an aftermarket defrag tool like Puran Defrag Free Edition? Well, Puran is easier to program to run automatically, even in the background. Puran also defragments your PC's boot sectors for faster start-up, and its Intelligent Optimizer boosts your system's speed, according to the developers. It can also defragment selected files or folders only and make exclusions by file and folder or wild card. There's even a command … Read more

Diskeeper 2011 automatically takes care of hard-disk fragmentation as it occurs, making the manual defragmenters we're all accustomed to a thing of the past. For any Windows users experiencing a lag in hard-disk performance, this hassle-free tool is a fantastic option.

Shortly after installation, Diskeeper analyzes all the volumes on your computer. The data it collects is used as a baseline for the Performance Reports it generates from that point on. These reports let you know how many fragments the program has eliminated as well as how, exactly, it has improved your PC's performance. While most users won'… Read more

Windows 7 automatically defragments your primary hard drive in a process that runs quietly in the background. However, if you'd like to have all new drives you plug in be defragmented as well, it's going to require a little input from you.

Step 1: Open the Disk Defragmenter from the Start menu by typing "disk defrag" in the Run box (shown below). You can always navigate to the actual program from Start by selecting All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

Step 2: Click the "Configure Schedule" button to open up … Read more

WinZip System Utilities Suite offers a one-stop shop for optimizing, defragging, and generally cleaning out your system--and it does a pretty great job, adding extras that will come in handy whenever you need to perform routine maintenance. The interface smartly mimics many of the utilities in this genre--with various tools on the left, and the main window showing the options for each tool--making it easy to clean each area of your system quickly.

Like many modern system utilities, WinZip offers the option to be as involved with the process as you want to be. From the Home screen, you can … Read more

There are plenty of downloadable defrag utilities to choose from, but it's hard to beat the ease of use and helpful extras in IOBit's Smart Defrag.

With this utility you can quickly analyze your hard drive to check the level of defragmentation before committing to a scan. The interface shows you different colored blocks representing fragmented files, frequently used files, and more, with a helpful key to show what each colored block represents.

When you're ready to pull the trigger, you can choose from a straight defragmentation (fastest), or have Smart Defrag perform either a fast or &… Read more

Drive Genius is a hard-working hard-drive utility from longtime Mac developers Prosoft Engineering, with the honorable distinction of being employed at the Apple Store Genius Bar as part of their ProCare Yearly Tune Up service.

The interface of Drive Genius shares some similarities with that of its data-recovery sister program Data Rescue: you navigate through a 3D "tool arena," a sort of virtual lazy Susan of hard-drive tasks that's fast and fluid enough to not be annoying (and it's actually kind of fun). You choose from six primary tasks, Information (with detailed readouts on S.M.… Read more

AML Free Disk Defrag automatically scans your brain waves...no, of course; it's a freeware disk defragmentation utility. We know what you're thinking (just kidding about the brain waves): what makes this free disk defragger different from the rest? It's compact; they're compact. It's easy to use; they're easy to use. It's fast. The others? Not so much. The difference is under the hood; AML FDD has a powerful engine and smart algorithms that make for blistering defrag speeds. It doesn't have a scheduler, the feature that compensates for the slowness of … Read more

Simnet Registry Defrag 2010 is a free tool that analyzes and defragments the Windows Registry, restoring some of the performance that daily use tends to erode. And, like many free registry utilities, it will also scan your system for other performance problems, find them, and offer to install shareware to fix them. However, unlike many "free utilities" that do nothing but find problems for other software to fix, Simnet Registry Defrag actually defragments the registry. It's easy to use, too, and seems to do a good job.

Registry Defrag has a stylish interface with a minimum of … Read more

Windows' disk defragmentation tool is an old workhorse that recent upgrades haven't really improved. In fact, more than a few users were disappointed that the strangely mesmerizing block-by-block progress display had vanished from newer versions. You can get the old view back and much more with O&O Defrag, an automatic utility that can not only improve your system's performance by defragmenting data but also keep it running smoothly by preventing data fragmentation before it happens as it chugs on unnoticed in the background.

Today, the developer has announced a brand-new version of its Defrag software: the … Read more