Has anyone used PerfectDisk defragmenter

[miquelfire]

It was reported on Security Now a few times during Spinrite 6.1's development that cells on SSD drives can lose their charge, and overtime require the drive to do a lot of error correction. The slow speed was most likely because the drive doing a bunch of error corrections. A simple rewrite pass of the data would bring the speeds back up. Would not surprise me if PerfectDisk did that while defragmenting (maybe unintentionally, but if it has an SSD mode, maybe it was intentional).

 

[Dibrom]

When I was looking at the sector map as it was working there were long strings in what I think was the empty sectors being wholesale rewritten and moved along/shuffled up. It was hard to tell what it was doing because being an SSD rather than mechanical drive it was happening very quickly. Anyway, the result has been very impressive in getting rid of all the symptoms.

 

[DanR]

YMMV as they say, but my god it has made a massive difference. All the previous symptoms are instantly gone. It's like a normal computer again.

As noted, NAND cells lose charge over time as well as with repeated reads, slowing read speed and requiring more error correction, all adversely impacting drive performance.

The defrag would have rewritten most (possibly all?) of the data on the drive, refreshing the charge in the NAND cells and restoring drive performance.

This is what a SpinRite Level 3 scan would do on 100% of the drive.

What is very important to watch for here is: How long does this performance improvement last? If it lasts a while, great! But if it slows down seemingly too quickly (< 1 month) that is an indication the SSD should be replaced before it fails abruptly.

 

[PHolder]

YMMV as they say

This may just be the normal aging of data on a SSD and rewriting it leading to a speedup. Some SpinRite users have reported this doing a level 3 on a SSD.

 

[G The Brit]

I applaud your doggedness, but please do realize you're doing the equivalent of fine tuning a blender. Your results are never going to be worth the efforts you're putting in. Windows automatically looks after defragmenting a system on schedule, and manages SSDs by TRIMing them as it goes. While it is possible to get minor optimizations for HDDs (if there is the free space to do so safely) you're looking at getting so little effect as to have it spoiled by other activities in your system competing for the HDDs (and IOs and CPUs) attention. I would just let go and let Windows.

As the Tesco strapline goes:

Every little helps

 

[G The Brit]

Oh the good old days of Diskeeper with its red (fragmented files/folders) and blue (contiguous (unfragmented) files/folders). It was the first proper defragger and it looked and worked great.

It worked so well that a stripped down version became the built-in defragger for Windows 2000 and XP. Nowadays it’s developed for enterprise only.

I purchased a PerfectDisk license when it was about v8. I found it OK but development was sporadic so I eventually moved over to O&O Defrag. I’ve been using O&O Defrag for about 20 years.

O&O Defrag isn’t free and at Christmas they used to do special bundles for a very low price. But they don’t seem to be doing this now. Some of their software has started moving to subscription, which means I’m out.

I do buy specialist software and it tends to be from specialist developers. I also look for very favourable upgrade pricing, or lifetime upgrade licenses, or ones where the developed timescale of releasing the new version is based on 2-4 years.

Recently, I purchased:

TeraByte Unlimited (BootIt Collection for $59.98!)
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bundle-info/

You get every peace of software they produce. Such as backup and restore, and partitioning and boot menu software. When you buy a product, you get each version as 4-for-1 (Windows, DOS, LINUX and UEFI). It’s amazing value for money and the software is specialised. Yet, once you have read the 270+ page PDF manuals you’ll know it inside out. Typically, they stay with a new version for 2+ years. And upgrading comes with a massive discount. For the price and terms of use, your data is worth it.

Hard Disk Sentinel Pro (Lifetime upgrades. I have the Family package of 5 licenses).
https://tinyurl.com/5cccvwfu

Again, this is niche software for storage device health monitoring. It will also test the surface too. It really is all you need for monitoring. While you are in trial-mode, you’ll be offered a 20% discount. The family package is $59 – 20%. For the price and terms of use, your data is worth it.

Process Lasso Pro ((Lifetime upgrades. I have the Family package of 5 licenses).
https://bitsum.com/get-lasso-pro/

Process Lasso PRO is very similar to having M$ SysInternal Process Explorer and Process Monitor all-in-one (AIO). It’s lifetime upgrade free, so what isn’t to like.

These are the defraggers, I’d recommend.

Defraggler (2018) 2.23.33 (hasn’t been developed since 2018)
https://www.ccleaner.com/defraggler

Smart Defrag (2026) (XP+) 11.4.0.508
https://www.iobit.com/en/iobitsmartdefrag.php?AFF=870&__c=1

DiskTuna (formally DiskeTune) (2017) (XP+) 1.2.3

Download DiskTuna (formerly DiskTune) 1.2.3 - MajorGeeks

DiskTuna (formerly DiskTune) is an on-demand, free, hard drive disk defragmentation, and optimization software.

www.majorgeeks.com

WinContig (2026) (7+) 5.0.3.4
https://www.mdtzone.it/sw/wincontig/en/index.html

Vopt9 (2009) (XP+) 9.21

Download Vopt 9.21 - MajorGeeks

Vopt is a well-known, safe, and fast defragger for Windows. Previously shareware the author has provided a free serial number for everyone before he passed away.

www.majorgeeks.com

Auslogics Disk Defrag (2026) (7+) 12.2.0.6

I've just installed Disk Defrag, a great tool to make your PC run fast and smooth

Wondering how to defrag Windows computer? Download Disk Defrag Free: an expert-recommended tool that helps defragment hard drives the fast and smart way.

www.auslogics.com

O&O Defrag 31
https://www.oo-software.com/en/products/oodefrag

I’m still on O&O Defrag v24 so this will give you a good idea that you don’t need to purchase an upgrade every time a new version comes out. It’s changed very little since 24. If you download a copy, sign up to their newsletter and get a $10 voucher against the price. It costs about $34 - $10 = $24. Not bad for something that won’t need to be upgraded for 5 years.

They say that there’s no benefit to defragging a SSD/NVMe because the delays in retrieving a file that wasn’t contiguous (unfragmented) was dependent on the time the heads took to locate the portions of a fragmented file. With SSD/NVEMe this isn’t an issue. Moreover, they say that defragging will increase wear and tear.

Are you saying that you’ve defragged your SSD/NVMe and its made a massive difference? It sounds as if that’s what you are saying.

O&O Defrag and others do have defragmentation for SSD/NVME’s so they obviously know something I don’t.

Except for O&O Defrag, all the other defraggers mentioned work in Safe Mode.​

 

[peterblaise]

I intimidated Diskeeper sales to have one of their programmers make
a Norton SpeedDisk-like "alphabetize and move the directories to the
outer ring" feature so ChkDsk and directory listing would be as fast as
possible with a minimum of head seeking.

Because Peter Norton left the industry.

I imagine DiskKeeper did not keep the modification, and their current
defraggers do not alphabetize and move directories to the outer ring.

VOpt and Norton SpeedDisk were superlative.

I still run a suite of 'DOS' defraggers in Windows pre-boot.

Hey, with AI programming, maybe we can make our own.

 

[G The Brit]

I intimidated Diskeeper sales to have one of their programmers make
a Norton SpeedDisk-like "alphabetize and move the directories to the
outer ring" feature so ChkDsk and directory listing would be as fast as
possible with a minimum of head seeking.

Because Peter Norton left the industry.

I imagine DiskKeeper did not keep the modification, and their current
defraggers do not alphabetize and move directories to the outer ring.

VOpt and Norton SpeedDisk were superlative.

I still run a suite of 'DOS' defraggers in Windows pre-boot.

Hey, with AI programming, maybe we can make our own.

Except for O&O Defrag, all the other defraggers mentioned work in Safe Mode.