Speed Up Your Computer With Blind Friendly Software Part 2 Defraggler

Posted on: March 28th, 2011 at 7:29 AM
by Justin Daubenmire
System Performance blind software, Justin Daubenmire, software for the blind, system utilities defragmenting hard drive
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In part 1 of this series we talked about CCleaner and how it can help you speed up your computer. In part 2 of this 3 part series we are going to look at another speed boosting program called Defraggler.

Defraggler is a free utility for computers running Microsoft Windows that lets you defrag hard drives on your system. While Windows comes with a defragmenting utility, Defraggler has several unique features that Windows Defragmenter and third-party defragmenting software can’t beat.

Defraggler is a quick, safe way to speed up your PC. Defraggler speeds up your computer by placing all the parts of a file on the same section of the hard drive. When Windows goes to access that file, it only has to look in one area of the drive, which speeds things up. Defraggler also attempts to move all of your files to the start of the hard drive, which makes them faster to access. Ok, let’s get started!

1. Download Defraggler and install it onto your computer
2. At the end of the installation, it will have a check box to run Defraggler. Leave it checked, tab to the finish button and press enter.
3. The Defraggler main screen appears.

Analyze Your Drive

The first thing you should do is let Defraggler analyze your drive to calculate the defragmentation. The analyze button is used to calculate how bad your drive is defragmented, meaning, how bad files are scattered all over your hard drive. You can think of defragmented files  like a library with books thrown all over the place or books placed in the wrong sections in  the library. This is a defragmented library and takes a long time to find a book you are looking for in the  library. When the  librarian comes and puts all the  books back in the proper place on the  shelves, this helps people find the books more quickly. For example, perhaps she puts the book on lions back in the animal section in the library and removes it from the  sports section.  The librarian is the  defrag operation that runs on your hard drive and  places your  books back in the  proper place so Windows can more quickly locate them!   

Ok, back to Defraggler… tab to the analyze button and press enter on it to let it calculate your defragmentation. As it runs, you will be on a stop button. When it is done, you will arrive back on the analyze button. This is how you will know that the analyze operation has completed.

Now press shift+tab twice to get to a list box. In it is the percentage that your drive is defragmented. The defragmentation percent is the last percent item read to you by your screen reader just before the words analysis complete. For example, my list view reads like this:

Local Disk C NTFS 74.5 GB 49.8 GB (67%) 24.7 GB (33%) 24% Analysis Complete

The statement that reads 24% analysis complete is how defragmented my drive is. Currently my drive is 24% fragmented. So I have quite a few books thrown all over my library! It is recommended to only perform a defrag on your drive if it is 20% fragmented or higher. If it is under 20% fragmented, there is no real need to run the tool since you will not notice any real gain in speed.

Running the Defrag Operation

Assuming your drive is 20% fragmented or higher, now tab to the defrag button and press enter to perform a standard defrag operation. A standard defrag operation can take several hours so please be patient. The librarian is slow but extremely effective! If your recycle bin has deleted files in it, you will get a message asking if you want to empty your recycle bin prior to the defrag operation starting. By clearing your recycle bin prior to Defraggler starting, it will remove files that otherwise Defraggler would  have to work with. In turn, this will lesson the time it takes to defrag your hard drive. If you decide to answer no and not clear your recycle bin, this is fine, it will not hurt anything to say no and leave your recycle bin full of files. It will just take longer to defrag the drive. If your recycle bin is empty, the defrag process will automatically start and you will not be prompted with this recycle bin message.

Viewing Progress or Stopping the Defrag Operation

Once the defrag operation starts, you will be placed on a stop button. If you want to stop the defrag operation, press enter on it. If you want to pause the defrag operation, press shift+tab one time to the pause button and press enter. To resume defragging, press enter on the resume button.

If you want to see how far along Defraggler is with defragging your drive, while focused on the stop button, press shift+tab three times to arrive back at the drive list view and read it. The last item read to you tells you how far along Defraggler is in defragging your drive. My list view reads like this…

Local Disk C NTFS 74.5 GB 49.9 GB (67%) 24.6 GB (33%) 24% Defragmenting (0%)

The part that reads Defragmenting (0%) Is telling me that so far, Defraggler has fixed 0% of my fragmented files so I have a while to wait for Defraggler to finish. Maybe my librarian needs a new set of glasses? Likewise, if it read Defragmenting (80%) this would mean Defraggler is very close to completing the defrag operation.

Final Defrag Steps

The defrag operation completes when it reaches 100% and finalizes the operation. This finalization can take 5 minutes even though it says 100% complete. So, please be patient as you wait for the final operation to complete when 100% has been  reached.

Testing Your Speed Gain

When Defraggler has completed, you should notice a speed gain on your computer. Specifically, when you open up a program on your computer… it should seem to open up faster. I will caution you though, the first few times you open up a program it will seem much faster, however, you get used to the speed so after a while it will seem like it really is not faster. However, it is, you just get used to the speed boost!

How Often To Defrag

It is recommended to analyze your drive once a month to see if it needs defragged. Again, if it is 20% defragmented or higher then run a defrag.  Otherwise, there is no real need to run it since the speed boost will not be noticeable.

Running a Quick Defrag

A standard defrag operation can take several hours. If you want to perform a quick defrag, access the  Action menu on the menu bar and down arrow to quick defrag drive and press enter. This will run much more quickly, however, it will not have as optimal a result as the standard defrag. Think of it this way, the librarian only arranges some of the  books, not all of them.

Scheduleing a Defrag Operation

Since a standard defrag takes a while, you can schedule a defrag when you are in bed. To do this, access the settings menu on the menu bar and down arrow to the schedule… option and press enter. When the new screen appears tab to the “Schedule defragmentation for chosen volume” checkbox and check it. Set how often you want the defrag operation to happen. For example, once, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Then set the date and time the defrag operation should start. Finally tab to ok and press enter. Leave your computer on and when the date and time strikes, Defraggler will automatically start defragging your drive.

Checking for Updates

On the main screen, there is a check for updates button that you can press enter on. This will check for a new version of Defraggler and if available, the program will download it for you and install it.

Check back next week for part 3 of the  series… your going to love it!

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Happy boosting!

Justin