I highly recommend O&O:
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodefrag/index.html

"Unleash the hidden performance of your computer with the minimum effort. O&O Defrag 11 Professional Edition packs file fragments quickly and securely back together to optimize your hard disk under Windows. Its functionality ranges from a fully automated defragmentation to an individual professional set up. It can do everything a truly good defragmentation software should be able to do.

The new background monitoring function helps to prevent fragmentation at source. Newly added and modified files are analyzed and defragmented whenever they are not being accessed. O&O Defrag makes sure that your hard disk is constantly performing at its peak."

Also Check out this review:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download809.html
Source(s):
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodefrag/index.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download809.html

Permalink | Report

I have owned and operated a computer sales and service business for 10+ years and for the majority of users, the Disk Defragmenter Utility included with XP is sufficient to keep the hard drives in relatively good condition.

What most people don't know... it's actually what is known as a Lite or slightly crippled version of Diskeeper, a product made by Executive Software.

For those who exceeded this lite version, I have experimented with numerous utilities and my favorite commercial Defrag Utilities for Windows are:

Paragon Total Defrag
(US$29.95) http://www.paragon-software.com/home/total-defrag/

Review: http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-xv-paragon-total.html

DiskTrix UltimateDefrag
(US$39.95) http://www.disktrix.com/UDIntroduction.htm

Review: http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-xiii-disktrix.html




Here is a list of free Defrag Utilities for WIndows:


Auslogics Disk Defrag http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

Contig http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Contig.mspx

DefragMentor Lite CL http://defragmentor.com/dmlcl/en/home.asp

IOBit SmartDefrag http://www.iobit.com/SmartDefrag/index.html

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

PageDefrag http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.mspx

Partition Logic http://partitionlogic.org.uk/about/index.html

Power Defragmenter GUI http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Power-Defragmenter.shtml

Rapid File Defragmentor Lite http://www.rapidfd.com/en/lite.php

SpeeDefrag http://www.vcsoftwares.com/SpeeDefrag.html

SpeedItUp FREE http://speeditupfree.com/index.html

UltraDefrag http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

WinContig http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/index_EN.htm



The important point is that whatever product that you decide meets your level of need, it doesn't do a bit of good unless you defrag your drives on a regular basis.
Permalink | Report

Raxco Perfectdisk is pretty solid in my experience.

The hobbled version of Diskeeper which accompanies Windows is crap IMHO, check out item #9 in the top 10 list linked below for more on that. Even the enterprise version of Diskeeper isn't that great in the times I've used it to defrag SQL and Exchange servers, for example; it's as if Diskeeper is a government bureaucrat, it makes you look like it's doing something, but when you review its performance, it really hasn't done a whole lot.
Source(s):
PerfectDisk 7 vs Diskeeper 9 feature comparison
http://www.raxco.co.uk/media/PDV7_vs_DKV9.pdf

Top 10 Defragging Pointers (by Frank Alperstadt, managing director of O&O software)
#9 from this article: "Don't rely on the built-in Windows defragger.
In Windows 2000/XP you will find built-in software, calling itself a defragger. This tool is slow, incomplete and has a limited scheduling capability. Further, it can only defrag one drive volume on a machine at a time."
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid1_gci799331,00.html

Permalink | Report

I think the best way to select is to evaluate a trial version yourself. I think Diskeeper 09 is *the best* defragger in the market if you are looking for paid programs. IMO, going in for a freeware wont give you too much improvement over the built in program itself. Diskeeper09 defrags efficiently with as less as5% free space, can be set to run *smoothly* on automatic mode and also defrags thoroughly under extreme fragmentation.
http://diskeeper.com/
Permalink | Report

Now when it comes to free OSS defragmentation software I dont think there is any that can beat Sysinternals contig disk defragmenter,I have used it and it has worked fine for me inspite of the fact that I download some very large website templates on my machine.
You can check out the reviews for this and other free OSS defrags at the websites listed below I found the blog quite refreshing also find a link to the site where you can download it. I hope I was of help to you.
Source(s):
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Contig.html
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Contig.mspx
http://www.openaccess.co.za/BlackAndWhiteInc/Defrag.htm
http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2006/07/contig-saves-day.html
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=502850

Permalink | Report

Well, I am a Diskeeper 2009 Professional user, so I am a bit biased in favor of it.

I checked out the trial versions of a few of the more popular defragmenters recently; not a detailed scientific study, but sufficient to understand their strengths and weakenesses. I finally settled upon Diskeeper because it offered what I wanted: low resource usage, complete defrag of files, defrag in low space conditions, and most importantly - automatic operation. Diskeeper was the one which I could install once, and never have to worry about defragging at all. It defragged the PC's drives automatically as required, and without bothering me or interrupting other applications. So my vote goes to Diskeeper 2009 Pro.

BTW, you can do what I did, and download a free trial version from http://www.diskeeper.com and evaluate for a month before deciding on a purchase.
Permalink | Report