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Submitted and Written by Wolfen
I know a lot of people that considers this old program a win. One could defragment a drive while looking all those colored blockies, and never get bored.
Actually, it seems pretty boring to me, but the colored blocks sure do make me long for the days when I owned a PC. Kind of.
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In a sick way I wish my computer still defragged like this…
The worst part about it was if you did ANYTHING that used the HDD, sometimes even as small as using the mouse it would jump back to 0%. Although it would then get back to the % it was at before that faster it was still the most annoying thing ever! Although i kinda do wish the look stayed the same, Ultimate Defrag has a pretty cool UI that shows the blocks being moved.
Completely agree with Impstrong, just a slight pixel move wit the mouse and back to the 0%!
YES! I loved the colored blocks! I believe you can still view the blocks during defrag on XP.
I’m on XP, and it’s not an option. It makes me so sad every time I use it and think of all the colored block action I’m missing out on.
And Vista just makes me cry, it doesn’t even show the scrambledness >_>
Vista just makes me cry, it doesn’t even show the scrambledness
I hope the win7 defrag shows the scrambledness. a program that does is JKDefrag
I’m running the Win7 RTM, and it does NOT show the scrambledness.
However, the Win95/98 defrag would rearrange all the files to the fast part of the disk. the defrag program was stripped down in XP/Vista/7, which is kinda sad. In xp/Vista/7 the files are still scattered across the disk, which is why I use 3rd party defraggers like O&O defrag.
I prefer my files neatly placed as close to the outer(faster) edge of the harddrive platters.
oh, AND THOU SHALT NOT DEFRAG AN SSD DRIVE!
I use MyDefrag because It supports scripts so you can e.g. move all Movies to the slow end of the HDD…
The GUI (Grafical User Interface) shows the blocks, but 1×1 Pixel blocks.
if you want to see where the files are placed atm you’ll love it.
best of all: it’s free and has prebuild Presents for daily use (for those Defrag-Addicts)
But don’t you just love the little colored lines?
The lines are better than Vista’s defrag, but the blocks are so much better
When I started a new job, I was given a piece-of-crap PC to work with – it had a 386 (!) and regular Windows…geez, I’m old…
First thing I did was defrag the stupid thing — I wasn’t even hooked up to a network — I started it at 5.30 on a Friday when I left….it was still running at 8 am Monday morning.
Best part? Finding a Powerpoint titled “training materials” and finding it was a slideshow of Hustler centerfolds. I’m not of the correct gender to find it all that entertaining….
o.O Wow. The worst I’ve ever found was someone’s party photos.
That’s gender bias you’re displaying, right there.
No it’s not — the majority of women wouldn’t find a slideshow of Hustler centerfolds all that entertaining. That’s not gender bias, and it’s nothing derogatory agains anyone who *would* find it entertaining …it’s called an observation, not an opinion.
Just for the record, I wasn’t offended, and didn’t scream discrimination — I didn’t even tell anyone else I’d found it…I just deleted it as “juvenile crap that doesn’t belong on an office hard drive.”
But how dare you think it isn’t appropriate to download porn at work!
I do miss those old defrag graphics. It made me feel like I was accomplishing something… Which I was, but I need visual confirmation!
Actually, it is… Especially if it’s kiddie porno… That not only gets you fired, but a possible prison term…
A fellow who works with my bro at the Prison they are both guards at got caught doing it… He’s still being disciplined for that, ie, being investigated by the warden and the RCMP…
Something to keep in mind…
it was oddly satisfying watching it get to the end
I loved the blocks. It made me feel that the defrag was actually doing something helpful to my computer. But sadly I have vista now and vista does not have the blocks.
My first defrag was on a Windows 98 PC laptop I got for Christmas when I was in high school (making it a 4-5 year old lappie). First thing I did, after realizing it was slow, was defrag it. On Christmas Day. I don’t reckon why it entertained me so, but it did.
Also, my dad drew those little boxes for me in second or third grade to explain the concept of formatting a floppy disk. Is that an epic win?
That goofy thing only worked for the first little while that I had a Windows 98 SE Desktop… After that, the thing got fragmented and stayed that way…
I guess we don’t have to do that anymore… I do the worst possible thing to my server for fragmentation all of the time (downloading huge files, filling the disk to the limit, and deleting the files haphazardly). And if the FBI or RIAA is reading this, I’ll have you know those are all …umm… open source… things.
God! I hate the internets! You people need to realize that it’s more than just the record label/movie studio/game company and artists/actors that get paid from the sales. All your piracy will take all of us who actually work on the projects out of work because we’re the 1st to go and then you won’t have anything to pirate because there won’t be any entertainment being created anymore. What the hell is wrong with people that they can’t EVEN pay $1 for a song anymore? I think that’s more than reasonable.
Then again it’s worthless arguing with people. If it’s on the internet, stealing is easy. Next time I’m in your place of business, I’ll feel free to take whatever I want and walk out without paying for it. It only seems fair.
Way to go off topic, bro.
and maybe if the DRM locked media wasn’t so blasted annoying, more people would be willing to pay. Especially for us Linux folks, who regularly switch OS’s and lose over $300 worth of music, since it is against the EULA to move it to another OS, even if it’s the same computer
I no longer feel quite so silly for missing that.
Are you kidding me? A defrag program is a win? First of all, there have been defrag programs long before Windows 98, and second, they used the coloured blocks too.
I now defrag my PC using diskeeper, and it shows a map with no blocks but little coloured bars… It’s actually a little entertaining to watch lol, but I get scared when I see lots of pink and red bars.
It actually takes a lot to complete the task so I only defrag when I go out or something, you get bored quicky xD
It’s too bad Microsoft got rid of a useful defrag program and with XP you get one that doesn’t do much and has no customization
I now want to go out, find a really old computer and defrag it… just so I can watch the blocks be moved. *sniffles*
you can have the ‘95 Gateway that I believe is still running Win 95, it may be ‘98 (not SE) but I’m pretty sure it’s ‘95, and defrag it all you want. It’s just sitting in my closet doing nothing. It still boots and runs fine, it’s a quite slow by today’s standards, but it was top of the line in it’s day.
You can still have the blocks! and more importantly a far superior defrag tool than the windows integrated. Defraggler. Made by piriform, the people who make CCleaner (if you dont use it, you fail at computing.) Check it out! i was so happy when i saw the blocks…and its freeware. Really a nice program.
http://www.defraggler.com/
I use Auslogics Disk Defrag. It has colored blocks. They aren’t as win but it does give you that “it’s doing something” look to it.
It was ported directly from DOS, and hadn’t been really adapted to a multitasking environment. I like the XP one better, it has the ability to actually show all of the drive at once – the 98 defrag was showing some random “things happen to your drive” colourful blocks here and there.
I remember Norton Utilities Defragmenter was better – it moved frequently used files to the beginning of the drive, those which tended to grow had some leftover blanks at the end, and it was much better at organizing a limited space – the Windows Defrag tends to have a problem with large, fragmented files – it leaves them alone if it can’t put them in a place as a whole, even if limiting the number of chunks would help.
I wish defraggers had a tetris game that you could watch it play and as it defragged it’d clear lines out.
that is an AWESOME idea.
What’s the music played here?
Oh, yes! Glad to see this made it. One of my favorite programs for Windows. Was awfully disappointed to see the new version in XP, and actually, looking for something like it is how I found JKDefrag, which I’ve used ever since.
I used to de-frag my computer just because I liked watching the blocks move. Vista is no fun
OMJ! I thought I was the only person who was a huge enough dork to love and miss the Windows 98 defrag! The line-thing in XP just isn’t cool enough.
I also thought I was the only one who liked the Win98 blocks!! I feel an inexpressible wave of redemption. Thank you, WOAW <3
I never had windows 98, but i remember this love from windows 95. <3
It is possible that something is running in the background that you don’t see. Also firewall and anti-virus programs can sometimes interfere with Defrag.
Try running Defrag in Safe Mode. To do this, turn off your computer. Then turn it on again. But before Windows loads, press and hold the crtl button. This should cause a menu to pop up that will allow you to select “Safe Mode”. This loads Windows but not all the usual drivers and startup programs.
Also, if you can only get it to run in safe mode, you might want to download a freeware program called “EndItAll”. This program will automatically shut down all programs other than the Windows basics. If you use this, you shouldn’t need to go into safe mode:
or get a mac. the drive doesn’t fragment like it does on windows.
This is so suitable, cause I’m defragmentating my new laptop that has windows vista right now. It doesn’t even have a bar that shows how far it is by now. It just says “this could take several minutes to several hours” -.-
Point of fact I just defragged this morning. The XP little red, green and blue bars just don’t cut it.
I remember my old Windows NT laptop..what a P.O.S. it was. I got it secondhand and it took every bit of two days to defrag..and still I had to get a memory upgrade so the dang thing would run without stalling.
It’s incredible how happy this makes me. I can’t believe other people used to watch the defrag.
Win98 Defragmenter is awesome!!!
Windows anything + Win = DOES NOT COMPUTE
Grab Defraggler by Piriform at http://www.defraggler.com/. The blocks are back!
(It’s a pretty decent defragger as well.)
my computer was never powerful enough to do this any quicker than overnight…always good for when going on vacation…unless the dreaded power outage…come back to a still fragged computer. DIATH!!!
The best thing about Win98 defragger was that you could tell how far along on the disk you were, and could guess how much longer it was going to take.
Micro$oft needs to bring back the blocks.
You can make scrambled eggs with my hard drive
I used to sit there as a kid for hours watching the blocks and waiting for it to finish so I could continue to play diablo
Oh, wow. My win made it in. I’m so proud of those blocks. THEY WERE AWESOME!
The only reason I ever would spend time away from the computer. Going outside win.
I want those blocks BAAAAACK!!!
I remember I was little when our computer still needed to be defragged, and I always got so angry because I couldn’t use it. Let’s just say I was one of those little kids that needed to be constantly entertained.