Defragging with Paragon Hard Disk Manager

[DennisD]

I've used this program twice to defrag both partitions, and I forgot to post the results the first time, but I think it well worth a mention.

 

Both visually, and in operation, Paragons defrag feature seems to be pretty well up there. I've never seen either drives looking like this with any other defrag program.

 

C: drive.

 

 

E: drive.

 

 

 

For the C: drive, Paragon closed down and restarted, beginning the defrag before everything had booted.

 

To my inexperienced eye, this seems to be the most effective way to defrag the OS drive.

 

The E: drive was in a hell of a state after copying and deleting a lot of large Iso images and sound files.

 

I'm well impressed. Hope you find this useful.

[JDPower]

To my inexperienced eye, this seems to be the most effective way to defrag the OS drive.

Which is of course where JKDefrags logic comes into play. Yes it looks nice and neat but where are any new or temp files gonna go? Right at the end of the data, ie the slowest section. Thats why JKD leaves a gap at the start for these files, which will then have faster access. The one thing Paragon's HD Manager has that JKD doesn't is the ability to defrag the MFT, though I don't know if it includes that in the regular defrag as I've still not got round to trying it out yet.

[BrownSugar]

Dennis -

 

Thanks for the review. Just a few questions.

 

1) How big is the Paragon directory (in terms of megabytes). Not that it matter in these days of 500 gig hd's for $100, but I just thought it would be interesting to know as Jkdefrag is about 3.7 mg with the GUI.

2) Did you monitor the install? Jkdefrag adds very little to the registry in addition to it's own small directory.

3) Does Paragon add a service, and if so, can it be set to "manual"

4) Does Paragon add anything to startup or does it just run on demand?

 

 

On another note, no matter what adjustments I make to my firewall (ZA Pro) or Adblock Plus, I can't see your images using Firefox.

Any suggestions?

[Andavari]

Thats why JKD leaves a gap at the start for these files, which will then have faster access.

That's what I was wondering about when I used JkDefrag, thanks for clearing that up. I'll give JkDefrag another shot on my system.

[JDPower]

1) How big is the Paragon directory (in terms of megabytes). Not that it matter in these days of 500 gig hd's for $100, but I just thought it would be interesting to know as Jkdefrag is about 3.7 mg with the GUI.

I don't think that would be a relative comparison as Paragon HD Manager is much more than just a defragger.

 

That's what I was wondering about when I used JkDefrag, thanks for clearing that up. I'll give JkDefrag another shot on my system.

If you want a GUI I can highly recommend JKDefragStarter, just 180Kb (the page is German but the GUI is English )

[Andavari]

If you want a GUI I can highly recommend JKDefragStarter, just 180Kb (the page is German but the GUI is English )

I've used a couple of GUI's with it but they weren't for me.

 

I just made my own installer for JkDefrag but I can't figure out how to have Inno Setup change the shortcut to include the -q parameter to automatically have JkDefrag exit after defragging, however it's really no big deal as I can manually change it.

[DennisD]

Dennis -

 

Thanks for the review. Just a few questions.

 

1) How big is the Paragon directory (in terms of megabytes). Not that it matter in these days of 500 gig hd's for $100, but I just thought it would be interesting to know as Jkdefrag is about 3.7 mg with the GUI.

2) Did you monitor the install? Jkdefrag adds very little to the registry in addition to it's own small directory.

3) Does Paragon add a service, and if so, can it be set to "manual"

4) Does Paragon add anything to startup or does it just run on demand?

 

 

On another note, no matter what adjustments I make to my firewall (ZA Pro) or Adblock Plus, I can't see your images using Firefox.

Any suggestions?

 

Wow, I didn't expect to be sitting a test after that post, and you all know how far my technical knowledge stretches, but I'll do my best.

 

The Paragon directory is 34mb, but an unfair comparison as JD pointed out, this is a lot more than a defrag application, and although my HD is a total of only 80gb, I really don't care how much it weighs in at, as it's a cracking application I've used a number of times, for a number of different things.

 

1: Partitioned my drive. 2: Redistributed the free space, twice. 3: Make backup disk images. 4: Defrag both partitions.

 

What's the point of having HD space if you never use it. When it comes to a really good piece of software that you like and use, to me, size really doesn't matter.

 

Yes I did monitor the install, but as I have no intention of ever parting with this program, to me, it's a moot point.

 

Does it add a service? After having a look, no. If it did, it's again a moot point to me, as it wouldn't make any difference.

 

Nothing added to startup. Runs on demand, and runs like a Swiss watch.

 

You can't see my images? Suggestion?

 

Seriously, no idea why that is. This is the hosting site I used. imgjax:

 

The technical points about how things are laid on the HD.

 

Technically, I obviously can't argue with your observations, but I will stick with Paragon over all the other defrag programs, because I like the sound of it while it's defragging, and I like the sound of my drive afterwards, in operation.

 

It works smoother and quieter during and after defragging with Paragon, than it does during and after using any other application.

 

With regards to temp files etc, apart from the occassional program I install and keep, I do most activities under Returnil, which keeps my C: drive clean.

 

That's it guys, I hope I didn't score too badly, but bear in mind all my observations are made as a user, and not as a technician.

[DennisD]

Using different host, can you see these?

 

 

[acooldozen]

 

I am unable to see them either. Opera nor IE7. Checked forum, control panel etc..................

[hazelnut]

Have you any kind of popup blocker installed?

[acooldozen]

Have you any kind of popup blocker installed?

 

 

No................am able to see screenshots/images on ALL other forums! Opera is default browser and even with "block unwanted popups" unchecked, I can still not see most images. Also am unable to alter text color or text size in this message.

 

Also topic options is inoperable!

[Humpty]

On another note, no matter what adjustments I make to my firewall (ZA Pro) or Adblock Plus, I can't see your images using Firefox.

Any suggestions?

For images not showing up in Firefox you could try the tests at the link below.

FF image check

[DennisD]

Thats a nice link Humpty, and for Firefox users I can see all the images on that page, and I'm using Firefox.

 

Running with it as it came, no tweaks.

[Zone54]

[... ]and for Firefox users I can see all the images on that page, and I'm using Firefox.

 

Running with it as it came, no tweaks.

 

Same here and I can see the images just fine.

[acooldozen]

...............I'm using Opera and I can see all the images on the FF page as well...............but I am unable to see them on this forum. Also unable to utilize the thread options nor change color or size of font in replys. Also unable to view September desktops images.

[hazelnut]

I also use opera (version 9.23) and have no problem with the images.

 

Are you using the latest opera beta?

 

If in this forum you go to my controls, then board settings, does it say yes for viewing images?

[acooldozen]

No! am using Opera 9.23 8808! Also email notification is not working for this thread.

[Andavari]

I'm starting to think some of the images not showing up or loading is due to the forum itself. Many times I've seen were something is loading from http://forum.piriform.com/ and no image will show up. However after clicking Reload in Firefox the images load, which is weird.

[BrownSugar]

I still can't see the images in this thread, and I saw all except the #4 image in the Mozillazine link, which means some blocker is blocking the image.

I shut down Adblockplus, and removed all the Zone Alarm Pro security for this site, and still can't see the image. I usually have no problems with other forums and embedded thumbnails or photos.

[JDPower]

I've used a number of times, for a number of different things.

 

1: Partitioned my drive. 2: Redistributed the free space, twice.

Dennis, maybe you can answer this for me then. I've finally installed HD Manager and discovered a small hidden partition on my new laptop (a Dell Utility partition). If I delete that partition is there something I have to do to reclaim that space for my main partition or is it automatically added to it?

[Andavari]

If I delete that partition is there something I have to do to reclaim that space for my main partition or is it automatically added to it?

I don't know the answer to the question however there are negative's to removing the utility partition:

* Dell phone support will want you to run the pretty much useless tests should you call in with a problem.

* You'll still see the option to boot to the utility partition, even if you've removed it because the option to boot to it is in the BIOS.

[JDPower]

I don't know the answer to the question however there are negative's to removing the utility partition:

* Dell phone support will want you to run the pretty much useless tests should you call in with a problem.

* You'll still see the option to boot to the utility partition, even if you've removed it because the option to boot to it is in the BIOS.

Ok, what about moving it so it's not at the start of the hard drive?

[DennisD]

Ok, what about moving it so it's not at the start of the hard drive?

 

You probably already know that you've discovered a 3.5gb Ghost Image, installed on all new Dells at the very end of the drive.

 

To achieve what you want, you can delete that partition, reclaim the space, and create your own Ghost Image partition with Paragon 8. Or just reclaim the space.

 

I'm obviously repeating what I've read from the links below, but what I can say, is that the Paragon 8 "Wizard" menus make these operations relatively straightforward, and there is an option in the drop down menus to "move a partition". Maybe this is a possibility.

 

To get around this, I simply deleted the CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS partition (using PM8) where DELL had stored its 3.5-GB back-up Ghost image and stretched the last logical DOS drive to reclaim this extra 3.5-GB of newly "unused space", where I created my own back-up Ghost image (two of them, actually).

 

Info obtained here:

 

Link1:

 

Link2:

 

Hope this helps.

[JDPower]

You probably already know that you've discovered a 3.5gb Ghost Image, installed on all new Dells at the very end of the drive.

Thanks for the reply Dennis. It's not actually a large ghost image, its a 120Mb utility partition (Dell Utility Partition). I'm not really bothered about the space its taking up, the HD has far more space than I'll take up, just don't see the point of it being right at the start of the disk when it'll probably never be used. Might try HD Managers move partition function first and see if I can shift it to the end of the disk rather than delete it.

Although according to the link I don't really need it:

You may wish to recreate the DE partition if the hard disk is upgraded or replaced. For the record, installing delldiag on the hard disk is optional. It's the same program you can run from the Dell Resource CD (if one came with your computer, and if you can still find it). Many people are satisfied to just run the diagnostic utility from CD when necessary, but this section describes how to recreate the DE partition on the hard disk if you choose to do so.

[DennisD]

I'm learning as I go along here JD, as I might have the same choices to make if I ever invest in a Laptop.

 

So Dell have either a Utility Partition or a Ghost Image, or could a new Laptop come with both on the HD? Rhetorical question, just thinking aloud.

 

Whatever you decide to do with that partition, Paragon make it relatively easy to do when you eventually suss out how to do it.

 

It took me a while to realise that the Wizards just set up the parameters of whatever operation you're doing, and then you have to click the green checkmark to set things away.

 

That's the way I did anything, and when I eventually realised I had to select the "Restart Now" option, I had no idea what came next.

 

Although, when the Paragon Engine took over after restarting, it seemed to know what it was doing, and the rest went like clockwork. Took a bit of time is all.

 

What puzzles me is why it wouldn't work for Tunerz? It worked fine on 4 different occasions for me.

 

I've still got all the screenshots of the different stages Paragon goes through if they would be of any help, (gone from previous Tunerz post after Imageshare closed).