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Disk Defragmenter improved in Windows XP

The Disk Defragmenter is one of the essential utilities for every computer user.

Long gone are the days when users believed that their hard drives were not fragmented. Fragmentation occurs because we create, delete, and expand our files.

Windows XP ships with a greatly improved Disk Defragmenter that is similar to the defragmenter included in Windows 2000. Close examination reveals that both versions are actually produced by a third-party, Executive Software, the maker of the successful Diskeeper Defragmenter. The Disk Defragmenter included in Windows XP is actually a ‘lite' version of Diskeeper but is, nonetheless, a valuable utility.

Although the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP appears identical to the defragmenter in Windows 2000, important changes have been made. The Disk Defragmenter can now defragment the master file table (MFT), files that have fewer than 16 clusters, and volumes with clusters larger than 4 KB.

Windows XP also includes the command line defragmentation utility (Defrag.exe). This utility is especially useful for scheduling defragmentation, which wasn't possible with the Windows 2000 Defragmenter, at least not without special scripts.

Most users won't have to schedule the Disk Defragmenter; the operating system takes care of this. The Disk Defragmenter is automatically run in the background every three days, defragmenting and optimizing files by monitoring which files are used when users start programs. The Disk Defragmenter optimizes file placement based on this.