Posted 11/24/2008 at 01:30:19pm

This was a short-sighted test, examining only two items. defragmentation, then startup/shutdown times. Where on Earth do people get the idea that the benefits appear in those areas. Where on Earth do people get the idea that those are the only factors to study?

It reminds me of the tests they used to do with the speed limits on the roads......they looked at the speed limit, and the number of deaths. AS IF the ONLY factor in determining the number of deaths was the speed limit. As if things like how closely you followed the vehicle in front of you was NOT going to change the numbers.

Fragmentation involves the files on your computer being in multiple pieces. So it seems to me the improvements would be related to how smoothly and quickly those files open after defragmentation. You run  Defraggler (free (Piriform, makers of CCleaner), view the files list, making note of the major files (outlook usually one of the worst). Open Outlook, notice the time it takes. Close it. Defrag, so Outlook's .ost file becomes 1 piece. Now open Outlook again. And oh, by the way, that reduces the amount of movement and work required by your hard drive, so you are adding spin cycles to the life of your drive. It has to work less.

I use Defraggler, Auslogics, and IOBit as my three defrag programs. I follow a certain sequence that involves daily, weekly, and bi-weekly routines using various options. I use Vista at home, and XP at work. And following my routine, NEITHER of the resident defrag programs EVER report that the hard drive needs to be defragmented. And the quick version of these defrag programs finish their work in literally seconds to a couple of moments. The longer runs (Defrag and Optimize in IOBit) usually run far shorter times than you found in your tests. And they remain short as you defrag regularly.

And by the way, the native defrag programs are defaulted to wait until 10 percent fragmentation before they tell you that the hard drive needs the service. If only system slowdowns didn't occur until that number reached 10 percent, we would be fine........