JkDefrag further developed as MyDefrag

[yksyks]

IMHO the finest details using the single screen pixels instead of larger squares that cover bunch of clusters at once is more precise and for me thus giving more confidence. Also the detailed zoom and information about the file under the cursor are significant improvements, if you are interested in what's going under the hood.

Regarding the colors, they are explained here and could be changed in the scripts or using the GUI mentioned above.

[MilesAhead]

I think it's one of those things like the vi editor.  If you delve into it, you can do a lot with it.  But it's off-putting to the newbie.

[yksyks]

I agree, there are many applications like this, but MyDefrag can be effectively used even without any knowledge. Just run one of the supplied script and that's all. Which is what I'm doing, because they do all I need, and besides, I admit I'm lazy to delve into the script language. But unlike with the vi editor I don't have to.

[sajman99]

When I view the MyDefrag statistics, I don't see a percentage like JkDefrag provided-- % of all items/% of disk. Seems like that's important data to have within eyesight.

[MilesAhead]

I agree, there are many applications like this, but MyDefrag can be effectively used even without any knowledge. Just run one of the supplied script and that's all. Which is what I'm doing, because they do all I need, and besides, I admit I'm lazy to delve into the script language. But unlike with the vi editor I don't have to.

-yksyks (September 04, 2009, 04:34 PM)

The way I resolved it, I just dragged the Optimize Daily script onto my Selector launcher.

To run it I click on Text Parameter radio button, type the drive letter with colon in the input line, then select the short name for the script, and press the Go Button. Only that partition is defragged.

[MilesAhead]

When I view the MyDefrag statistics, I don't see a percentage like JkDefrag provided-- % of all items/% of disk. Seems like that's important data to have within eyesight.

-sajman99 (October 31, 2009, 11:29 AM)

I know it's a big drag to reprogram something that already works, but I still think the biggest negative impression for that software is the status window or whatever the term for it is.  The colors are washed out and it's not easy to figure out what is supposed to be what.  Auslogics probably has the technically inferior defrag but the status window makes you feel like it knows what it's doing and it ain't wastin' any time doin' it.  It totally wins the Impression War when using it. Unfortunately cosmetics often wins out over technical genius.

[sajman99]

Yes, MyDefrag won't win any beauty contests.   Other defraggers like those from Auslogics and IObit certainly look better with their more conventional interfaces--no contest there. But I think developer Jereon Kessels is on to something with JkDefrag and now MyDefrag. Considering it's free, I definitely consider it worthwhile software; I just wish the logfile was more complete like JkDefrag.

I checked out DiskTune which is also a good freeware defragger, but if you want to talk about slooooow...

[MilesAhead]

I noticed when I did a Crystal Disk benchmark after a MyDefrag Fast Optimize(which I guess is going to be called Optimize Daily now?) the performance for small random reads/writes went up quite a bit. I'm guessing it's because it defrags in "zones" rather than just trying to pack everything to the front.  The disk head didn't have to hop over the entire partition contents to write the files.

I think even the numbers for large contiguous reads and writes went up a bit too.

[sajman99]

IMHO the free (for private and non-commercial use) version of Puran Defrag now gives MyDefrag some serious competition.

In particular, Puran's boot time defrag is very nice for a free defragger. I don't really know yet if I'll replace MyDefrag with Puran, but my initial impressions of Puran are favorable.

http://www.puransoft...Defrag-Download.html       
http://donnedwards.o...sers-at-no-cost.html

[MilesAhead]

IMHO the free (for private and non-commercial use) version of Puran Defrag now gives MyDefrag some serious competition.

-sajman99 (February 19, 2010, 01:59 PM)

I like Puran.  In the abstract I'm against the concept of defragging while the drive is in use. But I tried doing an Idle priority defrag(with no optimizations set) while downloading.  Worked fine.  I think MyDefrag does a good job but I never liked the OSD for that program. Puran with the colored blocks is more to my preference.

I know I can get other GUIs for MyDefrag but the only script I ever use is Daily Optimize, which is roughly equivalent to Puran with the optimizations checked. I used Auslogics for the quickie defrag.  Instead of alternating those 2 now I can just do Puran.

[sajman99]

Yep, Puran's more conventional interface suits me better as well. The boot time defrag really puts it over the top for me.

I'm likely to drop both MyDefrag and Defraggler in favor of the convenience and effectiveness of Puran.

[MilesAhead]

The only thing I did notice when I upgraded yesterday, it has a warning if your NTFS cluster size is not 16 KB then Shadow Copies of files might get corrupted if you defrag with the optimizations on.  I don't know if this is true of MyDefrag also or not.

For now I'm turning off System Restore before defragging with the optimzations.  That way I know for sure all my shadow copies are gone.  

[majoMO]

It's an annoyance with Shadow Copy and defrag; not optimzation issue. More info here.

[sajman99]

Yep, according to the MyDefrag developer, the possible loss of Shadow Copies is due to "a bug in the Shadow Copy service" and can happen with any defragger.
http://www.mydefrag....RunningMyDefrag.html

[MilesAhead]

Guess it's no biggie then.  I don't retrieve from shadow copies often. But I've never noticed anything broken.  And I defrag quite frequently. It's probably more of an issue if you're running 80% capacity though.  I try to get my free space up to at least 70% before I run a defrag.