Defragmenting with SMARTPlacement or Without SMARTPlacement (Defragment Only)?
PerfectDisk has two different methods for performing a defrag pass - SMARTPlacement and Defragment Only (defragmenting without SMARTPlacement).
1.SMARTPlacement: ◦This will defragment all your files, consolidate free space and optimize the drive according to file usage.
◦This will provide the most complete defragmentation possible, and slowdown re-fragmentation of your drive.
◦This method may still leave small blocks on free space between files if the PerfectDisk engine determines this would take too much time for a minimal performance gain.
◦Sometimes packing the files one after the next is more important than the time needed to do so. In this case you should check the Aggressively free space consolidation check box for the selected drive. Free space consolidation can be the overriding factor for evolutions such as video capture.
2.Defragmenting without SMARTPlacement - Defragment Only: ◦Only fragmented files are defragmented without attempting to place files according to usage patterns or attempting to consolidate free space.
◦This will provide the fastest defragmentation pass but will not be the most thorough.
◦This type on defragmentation pass should only be used if you have lots of free space. Since no attempt is made to clear free space to place files, any file which cannot be fit in to an existing free space hole, will be skipped.
◦If using this strategy, Raxco recommends using it in conjunction with SMARTPlacement. You would create two schedules - one defragmenting without SMARTPlacement (a Defrag Only pass) daily, and the second performing a SMARTPlacement defrag pass weekly. The weekly pass will consolidate the free space and the daily pass would be very quick. This would maintain optimum performance with minimal user impact.