Here I review a couple of free disk defragmentation software.

Disk defragmentation is a process of re-arranging or consolidating the storage location of your hard drive thereby readily improving the system performance. As mentioned in Wikipedia

“…defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file close together and contiguously”

There is a built-in defragmentation option that comes in Windows (Start -> Accessories -> System tools -> Disk Defragmentor). But the operation performed through this is very basic and hence the need for a third party software.

Tons of free tools are available to do defragment task. And all these software has a very common issue of hogging down your system resources. Here I list some free software that can do a better defragmentation job.

UltraDefrag:

UltraDefrag is free open source software for disk defragmentation. The source code is written in C language and runs on all Windows platforms. Most of the bugs that existed with this software have been fixed with the newer versions.

Installing UltraDefrag is a breeze. One of the important features of this software is that it can defragment even during normal operation of Windows. Also one can select individual files or folders for defragmenting.

Though it does a pretty fast job with smaller sized disks, for larger disks it demands more time. And I was impressed by the auto shutdown feature that comes with this software. With this feature, UltraDefrag can automatically shut down your PC once the defragmentation is complete.

UltraDefrag is a light weight product with a very easy to use interface. It has a feature to generate reports also. But the reports are generated as txt files.

UltraDefrag cannot optimize more than one drive at a time, but all the other features of this software make it a decent option to go with.

Smart Defrag:

Smart Defrag from IOBIT is another free defragmentation option. It’s free of cost for both personal and commercial use. The developers claim that Smart Defrag has the world’s fastest defragmenting engine.

There is an auto defrag option that lets the software run on the background and intelligently determines when there is a need to defragment. Though it runs on the background, it supposedly should not clog your system resources.

Smart Defrag version 1.20 snapshot is shown below:

Also you can schedule a time for the software to do the job regularly. Find out if it is a smart defragmentation choice by following the download link.

Conclusion:

Defragmentation is one most important thing to keep your hard drive optimized. Some other commonly used defragmentation tools include Defraggler, Auslogics Disk Defrag etc. Some people who like working with scripts might go with MyDefrag defragmentation software. Find out which software better meets your need.

However try avoiding excessive defragmentation and optimization as that can cause more wear and tear than actually preventing it.