Dealing with video files or DVD images on a PC typically involves massive hard drive operations, as the file sizes tend to be rather large. A full size DVD image is roughly 4.4 gigabytes, but high definition files (Blu-ray, HD DVD) can be ten times larger! Copying, moving or extracting files for archives takes time, even on a high performance computer, so therefore it is worth while to check that your hard drive is performing at it’s peak by defragmenting it every once in a while. Windows comes with a disk defragmention software, but unfortunately it is not best of it’s kind. There are a lot of commercial alternatives out there, but luckily also some very good free software is available. In this guide we show you how to defragment Windows drives by using JkDefrag and PageDefrag software.

Using JkDefrag

JKDefrag is an open source Windows disk defragmentation tool. It uses the Microsoft Windows native defragmentation API, so it should be as safe as the Windows defragmenter. It is very easy to use, fast and efficient tool for recovering your hard drive performance.

JKDefrag comes as a ZIP archive, containing a number of non-installable files, which are various editions of the software:

• JkDefrag.exe – this is the normal Windows version. Execute it and it will start defragmenting your drives right away.
• JkDefragCmd.exe – this is a command line version, which you can use in scripts and such (usually applies only to system administrators and other advanced users).
• JkDefragScreenSaver.scr + JkDefragScreenSaver.exe – These are a screensaver version of the JKDefrag. Copy them to your Windows folder and set as screensaver, if you wish JKDefrag to work on your disk every time the screensaver is activated. In most cases I would not recommend this method though, as hard drives do not typically fragment so fast that you would need to process them daily. Once a month or so should be quite enough.

Installation and usage could not be more simple. Just extract the .ZIP file and launch JkDefrag.exe. It is however wise to review your hard drive content before processing – empty your trashcan, delete unused files and folders before defragmenting the drive.  This will free up space and make the defragmenting more efficient and the process faster.

Using PageDefrag

PageDefrag is a freeware tool originally developed by SysInternals, but now seems to be owned by Microsoft. It supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003, but no Vista support is mentioned on the Microsoft website. PageDefrag perform additional optimization by defragmenting Windows system files, the paging file and registry files. Such defragmentation cannot be performed online, so it must be done during system boot.

PageDefrag comes as a ZIP file that contains a non-installable .exe file. Extract it to any folder and launch pagedfrg.exe. Using PageDefrag is very simple – it has a single dialog where you can set PageDefrag to perform optimization on next system boot, or optinally on every system boot. After making your choice, click OK and reboot your PC.

Final words

After performing these two steps you have performed a thorough Windows drive defragmentation for your PC, using only free software. Run JKDefrag and PageDefrag every now and then (once a month, or every two months – depening on your PC usage) to keep you hard drive performing at it’s best.