Earlier this month I showed you how to use the Open Source defragmentation application UltraDefrag.  On my system I changed the scheduled task to run every day instead of once a week.  Below is a screen shot of the results of this daily defrag.  

The results are impressive. Or are they?

In some of the lost comments from my how-to were in reference to Diskeeper.  I used this program at work on all my workstations and servers.  Aside from some headaches with the management application Diskeeper has been keeping the hard drives at work running smoothly since 2003.  To get an idea how good UltraDefrag is I plan on downloading a trail version of Diskeeper and analyzing my hard drive.  Check back for the results.

This is where programs called disk defragmenters come into play.  They analyze your hard drive and move the bits that are spread all over the place closer together.  Your copy of Windows comes with a basic defragmenter and there are programs you can purchase.  The Windows defragmenter will do in a pinch but it is very basic and takes some work to automate.  The commercial defragmenters do a lot more, such as "Set it and forget it", but this comes at a price.  I like programs that are free.  I use a open source program called UltraDefrag.  Diskeeper is a good commercial defragmenter, it is what I use at work.

You can run UltraDefrag using a graphical user interface or schedule it as a Windows task.  I will walk you through setting up UltraDefrag as a scheduled task.

First you must download the latest version of UltraDefrag.  As of August 2007 1.04 is the latest version.

Next we must decide what version we are going to download.  If you are running Windows XP 64 or Vista 64 you need to select the amd64 package.  If you are running 32-bit XP or Vista the i386 version is what you need.

Download and install the version you require, if the install does not work you picked the wrong version.  It would be nice if in future versions the installer queried your system to determine the correct version to install, but there are really only 2 choices for the installer.  If one does not work, try the other. 

Now we are going to write a program.  It is a very basic program but it will be the brains behind setting up free automated disk defragmentation. 

Use Windows Explorer to navigate to "C:\Program Files\UltraDefrag\". 

Click on File, New, Text Document.  A new file called "New Text Document.txt" will be listed along with the UltraDefrag program files. 

Right click on it and choose rename & type "defrag.bat".

Next right click on "defrag.bat" and choose Edit.

Now we start programming!  We need to write the command to tell windows to use UltraDefrag to run on our system, compact our fragmented files and what hard drive we want this to run on.

Lets start with the command to run UltraDefrag.  Type "defrag" (without the quotes) and press the space bar once.  This tells Windows to start the UltraDefrag program.

Now type "-c" and add a space after it.  This tells the program to defrag your hard drive. 

Finally type "c:".  This tells the program to defrag your C:\ drive.

Now click on File, Save.  You have written your first program, go ahead and pat yourself on the back, you are on your way to becoming computer geek.  

Next we are going to schedule Windows to run our program each Tuesday at 2AM.

Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, then open Scheduled Tasks.  Now click on "Add Scheduled Task".

A wizard opens up to walk you through setting up the task, click "Next".

Click on the "Browse" button and navigate to C:\Program Files\UltraDefrag & click on your program "defrag.bat".  Now click on Open.

Next choose when you want to run the task, choose "Weekly".  Click "Next".

Now we set the time and day of our task, set this to 2AM and Tuesday.  Click "Next".

Now we have to assign the task to a user.  Enter the username and password of the computer administrator.  Most likely this will be your username and password.  Click "Next".

Click on "Finish" to end the wizard.

Now every Tuesday at 2AM UltraDefrag will run on your computer to defragment your files.

Below is a screencast showing me running through this process.  Enjoy.

Defragmentation Screencast