what are your thoughts? so far i've heard of diskeeper, o&o defrag and perfect disk. anyone have any suggestions on a good one i haven't heard of, or any comments on the quality of the ones i listed?
Linux partitions using common Linux FSs generally don't need to be defragged. This is so for two reasons:
1. The OS is multi-user. Files are going on and off the FS all the time. File fragmentation tends to be transient.
2. The FSs fragment the DISK by default, which leads to less fragmenting of FILES.
However, a single-user system will tend to accumulate more fragmented files. Also, as the disk fills up, the problem becomes worse ... which is true for ANY FS, NTFS included.
I would never defrag a Linux FS like ext2/3 or reiser. At best, every so often, I would identify the largest fragmented file, copy it over to another partition, delete it in the original spot, then copy it back.
Having space AROUND files is the best way to manage a FS. The DISK should be fragmented, so that the FILES will be minimally fragmented.