no defrag

[Broni]

I'm tired of off topic, absolutely non-constructive posts too.
I suggest, you start your own blog somewhere else.

Back to the subject.

[Azzaboi]

The irony is all my posts are on topic until you guys come around, post owner asked a question and I directly answered it... 

By the way, how come Win 7 hardly needs to be defragmented? what is different?

I'm tired of off topic, absolutely non-constructive posts too.

I could say the same thing to at least half of you mods on this forum.

[Allan]

Win7 almost fixed what resource hog Vista screwed up with the memory management and file access... less file swap means less fragmentation and better performance.  Vista needs it every 3-6 months and WinXP even relies on it more due to the way they manage the system.

Once again you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

[papamama]

As antivirus, I use Avast, no problems. But a few months ago, PC Tools added an antivirus to teir free softvare (anti-spy- and malware, initially), so I am actually having 2 antivirus running simultanously. Probably not too good. The files which need defragmenting are stuff I downloaded, ironically mostly to protect the computer, like windows utilities...
I noticed that systeme restore is running, good, but not for the hidden partition, PQSERVICE. On that, systeme restore is turned off. Is it right or should I turn it on?
I will try to use degraffler, from Piriform and tell you what happens. So far, it is working on disc C, which is the only disc...

[rthompson80819]

Two av programs will usually cause problems.

You need to turn off one of your av programs and turn off your defrag programs one by one to see which ones are causing problems and conflicts.

[Broni]

You need to turn off one

You need to uninstall one, to be exact.

[papamama]

yes... what should I keep? I would think avast is better than PC tools. I realized it had an antivirus a few days ago, while looking at Google updater.
I tried to run Chrome, out of curiosity... and yes, it is faster than Firefox, but the weird part is that it was - and still is impossible to download Perfect Disk with Firefox, it just went nicely and smoothly with Chrome!
Perfect Disk analyzed the hd, and said it was excellent, with 60 Gig out of 250 used, a frag rate of 1.8% on C/, of 0.2% on the                                 'unmounted" ones, meaning, I suppose, Windows registry and the mysterious PQSERVICE. Should the unmounted ones be defragmented too? Actually, I think one of the unmounted is the free part of the disk... If it is empty, how can it be fragmented?
If you can give me some advice, I would appreciate.
Uninstall PC Tools, no problems. Then what with the firewall? Use windows'?what about windows defender?
Which program helps best to fix daily problems? I like Advanced System Care, easy and short, I was able to get the Pro version, although I do not notice too much difference between the free one and this one (special offer from Free Apps, a giveaway of a day).
If I have questions about buying a new computer, should I use a new thread? It seems more logical, no?

[patio]

You have way more issues than defrag...possibly because of some apps you have taken a liking to such as  PCTools and Advanced System Care...
Decide what you want to do from here and we'll go from there...

[Azzaboi]

1.8% fragmentation is acceptable performance wise... 5-12% fragmentation or more would be time to defrag.

PQSERVICE is a OS and drivers backup hidden partition for laptops I believe because they are too lazy for CDs these days, it should be fine.

Advanced System Care is a good overall system cleaner. The Pro version unlocks how much can be 'cleaned' at one times to 'all fixed', for example cleaning out the registry keys and deep cleaning, etc. I recommend using this program 'manually' only and use occacally when you need it, under general settings untick 'minimise to tray' and 'execute at windows startup' and disable under 'automatic system care' and 'automatic privacy sweep'. 'Check for updates' only when the application starts. Disk Defragger (if your using that) 'skip huge files greater than 1GB' and enable 'smart defrag'.

For anti-virus and firewall try get software which is bundled together - for example Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 for maximum protection in all areas. If your happy with the freebee version of Avast (without the firewall) for anti-virus (or maybe try AVG Free version) and you want a freebee firewall, don't trust the windows firewall as it's a security hole, try something like Zone Alarm (it's can be a bit annoying though).

[BC_Programmer]

Then your got me... I don't take friggen sides

You don't?

don't trust the windows firewall as it's a security hole

Excellent work, great way to backup your arguments with a trustable reference so... WHA! you DIDN'T include a reference? So you're just making biasses remarks. Interesting.

Win7 almost fixed what resource hog Vista screwed up with the memory management and file access...

Win7 changed very little of superfetch, except that it is no longer as aggressive as Vista's. That's pretty much it. the rest is still essentially the same as the original NT6 core, with UI changes.

Vista needs it every 3-6 months and WinXP even relies on it more due to the way they manage the system.

no operating system <NEEDS> defragmentation. The last system I have had to actively defragment to get good performance was a 386 running DOS 6.

Linux has a smarter file management system which doesn't need it at all.

Now who's blindly taking sides? ext3 is more resistant to fragmentation, but not by much more then NTFS. they still get fragmented over use and with specific use-case scenarios. ext4 is more resistant still, but then again so is the NTFS implementation with NT6. Personally I wouldn't bother to defragment any of them, As far as I'm concerned, Defragmentation has become a more "routine maintenance" thing then it really needs to be.


"fixer" utilities:

Programs/suites like System Mechanic, Advanced SystemCare, Fix-it utilities, etc are almost useless. they conglomerate a group of inferior tools as a "suite", they all add about 3 processes to startup for "optimization", but the processes just slow everything down. Not to mention people that think they can fix any problem with them. I had an Aunt who, when they had any problem at all (problems saving a word document, can't find the right folder, malware, etc) would always exclaim "I know, I'll run system mechanic" and she did a deep scan (or whatever the most "powerful" one was) of course, 12 hours later the problem was still there. And now Word wouldn't start at all, thanks to some of it's registry keys being deleted for some reason. Now that's progress.

Using one of these "all-inclusive" program suites to do the job of a AV,firewall, and other components is like holding a spikebed in front of your face when getting hit by a truck. It makes things worse, not better.

[papamama]

I used Comodo for a while, but it drove me crazy.  You had to click and unclick for anything new, even just opening yahoo.
No, I don't believe there are any fantastic utilities which would "fix it all", but getting viruses or thousands of tracking cookies does not help either.
As for the firewall, it depends -curiously- on where you live. In a big city, you have a lot more chances to be hacked or suffer from some intrusions. Here, you have two or three networks around, all too weak to connect to them. Then... question of luck. I got a virus once, which froze the computer and made necessary to format it, looking for travel sites.
Actually, as I said, I managed to download Perfect Disk using Chrome, and ran it. After a couple of hours, the report said "unable to defrag ... file" again and again. Final results are 0 file defragmented, and 0 mb of free space reclaimed. And that is a mystery for me...

[Allan]

Programs/suites like System Mechanic, Advanced SystemCare, Fix-it utilities, etc are almost useless. they conglomerate a group of inferior tools as a "suite", they all add about 3 processes to startup for "optimization", but the processes just slow everything down. Not to mention people that think they can fix any problem with them. I had an Aunt who, when they had any problem at all (problems saving a word document, can't find the right folder, malware, etc) would always exclaim "I know, I'll run system mechanic" and she did a deep scan (or whatever the most "powerful" one was) of course, 12 hours later the problem was still there. And now Word wouldn't start at all, thanks to some of it's registry keys being deleted for some reason. Now that's progress.

Using one of these "all-inclusive" program suites to do the job of a AV,firewall, and other components is like holding a spikebed in front of your face when getting hit by a truck. It makes things worse, not better.

Couldn't agree more!

[rthompson80819]

As for the firewall, it depends -curiously- on where you live. In a big city, you have a lot more chances to be hacked or suffer from some intrusions.

I hate to burst your sense of security, but it doesn't matter where you live, urban or rural, you have the same risk of malware.

The only exception would be a wireless router without encryption in an urban environment.

[BC_Programmer]

Wow, I never even noticed that. about having a bigger change to be hacked if you live in a city. That's complete nonsense, except in the case where you have an insecure network, in which case they don't have to hack at all.

[Broni]

What is this topic about?