As you copy and erase data, your hard drive becomes more and more fragmented. In time, the computer will run slower, it will take longer to boot and the system will be less stable. If you are not satisfied with the Windows Disk Defragmenter, you can try Advanced Defrag. It will perform much better than stock tools or other third party programs. You only need to select a partition, click a button, and the software will do the rest.
If you want to see what the software is capable of before buying it, you can, of course, download a free demo. It can be installed like any other utility, so you will not encounter any advanced options or requirements during the setup process. You can run it on most Windows platforms, including the later ones, like Vista or Win 7.
The main operation can be started by clicking the Defragment button, on the lower part of the interface. This will take you to a different section of the interface, where you can target an individual partition or the entire hard drive. These are displayed as pie charts, with the free and used disk space. You can analyze the selected partitions or start defragmenting immediately by clicking one of the buttons beneath the pie charts.
Once you start analyzing or defragmenting, an illustration of the disk's clusters will be displayed on the right side of the interface. They will be moved, one next to another, giving you a better view on the software's progress. Before starting the process, you can tick an option to activate an advanced mode. This is where you will see the program's real strength. Standard defragmenters will leave some free space between files, which may be occupied immediately when you copy new data, thus your partition will be fragmented again. Advanced Defrag will compact the files, eliminating leftover space.
You can also activate a real time defragment feature for the hard drive or certain partitions. While it is active, the software will run in the background, constantly defragmenting your data. Using this feature will not impact your performance, due to its low CPU usage.
