Best Free Defragmenters

[Alan]

SmartDefrag works away in the background to keep your PC constantly defragged. It's only a beta at the moment but the feedback is only positive. What’s the primary cause of slow/unstable PC performance? It’s disk fragmentation. IObit SmartDefrag helps defragment your hard drive more efficiently than any other product on the market –– free or not.

Features of this powerful, award-winning defragmenter program include:
• An "Install It and Forget It" feature that works automatically and quietly in the background on your computer.
• The ability to constantly keep your hard drive safe, error-free and running at its top speed and optimum performance.
• Eliminates slow downs, freeze-ups and crashes.
• IObit SmartDegrag is 100% FREE award-winning software that’s for personal, home and small business.
• 100% safe from any spyware, adware and virus. .
• Designed for Windows Vista, XP, and 2000.

Diskeeper Lite also deserves a place in the top free defragmenters list.The free edition being version 7, and the current paid for version is 10 but it works extremely well. Diskeeper Lite is a short version introduction to full-featured version. Diskeeper Lite can only analyze fragmentation levels and run manual defragmentation on one disk volume at a time.The only complaint is the nag screen but just follow this link and I will tell you how to remove it.

[Alan]

Defraggler

How many people know that after a relatively short period of time, their drives, folders etc become fragmented?
Everybody right? - OK a few people then.
Fragmented drives can and usually will cause your computer to be slow and blocky to respond.
Microsoft includes a defragmentation tool in all versions of Windows, most people know that, but, I think most people know that its not very good at all, at its best its medico. Its very slow (ok, I was being nice).
Lets be honest, apart the ardent few, how many remember to defrag? OK, I am smart, I have a dedicated defrag program set to run every month.
If you skip past what we should and shouldn’t do how many users has a paid for defrag program?
Now we have got past the ‘what we should and what we don’t do bit’, here is a FREE defragger that works very well! Its name – Defraggler.
It is fast like hell, and is feature packed. Here is what the developer says:
Defrag Individual Files
Most defragmentation tools only let you defrag the whole drive. Defraggler gives you the power to select individual files and folders to defrag. So you can get the job done in seconds, rather than waiting for the whole drive to complete. Of course if you want to defrag the whole drive Defraggler will let you do that too.
Compact and Portable
Defraggler was written in the same compact architecture as other Piriform products (CCleaner and Recuva). This results in a compact single EXE application, which can be copied to a thumbdrive and then used whenever you need it, without a complex installation process. The EXE itself is less than 1MB!
Vista Support
Defraggler supports all OSs released since Windows 2000, this includes Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. 64-bit support has also just been added! Additionally Defraggler supports both NTFS and FAT32 file systems.
Locate Files on the Drive
After analysis Defraggler lists all the fragmented files on the drive. Selecting one or many will highlight their location on the disk. Allowing you to visually see the location of files on the disk.

If you only use the built in Windows defragger then you should really give this a go.

You can read more, see screenshots and download on the link above or by clicking here.

[pharoah]

here is one for you to try alan.ive been using this one for awhile now,and love it.

Disk Defrag - Reclaim the Speed Of Your Disks

[Alan]

Auslogics Disk Defrag - if Pharoah says its worth trying, then its worth trying! All his other recomendations have been good so I tried it and this is what I think.

The program in its self is simple to use, a complete novice could run this program without difficulty. Installation was easy (as it should be) after which you are presented with the Start page, just select the drive or partition you want to defrag.
shot1.gif
Once selected, the program springs into life and works incredibly fast. I have tried many defragment programs but cannot recall anything so fast.
shot2.gif
Before I had a chance to make a cup of coffee, the process had finished and presented me with its findings and options.
shot3.gif
It was at this point I thought if it runs at that speed then the partition cannot be properly defragmented, but its only fair to continue to the end. As you can see from the screenshot you are prompted into trying another program to optimize the drive which is not free. OK, I thought if the defrag program is free and as good as it seems to be, then you must expect a little advertising although as you can see on the screenshot it does say that some of the tweaks are free.
Anyway, in for a penny, in for a pound! If their Defrag program works so well, its only fair to download and try the BoostSpeed Optimizer aptly named Auslogics BoostSpeed which comes with a 15 day trial. If you decide to keep it, it costs just $29.95.
After installation, I ran the basic tweaks (Registry cleanup, Disk cleanup, Disk defragmentation (now built into BoostSpeed) and System protection) with the click of just one button!
shot4.gif
Again the program ran with lightning speed, so at this point I thought time to see just how good Auslogics programs are compared to my normal defragger and tweaking programs.
I rechecked my defragged partition with the built in Windows defragmenter (yes I know it is a joke but you have something to test to) and the partition looked good. I tested with Defraggler and Smart Defrag again nothing to suggest that the program had not done its job efficiently.
For a free program Auslogics Disk Defrag works fast and efficient, I can see why Pharoah recommended it and I would too! Thanks Pharoah - great recommendation!

Footnote
The BoostSpeed program impressed me to the point I bought it after just one hour of testing it. I will write a review about its features.