The fragmentation of hard drives is inevitable, and it is one of the main causes why our computer can go slow. This fragmentation occurs when small spaces remain on the disk after moving or deleting files. To save a large file, the file has to be divided into several smaller parts to cover these spaces. And hard drives, having sequential access, take longer to open or save a file by having to access each of these parts. Solving this problem requires a basic task known as “defragmenting,” and the O&O Defrag program is one of the most popular.
Although Windows has its own program to defragment hard drives and SSDs, there are other much more complete alternatives that will allow us to better optimize the system. In addition, we remember that the latest versions of Windows have been breaking our SSDs due to a failure in their defragmenter, so it is better to avoid using this program.
O&O Defrag is one of the oldest programs when it comes to organizing, defragmenting, and optimizing hard drives and SSDs . This program allows users to defragment their drives on demand to optimize them, or schedule this task to run at a specific time.
A few hours ago, the company announced the launch of a new version of this software, the new O&O Defrag 24 . And, without a doubt, this version will mark a before and after when it comes to defragmenting drives.
What’s new in O&O Defrag 24: goodbye to defragmenting
Without a doubt, the best news about this new version is that, from now on, the program will take care of everything. We will not even have to open the main window of it even once, since, as soon as it is installed, it will start working in the background and will make sure that everything is optimized.
This feature, available in O&O Defrag 24 Professional Edition , is compatible with both hard drives and SSDs. While conventional HDDs use classic techniques to defragment data, SSDs are optimized, similar to Windows, to fine-tune them and ensure the best performance without damaging them.
If we are one of those who like to review the settings of everything and fiddle with the settings, we can do it. However, from O&O they have wanted to simplify the tool to the maximum. This will analyze our system and automatically apply the best configuration so that we do not have to do anything at all.
We can download this program from its main website . Of course, it is a paid program, so in order to use it we will have to pay for its license, which has a cost of 29.90 euros. If you don’t want to pay for this program, we recommend opting for a free alternative to O&O Defrag, such as Defraggler.
No need to defrag SSD
You often hear that SSDs should not be defragmented . What’s more, it explains why, by doing so, we are reducing the useful life of our storage unit. Both the most experienced users, as well as the manufacturers, recommend not defragmenting these SSDs, since the disk’s own firmware is in charge of always having it optimized.
However, both the Windows tool and programs such as O&O Defrag are able to identify these drives and carry out various other optimization tasks. It is not mandatory. And it’s also not proven to actually improve disk performance. But, at least, they do not harm its useful life.
