Program alignment?

rezerekted

rezerekted

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I just read a pdf provided by the developers of System Mechanic and they say their 'Program Accelerator' module is the only prog available that can correct misalignment of a programs files. So, it defragments the files and puts each progs files close together which they say improves loading time of the prog.

I use Ultradefrag and it has a full optimization option. Doesn't that do the same thing or does it just put similar file types closer together? Which is what System Mechanic developers is saying other defragmenters do and only their prog can correct.

Using System Mechanic s Program Accelerator to speed up program launch times
 
Get some decent SSDs, and you won't need to worry about it. You're probably dealing with 4k sectors anyway, so it's almost a waste of time on a platter drive.
 
System mechanic is more of a SNAKE OIL type company. There is not a fucking thing it sells that cant already be done free already or is a waste of time.
 
I have an SSD for OS and a few games but can't afford SSDs for all the space I need. Well, I can afford it, but am not willing to spend that kind of money for it. I'm not buying System Mechanic, just want to know if what they say is true that only their app does program alignment. I looked up reviews PCMag for example, and their product is not snakeoil but they do over exaggerate its usefulness. They are right though that maintaining your system is the secret to keeping your OS running at top performance for years instead of people that just reinstall it every year so am interested in their claim about program alignment because it sounds valid to me if you use HDD instead of SSD.
 
I could swear i remember this exact question came up a year or so ago? Was never a definitive answer then either iirc. I use the free versions of some of these "paid" apps (Ausilogic free defrag) but i dont let them install their programs to "FIX" my pc either. I have heard of disk alignment tools and had the ones that needed it aligned. In my experience the more i try these so called "Make you pc faster" apps the more issues that come up. Has it made your pc faster? I figure if you keep your disks defraged and normal clutter cleaned off always works good for me. I even defrag my ssd once a moth or so and if i didnt know better it actually does help loading times. Regarding your specific question its hard to prove one way or the other.
 
I know they're not the only one to do this. MyDefrag was a free script-based defragmenter that literally gave you complete control over everything on the hard drive. UltimateDefrag can do it through gui, but it costs money. You really don't need program alignment except for extreme cases. I used MyDefrag for Ark:Survival Evolved before they updated their file loading system to load packages, instead of loading twenty thousand individual files spread all over the hard drive.
 
Ok, no definitive answer then. I will do more research on it via the web.

I use portable version of Ultradfrag but portable version doesn't have boot time defrag so may get installer version just for that. Ultradefrag has three options, just defrag, quick optimization and full optimization.

Here is what it says about full optimization: Full optimization moves all small files and fragments to the end of the disk to release some space in the beginning. Then it moves them back, sorted by user defined criteria, to speed up access to groups of small files. By default files are sorted by path in ascending order. Additionally FAT directories and NTFS master file tables get fixed up as mentioned above.

UltraDefrag Handbook: Introduction - 7.0.0

Sounds similar to program alignment but not sure if the same.
 
Waste of time. No defrag is going to magically transform your spinner drive into a rocket. It's slow and will be slow.
 
Protip: all defraggers end up doing effectively the same exact thing in the long run. None of them really have ever been absolutely proven beyond any shadow of any doubt to have any more performance enhancing benefits over any other defragger. They all use the Windows APIs to shuffle files around, they all end up using the prefetch data to determine where a given file should be placed on the platters (since defragging an SSD is rather pointless considering), and you end up with the exact same level(s) of performance. As B00nie just stated, it's a physical hard drive with spinning platters, it's never going to get any faster than a given level of performance regardless of what you do.

In other words, the term 'snake oil' is applicable here. As someone that was an alpha tester for UltraDefrag before it was ever even announced publicly, I assure you, it's not going to do anything different in the long run than anything else will. You're better off using something like Puran Defrag which is faster overall, or the Auslogics one (both free of charge) instead of putting entirely too much faith in something that makes claims that it has never been able to live up to.

If performance is that important, an SATA III SSD in either a traditional 2.5" form factor or perhaps one of the newer NVMe devices (if your hardware supports it, could always get a PCI-E adapter card I suppose) is the answer.

But it's your machine, wreck it all you damned well please but do us all a favor: stop asking us for advice or assistance or for suggestions if your eventual endpoint is "I'll do more research" aka "I haven't heard anything I like or will agree with so I'll just ignore all of it and do what I want anyway..."
 
If you were a serious [H]ardcore gamer you wouldn't be using hard drives, period. You'd sell half the hardware you presently have to get the money to buy one or several of 'em if you cared that much about system performance because there is no hard drive on the market today or will ever exist that can ever hope to match an SSD or what's coming on the horizon from Intel and Micron and some other companies.

The fact that you keep bringing up these utterly lame ass useless programs of various kinds that purport to improve system performance - it's like saying adding this special magic sack of sand to the trunk of a Porsche will actually make it go faster or something - and asking for others to comment on them or assist you in figuring them out is proof enough for anyone to understand exactly where you're coming from.
 
There is basic common sense maintenance we all do on our pc's but beyond that only faster hardware can improve the speed.(IMO) There will always be a new snake oil program that promises new speed increases as long as people keep buying them.
 
I absolutely agree. Making sure your games/programs are not filling your ram completely and buying a cheap ssd is significantly better. A modern SSD can transfer 10,000 4kb files per second, where as a hard drive can only do 50 4kb files per second, and the average access latency is about 500 times faster.
 
Um, Ultradefrag is free so there is no incentive to sell you snakeoil. Why don't you use some common sense. WTF would someone create snakeoil when there is no money in it? Does not add up.
 
rezerekted said:
Um, Ultradefrag is free so there is no incentive to sell you snakeoil. Why don't you use some common sense. WTF would someone create snakeoil when there is no money in it? Does not add up.
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I didnt mean to insinuate ultrdefrag was snake oil lol.....was speaking of paid windows "make windows faster apps"
 
-PK- said:
I absolutely agree. Making sure your games/programs are not filling your ram completely and buying a cheap ssd is significantly better. A modern SSD can transfer 10,000 4kb files per second, where as a hard drive can only do 50 4kb files per second, and the average access latency is about 500 times faster.
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Unused ram is wasted ram.
 
Ok, so instead of wasting money on a snake oil "defragger", why not just buy a license for MaxVeloSSD Pro?

This is, if your motherboard doesn't already come with a good SSD caching program.

What it does is use an SSD (and RAM) to cache the most used files on an HDD. If you want to, you can have multiple caches on one SSD, but I haven't really seen a need for that.

Application Accelerator and Caching Software from EliteBytes.
 
cyclone3d said:
Ok, so instead of wasting money on a snake oil "defragger", why not just buy a license for MaxVeloSSD Pro?

This is, if your motherboard doesn't already come with a good SSD caching program.

What it does is use an SSD (and RAM) to cache the most used files on an HDD. If you want to, you can have multiple caches on one SSD, but I haven't really seen a need for that.

Application Accelerator and Caching Software from EliteBytes.
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lol i was under the impression op doesn't have a ssd:whistle: and is trying to get extra performance from spinning drives.
 
I do have an ssd and am not trying to get extra perfomance. I am simply asking about program alignment and if it is true that the Ashampoo prog is the only one that does program alignment, as they claim. It would be illegal if they claimed something that is not true.

Also, what's his name claiming they all use the Windows API and are all the same is not exactly true, they use the windows api but the algorithms are different and I already know Ultradefrag does a better job than the Windows defrag does. A knowledgable person on this forum suggested Ultradefrag and here is what's his name contradicting his advice, what's his name is now on my ignore list.
 
rezerekted said:
I do have an ssd and am not trying to get extra perfomance. I am simply asking about program alignment and if it is true that the Ashampoo prog is the only one that does program alignment, as they claim. It would be illegal if they claimed something that is not true.

Also, what's his name claiming they all use the Windows API and are all the same is not exactly true, they use the windows api but the algorithms are different and I already know Ultradefrag does a better job than the Windows defrag does. A knowledgable person on this forum suggested Ultradefrag and here is what's his name contradicting his advice, what's his name is now on my ignore list.
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Technically, you could make a defrag program "align" program files on a HDD, but what exactly would be the point? The defrag program is not going to know what order the files are loaded in unless it runs in the background first while the program in question is run through it's paces.

At the very best, it is going to net a very, very, very slight loading time decrease IF it just so happens to get the files in the exact right order.

The ONLY way I see it making any difference is IF the defrag puts all files for a certain program close to each other on the platter. Now that may actually make somewhat of a difference as it should in theory reduce the distance the head has to move around on the platter in order to get to the data it needs.

Calling it "program alignment" is not very accurate. If it does that, I would call it something like program file consolidation, and explain exactly how it works instead of just being vague like they are doing.
 
"The ONLY way I see it making any difference is IF the defrag puts all files for a certain program close to each other on the platter. Now that may actually make somewhat of a difference as it should in theory reduce the distance the head has to move around on the platter in order to get to the data it needs. "

That is exactly what they say it does.
 
rezerekted said:
I do have an ssd and am not trying to get extra perfomance. I am simply asking about program alignment and if it is true that the Ashampoo prog is the only one that does program alignment, as they claim. It would be illegal if they claimed something that is not true.

Also, what's his name claiming they all use the Windows API and are all the same is not exactly true, they use the windows api but the algorithms are different and I already know Ultradefrag does a better job than the Windows defrag does. A knowledgable person on this forum suggested Ultradefrag and here is what's his name contradicting his advice, what's his name is now on my ignore list.
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which program is it specifically? Is it one of those with a free trial but then you have to pay for it to use?
 
rezerekted said:
Yea, it is trialware and is part of System Mechanic

System Mechanic®

They call that part of it "ENHANCED Program Accelerator".
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I did spend a few weeks long while back to see what i thought of system Mechanic......and to be honest it reeked of snake oil. Pretty sure i had to restore an image just to get my pc back in shape lol. Anyways that was my impression
 
Program alignment? What is this fucking bullshit? If the partition is properly aligned, then you have no alignment problem within the partition.
 
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It means putting files from individual programs close together for faster loading.
 
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rezerekted said:
It means putting files from individual programs close together for faster loading.
Click to expand...

Protip: if you'd leave it alone, prefetch - which has been part of Windows since XP - does that automagically when the system does the scheduled defragmentation pass which has also been part of Windows since XP. Of course, when you fuck around with things and disable aspects of the OS that by design are meant to improve performance to various degrees and then you note that performance decreases, there's nobody to blame for such occurrences except you.

Most of us seem to understand this quite well, why don't you?
 
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