Disk drives defragmentation is basically an operation that needs to be done once in a while. The reason is this: the installation of programs and copying of files (all disk activity - reading/writing) may lead to file cluttering which causes your computer to run slowly. This calls to immediate action: files need to be rearranged in order to consolidate free space and optimize your drives in order to increase performance.

PerfectDisk can help you defragment drives in many ways: you can manually start a defrag process in order to improve disk performance or you can schedule the defragmentation process and let PerfectDisk take care of all the trouble.

In order to automate the defragmentation process, you can use the Stealth Patrol - AutoPilot Scheduling feature of the program. This way, PerfectDisk will run in the background (you can find the icon in your system tray) and the scheduled defragmentation will start and stop automatically. It is recommended to defragment your disks at least once every fortnight in order that your computer should run without any impairment.

The main advantage of Stealth Patrol is the fact that although it will run in the background, defragmentation can be set to start when the system is idle, so it won’t affect your work. So, let's have a look at how it works.

Open PerfectDisk, go to the 'AutoPilot Scheduling' tab, double click on the 'Full Auto Schedule' job in the list in order to start configuring it. It will bring up the configuration window.

As you can see, there are 4 steps to be completed in order to complete the background defragmentation. First, you need to select the name (you can select any given name) for your job.

The second step (click 'Next') is to select the drives to defragment. All detected drives will be displayed and you need to tick the drives you wish to defragment. Here, you can also pick the defragmentation sequence. I usually let PerfectDisk decide for me so I select auto detection.

The third step prompts you to select the defragmentation method: Usually, I choose to reclaim free space before defragmentation (both emptying of the Recycle Bin and cleaning of Temporary files). I also like to defragment with SMARTplacement and I also select to defragment all system files.

The last step (step 4) is to select the start date and time as well as the duration and recurrence of the defragmentation process.

All this said and done, drive fragmentation should no longer be a problem for anyone.

This program has been tested on Windows Vista Home Premium x32, x64 and Windows 7 RC1.