A performance/progress question on Defrag

I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to defrag
it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that "this
may take a few minutes to a few hours".

I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's used
either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
progress.

Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as well
as any indication of progress?

Questor

Questor;1208375 Wrote:
> I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
> connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to
> defrag
> it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
> indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that
> "this
> may take a few minutes to a few hours".
>
> I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
> if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's
> used
> either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
> window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
> progress.
>
> Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as
> well
> as any indication of progress?
>
> Questor

The default defragger in Vista does not support progress. However the
Win 7 does. Now, on to the next part. The defragger I like the most
because it uses very little resources is this:

'Smart Defrag - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET
Download.com'
(http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defra...?tag=mncol;pop)

Hope this helps...


--
CrucialHoax

--->
> Questor;1208375 Wrote:
>> I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
>> connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to
>> defrag
>> it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
>> indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that
>> "this
>> may take a few minutes to a few hours".
>>
>> I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
>> if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's
>> used
>> either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
>> window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
>> progress.
>>
>> Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as
>> well
>> as any indication of progress?
>>
>> Questor
>
> The default defragger in Vista does not support progress. However the
> Win 7 does. Now, on to the next part. The defragger I like the most
> because it uses very little resources is this:
>
> 'Smart Defrag - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET
> Download.com'
> (http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defra...?tag=mncol;pop)
>
> Hope this helps...
>
>

Thanks Crucial. Win7's defragger at least adds a percentage of
completion indication. Better, but not what I'm after. Smart Defrag
appears to be the leading defragger mentioned on this NG. I do like the
visual shown on the download page. I may just download it and see.

I am leaving Vista to do it's own defragging of local drives in the
early morning hours as I leave my computers on 24/7, but I do like
having a better one for USB-attached drives so I can monitor it a little
closer on a time-by-time basis than a simple percentage of done.

Questor

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2110604,00.asp

"Questor" wrote:

> I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
> connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to defrag
> it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
> indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that "this
> may take a few minutes to a few hours".
>
> I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
> if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's used
> either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
> window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
> progress.
>
> Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as well
> as any indication of progress?
>
> Questor
> .
>

Hi, Questor.

I've been using PerfectDisk for the past few years. It operates in the
background in what it calls "StealthPatrol" and does it so unobtrusively
that I seldom even think about it. My 4 SATA HDDs (2 as a RAID 1 mirror)
are divided into nearly 20 volumes, totaling about 1.5 TB, plus a couple of
thumb drives. PD allows me to see each Drive Map or not, my choice, as well
as plenty of performance and space statistics, which I rarely even look at.
It just works.

Full disclosure: As an MVP and as a beta tester, Raxco provides me a free
copy of PerfectDisk 10. I don't even know the retail price, but it's worth
it. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"Questor" <Questor@minimoe.com> wrote in message
news:eszQoRziKHA.1648@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> --->
>> Questor;1208375 Wrote:
>>> I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
>>> connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to
>>> defrag
>>> it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
>>> indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that
>>> "this
>>> may take a few minutes to a few hours".
>>>
>>> I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
>>> if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's
>>> used
>>> either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
>>> window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
>>> progress.
>>>
>>> Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as
>>> well
>>> as any indication of progress?
>>>
>>> Questor
>>
>> The default defragger in Vista does not support progress. However the
>> Win 7 does. Now, on to the next part. The defragger I like the most
>> because it uses very little resources is this:
>>
>> 'Smart Defrag - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET
>> Download.com'
>> (http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defra...?tag=mncol;pop)
>>
>> Hope this helps...
>>
>>
>
> Thanks Crucial. Win7's defragger at least adds a percentage of completion
> indication. Better, but not what I'm after. Smart Defrag appears to be
> the leading defragger mentioned on this NG. I do like the visual shown on
> the download page. I may just download it and see.
>
> I am leaving Vista to do it's own defragging of local drives in the early
> morning hours as I leave my computers on 24/7, but I do like having a
> better one for USB-attached drives so I can monitor it a little closer on
> a time-by-time basis than a simple percentage of done.
>
> Questor

According to the Auslogics home page, which you can get to after a
404-not found message, on a link in the article, they apparently don't
make a de-fragger anymore.

The interface looks a lot like the one for Smart-Defrag.

Questor

--->
> http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2110604,00.asp
>
> "Questor" wrote:
>
>> I located an old hard drive stored on a shelf the other day and
>> connected it to my Vista machine with a USB dongle. I decided to defrag
>> it (350Gb). Now, I already know that Vista's defrag provides NO
>> indication of progress other than that pretty lame statement that "this
>> may take a few minutes to a few hours".
>>
>> I've seen mention of other defraggers here in this NG and am wondering
>> if any of them provide visual progress indications. Previous OS's used
>> either marching colored blocks, or slowly moving vertical bands in a
>> window. Vista's, on the other hand, simply does nothing to indicate
>> progress.
>>
>> Do any of the others provide any performance boost (i.e. faster) as well
>> as any indication of progress?
>>
>> Questor
>> .
>>

--->
> Hi, Questor.
>
> I've been using PerfectDisk for the past few years. It operates in the
> background in what it calls "StealthPatrol" and does it so unobtrusively
> that I seldom even think about it. My 4 SATA HDDs (2 as a RAID 1 mirror)
> are divided into nearly 20 volumes, totaling about 1.5 TB, plus a couple
> of thumb drives. PD allows me to see each Drive Map or not, my choice,
> as well as plenty of performance and space statistics, which I rarely
> even look at. It just works.
>
> Full disclosure: As an MVP and as a beta tester, Raxco provides me a
> free copy of PerfectDisk 10. I don't even know the retail price, but
> it's worth it. ;<)
>
> RC

I'll check that one out also. Thanks.

Questor