Defragment Hard Drive

Advanced Defrag Options Window

Overview of Defragment Hard Drive wizard

The Advanced Defrag Options window allows you to configure advanced defragmentation options for the Custom Defragmentation mode. If you run an analysis from this window, you can also defragment selected files on demand and set up boot-time defragmentation.

 

The fields on the window are described below.

Drives pane

The Drives pane lists the hard drives on your computer. Select the check box next to each drive you want to defragment.

 

To analyze one or more drives:

• To run an analysis, either click Analyze next to a specific drive or click Analyze All to analyze all shown drives.

When the analysis completes, the percentage of the drive that is fragmented will display. If fragmentation exceeds 15%, you may wish to include the drive in the defragmentation.

• The View Report button displays after an analysis has been run. Click View Report to open the Fragmentation Analysis Report, which provides information about the most fragmented files, allows you to defragment selected files on demand, and allows you set up boot-time defragmentation for selected files.

Refer to Fragmentation Analysis Report for details.

Preferences Tab

The Preferences tab offers the following options:

• Optimized Defrag (faster). This option defragments files to areas where contiguous free space already exists. This method is significantly faster than the Low Level Defrag option.

• Low Level Defrag (very slow). This option creates free space at the end of the drive while it defragments files. This approach reduces the tendency for future fragmentation to occur and ensures that data remains defragmented for a longer time. This option takes significantly more time than the Optimized Defrag option.

• Perform a quick PC Cleanup operation before defragmentation (recommended). Select the check box to have System Mechanic run the PC Cleanup Wizard prior to defragmentation. This eliminates useless and unneeded files from being defragmented. By default, the check box is selected.

• Automatically defragment locked files next time the system restarts. Select the check box to have System Mechanic automatically defragment locked files the next time you start or restart your computer. By default, the check box is cleared.

• Ignore prefetch cache files. Select the check to have System Mechanic ignore prefetch cache files. If you want to defragment these files, clear the check box. By default, the check box is selected.

Fragmentation Map Tab - After Analysis of a Selected Drive

The Fragmentation Map tab displays after an analysis for a selected drive has been run. The tab displays only if you clicked Analyze next to a specific drive.

 

Select the tab to view a graphical presentation of the hard drive fragmentation.