I finally downloaded Wolfgang Führer's  v0.3.3 GUI for DirMS defragger at http://www.wolfgang-fuehrer.de/wwf_dirmsgui_en.htm (released on March 28). Then I installed the several programs necessary and got myself a really nice defrag utility for Windows XP.

I rely upon Norton Utilities 2005's venerable SpeedDisk for one of my WinXP machines; for the other--thanks to Leroy Dissinger, Wolfgang Führer, Sysinternals and the programmers of the ABLogFile--I now use DirMS for defragging, assisted by DiskView and ABLogFile, and the combination is not inferior to some big name companies' products IMO (By the way, "DirMS" is an acronym. You can read about it at http://www.dirms.com/ ). According to DirMS's Web page: "It is a command line utility that will defragment using multiple passes your hard drive. It can decrease fragmentation in large files by using a partial defragmentation algorithm and will also compact files to rid your system of the dreaded interstice problem." If you're inclined to try DirMS--via Wolfgang's easy-to-use dirms-GUI--read on. I boiled down the Web site's instructions to get it installed and running to six steps:

1. Scroll to the middle of Wolfgang's page http://www.wolfgang-fuehrer.de/wwf_dirmsgui_en.htm and download dirms_gui_0.2.1.zip

2. Open dirms_gui_0.2.1.zip to install the dirms-GUI

3. Return to your browser and left click the "dirms" link near the top of Wolfgang's Web page, then download DirMS v1.2.20 (the link is located near the "Questions" segment of http://www.dirms.com/ about ¼ way down the page). Exercise care to select the correct version. Wolfgang cautions: "Please load dirms 1.2.20 from the website - not the new service program!"

4. Install DirMS into the *same* folder as the dirms-GUI

5. Click your browser's return button until you're back at Wolfgang's page. Then, scroll down ¼ page and click the "ABLogFile" link. Download ABLogFile v1.4.4.0 Beta and unzip it to the *same* dirms-GUI folder.

6. Click your browser's return button until you're back at Wolfgang's page. Then, scroll down ¾ of the page and left click on the "DiskView"link. Download DiskView v2.0 from Sysinternals and unzip it to the *same* folder as the dirms-GUI.

Now you're ready to defrag your drive. Everything that you need should be in a single folder. Just doubleclick the dirms-GUI icon to call up the interface and examine your choices. Wolfgang made it self-explanatory. There is a button in the top right corner to access Sysinternals' DiskView freeware for a graphical fragmentation assessment. The rest of Wolfgang's GUI is divided into three columns. The first column is called "Select Drives." Indicate your selection with check boxes. The second column is "Select Action." Do the "Full job" if this is your first run with the utility (it takes about two hours on my machine (WindowsXP 1.8Ghz Pentium 4 with a 30 GB hard drive)). Enable logging in the third column and also indicate whether the program should merely exit after defragging or initiate a shutdown. There's even a button in the upper right hand corner for calling up Windows own defragging tools. Very cool.

For more info, check out the DirMS' forums at http://www.dirms.com/forums/default.asp

About the Author - Tony Brezovski publishes a tightfisted techie ezine at http://www.tightwadtech.com/