If you ask me, defragmenting programs are like all those miracle cure products you see on infomercials. The claims are greatly exaggerated, if not outright lies.

I have yet to see even a scrap of information that shows defragmenting offers any significant performance boost to anyone that isn't running a large database server or doing high end video work. Just a bunch of "It seems faster" reports and similarly unreliable anecdotal evidence that can easily be chalked up to the placebo effect. You expect it to improve performance, so whether or not it actually does, you convince yourself that things are faster.

Don't waste your time worrying about this, or running SpeedDisk. Here are some things you can spend your time on that will have some actual benefits.

1) Avoid using Internet Explorer as much as possible
1a) Use Mozilla Firefox, Seamonkey, Safari, or Opera
2) Be sure to always install security updates for Windows
2a) One and only time it's safe to ignore #1
3) Firewalls are important
3a) XP's firewall is good enough, but feel free to use a third party one
4) Anti-Virus programs are important
4a) If you need a free AV program, try AVG Free and Avast
5) Avoid using any pirated programs
6) Avoid using any file sharing (P2P) programs
7) Avoid using Outlook or Outlook Express
7a) I would recommend Mozilla Thunderbird or web based email such as Gmail