I used to have O&O defrag. It was simple to operate. The UI for 12 is the most ridiculously confusing piece of software I have ever encountered since I have owned a computer.What happened to the file menu? Where did everything go?I am trying to run name but I cant get it to become an option when I right click on a drive. As it stands, it will only give me Optimize, Optimize quick, optimize complete. What happened to all of the options?I tried to add complete name to the toolbars but it is greyed out - you can't click it. I'm using Nick's guide but it was clearly writtem for one of the versions that had a sensible UI.

Never mind, I think I got it. I had to disable Zones before it would show up. Seems like that option should not be enabled by default.I ran the space defrags first with zones checked. Do you think it will cause issues?Still think the UI is horrible. What eve happened to putting a bunch of commands in a menu?

Never mind, I think I got it. I had to disable Zones before it would show up. Seems like that option should not be enabled by default.I ran the space defrags first with zones checked. Do you think it will cause issues?Still think the UI is horrible. What eve happened to putting a bunch of commands in a menu?

You should be able to run COMPLETE/Name by pressing Ctrl + F11 even if the option isn't listed in the user interface.

1. Enable the ZONE option.2. Use the interface included (read the manual!) to select which folders you want included in which zones. This will allow you to select your FSX folder if you have it installed OUTSIDE of the default "Programs Files" folder on your hard drive (which many people do, especially with VISTA), and tell O&O to include your FSX folder in the "Programs" Zone.3. From then on, all you really need to do is a periodic "Quick Optimize" every once in a while. It will only take several minutes. This will keep your FSX folder optimized quite well without having to do a "Complete Name" defrag of your entire hard drive every time you defrag. It will "Quick Optimize" ALL the Zones, WITHIN each Zone only. 4. About once a month (or maybe even longer, depending on what you add or delete from your computer as far as "files" or "programs"), run the "Complete" option and select the "Name" method to defrag the ENTIRE computer. THIS will re-sort ALL files using the "Name" convention, but again ONLY within EACH Zone. This one will take a long(er) time, so you really only want (and need) to do it no more than monthly, and probably as an "overnight" process while you are asleep, etc. The benefit of this is it doesn't need to re-organize the ENTIRE drive as ONE drive to re-sort every single file by "Name". It does it within each Zone only.The purpose of the Zones is to ALLOW you to do the above things. The Zones make it unnecessary for you to "Complete Name" the entire hard drive every time you defrag like previous versions of O&O did. And it works great. I've been doing it with 12 for quite a while now, and FSX purrs along very nicely.Rick

So what you are saying is I should add my dedicated FSX drive to zone 1? Should I leave the rest as it is?Where is the option to defag using zones? The only thing I see is the option to defrag the whole computer using the space method. Once I re-enable zones, what is the command to defrag using zones?Thanks for the help.

So what you are saying is I should add my dedicated FSX drive to zone 1? Should I leave the rest as it is?Where is the option to defag using zones? The only thing I see is the option to defrag the whole computer using the space method. Once I re-enable zones, what is the command to defrag using zones?Thanks for the help.

Rick didn't read your sig. As you have FSX on a separate drive, and if that disk used space is below 50%, you could use COMPLETE/Name as defrag method on that drive.

Rick didn't read your sig. As you have FSX on a separate drive, and if that disk used space is below 50%, you could use COMPLETE/Name as defrag method on that drive.

I have O&O #12. My FSX partition is on a separate spindle to my System partition and I continue with defragging the FSX partition by name. I tried zones on my system partition but gave that away and went back to space as I didn't see any performacne increase with the Zone method and it takes a long time. So now I leave the "Enable Zones" switch off permanently.

Yup. I didn't see you had FSX on a completely separate drive. Just do Complete Name on that one and you'll be fine.I'd still use Zones on any other drive where you have your OS, other Program Files, and other items. During a "Quick Optimize", O&O 12 will do a Complete Name defrag for Zone 1, a Complete Access defrag for Zone 2, and a Space defrag for Zone 3. This will significantly reduce your "periodic" defrag times that you may only have to do every week. You then only need to do a Complete Name for the entire OS drive once a month or so. A "Quick Optimize" on my 1 TB main OS drive that is almost 600 GB full already only takes about 10 minutes, yet the entire Zone 1 gets a Complete Name optimization.Look at the Zone Options. It will show you where O&O places each type of files/folders in each Zone, and which defrag method it will use for that Zone. You can manually move folders around to different Zones if you want, but you shouldn't have to unless you installed any "program" files outside of the default Windows Programs folders. Rick

Thanks for the help. I think I have the idea now.I still hate the UI :(

I used to use O&O and its very good - but now I use Ultimate Defrag: it's fast and simple, and that let's me spend more time flying and less time troubleshooting (I'm an IT Manager by the way). I still use it on my home server, but for my entertainment PC, UD all the way. Maybe you should try that as an alternative and see what you think. Hope that provides some options for you - see you at angels 10!

Thanks.angels 10?