Is your PC acting sluggish, and you don't know why? The problem may be that your hard disk is defragmented, slowing down the time it takes your applications to load, and the time it takes to open and save files. Typically, when you open and then save files, the files are saved on different locations on your hard disk, and so Windows has to gather them up from multiple locations.

The free Auslogics Disk Defrag solves the problem by combing through your hard disk, finding fragmented files, and then defragmenting them--storing all their parts contiguously to one another so that they can be opened more quickly.

First tell the program to analyze your hard disk to check its defragmentation level. It's exceptionally fast, and zipped through 80 gigabytes of files on my hard disk in a few short minutes. Auslogics Disk Defrag reports back on the percentage of your hard disk that's defragmented, and shows you a map of your hard disk, detailing which sections are fragmented. It also recommends whether the disk needs to be defragmented.

Tell Auslogics Disk Defrag to defragment your hard disk, and it quickly does the job, showing you its progress on the map, so that you can see a visual representation of fragmented files moved and being defragmented.

Auslogics Disk Defrag gives you a great deal of control over how defragmentation works, including what priority it should get if other programs are running. You can even exclude certain folders from being defragmented, set a defragmentation schedule, and more. There's also an option for moving system files to the beginning of your hard disk, to speed up performance. That will increase defrag time, but will increase your PC's speed.

If you're happy with Windows' built-in defragger, you won't need this program. But if you want more control over defragging and the ability to move system files to the beginning of your hard disk to speed up access, the free Auslogics Disk Defrag is well worth the download.

--Preston Gralla