What Is Smart Defrag and Its Best Free Alternative

Scenario

“As my Windows 10 PC ran more and more slowly, I decided to defragment the hard drives since I heard in this way, the system’s performance can be improved. I downloaded the most popular defragmenter Smart Defrag in the hope that it could help me out. However, afterwards, I found that most of its features were restricted to a paid version and it was really expensive. So, I want to know whether there is any free alternative?”

Overview of Smart Defrag – is Smart Defrag good?

When putting a file in a partition, sometimes, its data could exist in different clusters that are not adjacent to each other and this is called fragmentation. Too much fragmentation downgrades the performance of your computer while defragmentation is a way to put those data together so as to reduce data access time, expand hard disk service time to a large extent, and make it much easier to perform disk and partition management.  

iObit Smart Defrag is one of the best third-party defragmenter in the market for defragmentation of hard drives. It’s compatible with Windows 10, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. It can enhance the performance of PCs for many purposes like streaming, gaming, browsing, and many other activities. Smart Disk Defrag contains many practical features including Disk Defrag and Boot Time Defrag. The former one improves the overall performance of your hard drives while the latter one permits you to defrag files while the system boot process for shorter system boot time. Meanwhile, it also allows you to defrag game files to enhance your gaming experience.

2 Alternatives to Smart Defrag

In the contents above, you’ve learnt what is Smart Defrag and Smart Defrag cons. As you can see, it’s definitely a good software utility for defragmentation since many practical features are provided to enhance your user experience. However, as I went further, I found many people complained that most of its features were restricted to the professional version which asked for payment and in the meantime, it installed unrelated programs during or after setup. So, here, I’ll recommend another 2 free alternatives to Smart Defrag.

Note: In situations below, a disk needs to be defragmented

1. A large number of files have been added.

2. Only around 15% of available disk space left.

3. A new program or a new version of Windows is installed.

4. Fragmentation exceeds 15%.

Free Windows Defragmenter

Windows 7, 8, and 10 have their own defragmenter with which you can analyze a disk and defragment it based on the result. Follow the tutorial below to learn how to get it done.

1. In the search box on the lower left of the desktop, input “defragment”.

2. Select “Defragment and Optimize Drives”.

3. Select a hard disk drive and click on “Analyze”.

4. When analysis is completed, check whether the result is beyond “15%”.

5. If so, proceed to click on “Optimize” to start defragmentation.

Free third-party disk management utility

The Windows inbuilt defragmenter is a good free choice when Smart Defrag charges. However, there’re also some users complaining that sometimes, it doesn’t work without any reason. So, to avoid this awkwardness, another third-party free Defragmenter AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is recommended. Its feature of “Disk Defrag” allows defragmenting all disks from the system C drive to data drives like D, E, and F in clicks. Meanwhile, unlike Smart Defrag, there’s no annoying bundleware either. Besides disk defragmentation, other features like wiping hard drive  and SSD secure erase are also supported.

What’s the best alternative to Smart Defrag? Free download the ultimate disk manager to have a try!

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, right-click on the partition you want to defrag and select “Disk Defrag”.

Step 2. Tick the partition and hit “Analyze”.

Step 3. After completed, the disk will be scored based on fragmented rate.

Step 4. Hit the “Defrag” button to start defragmentation.

Wait several seconds to minutes before is completed. After it’s done, your disk will be scored again.

Optional: a way to improve SSD’s performance

Should an SSD be defragmented? You’ll find the answer is negative after opening the link. So, here, I won’t make any further explanation. But what should be done if you want to improve an SSD’s performance?  There seems to be no more choices left? Luckily, AOMEI Partition Assistant still gives a workaround. By upgrading this freeware to the Pro edition, you can enjoy the benefits of SSD 4K alignment to get the most out of your SSD.

Note: Other than SSD 4K alignment, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also supports schedule defrag, making your hard drives defragged daily, weekly, or monthly.

Conclusion

What is Smart Defrag and what can it do for us? After going through the entire post, hopefully, you’ve learnt its main features, pros, and cons. Meanwhile, 2 better alternatives to Smart Disk Defrag is also introduced to help get it done with more convenience. As for me, AOMEI Partition Assistant is a good choice for it is free and user-friendly. When using it, I can easily find what I’m looking for and then, do what I want. To use this software on Server PCs, please try the Server edition.