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FREE: Smart Defrag – A defragmentation tool
IObit Smart Defrag is a free defragmentation tool with features that allow you to optimize automatic defragmentation.
By Michael Pietroforte - g+ - Mon, May 9, 2011 - 9 comments Michael Pietroforte is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) with more than 28 years of experience in system administration.
The two defragmentation tools, I reviewed previously (MyDefrag, Disk Defrag), have good features for manually controlling the defragmentation process. By contrast, IObit Smart Defrag certainly lives up to its name because automatic defragmentation is its strength.
Most defragmentation tools support scheduling, and so does Smart Defrag. However, this feature is disabled by default. This makes sense because Smart Defrag has something better to offer: Automatic Defrag.
The problem with scheduled defragmentation is that it can’t always guarantee that the computer isn’t busy at the scheduled time, and a desktop or laptop could be powered off at the scheduled time. Automatic Defrag always runs in the background and only starts defragmenting if the PC is idle. You can configure the PC’s idle time, after which Smart Defrag becomes active, and you can tell the tool to pause whenever the resource usage exceeds a configurable percentage.
Smart Defrag’s Boot Time defrag is another function that most free defragmentation tools lack. Some system files can’t be defragmented during runtime because this would make the system unstable. You can configure Smart Defrag to defragment the pagefile, the hibernation file, the Master File Table (MFT), and other problematic system files when the computer boots up.
Yet another “smart feature” is quite useful for laptop users. Defragmentation can be automatically stopped when on battery. As disk activity is one of the biggest power consumers in a laptop, this feature will certainly improve the battery life noticeably.
You can’t manually defragment specific files and folders as with Auslogics Disk Defrag. However, you can exclude files and folders from automatic or scheduled defragmentation. This can be useful if you don’t want the tool to mess with an important database file.
Smart Defrag can also move frequently used files and directories into the fastest area of the disk. Unfortunately, it is unclear how the tool determines what files are frequently used. I guess, this feature only works for system files.
All in all, Smart Defrag is my favorite defragmentation tool from the three tools I have tested. It has the nicest user interface, and the background defragmentation convinced me. For scripting guys, however, MyDefrag is the best choice; if you often have to defragment specific files, Auslogics Disk Defrag is your best bet.
I tested Smart Defrag v2.0.1 on Windows 7.
IObit Smart Defrag
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Just dont try to use it with a domain user account if you are on a running Windows 7. Good product, too bad it has this stupid limitation.
I’ve was using Smart Defrag, until I discovered Puran Free Defrag.
I’ve also used the others you mentioned. My issue with smart defrag, is that when you plug in external drives, it locks so that you can’t properly eject them, and that is annoying. Other wise it’s a good tool.
Thx
Personally I’ve never found myself in need of anything more than the defrag utility built into Windows, but if I do ever want one this one looks to be the best of the bunch. Doing it when the system is idle makes much more sense than scheduling a defrag to run at a specific time every day or week and I’m liking the boot time defrag option too
Jaymz, what problem did you have? Did this domain user account have admin privileges?
Andre, did you try to exclude the drive? Thank you for the tip about Puran Defrag.
Chris128, I agree the Windows Disk Defragmenter will do in most cases. If you defrag your hard disk regularly scheduled defragmentation won’t take long. Tools like Smart Defrag are mostly useful on disks with much disk activity.
Are these three defrag programs smart enough to not defrag a SSD drive? Or at least give a warning about it.
The problem is, if you are logged onto the computer with a domain account (even if you are domain admin, the program complains about requiring administrator rights and does not run). You have to logon or run the program as machinename\administrator.
Although it’s not free i’ve always preferred diskeeper. As far as i know it’s the only defragger that prevents most fragmentation from happening in the first place.
Hi Michael
No I didn’t exclude the drive. That seems a little brothersome to exclude external drives every time you plug them in.
No issues with Puran.
Also run Puran on Win7 with domain accts…no problems there
thx!
Personally I prefer paid-for defrag programs as they seem to do a much more thorough job. I’m sure this is a fine program (the $79 version placed 4th in a recent Top 10 Reviews side-by-side of the best defrag programs, so it must be good — here’s the review:
http://disk-defragmenter-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
The top placers are all automatic and offer some kind of automatic defrag-when-idle process, but the gold medalist won because it was truly transparent in that it was undetectable as it defragmented while the pc was being heavily used (check out the review).
Clicking on each of the program images will bring up how it performed and why it placed where it did.
I don’t know how long this will go on for, but you can get $10 off on the gold medal winner if you but it via the review or you can get a free trial of the gold medalist at their site: http://www.diskeeper.com and then buy it after the trial via the review site.
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