oh heck .... disagreeing again
misconception 1
waste of time/don't need to
With NTFS it's not as big a problem as it was with fat16 & 32 but if fragmentation gets over 25% (ish) you will see a difference ... the allocation database and disc mechanism is still the same as it's allways been and so it does have to work overtime to keep it all together when segments are all over the place.
Misconception 2
It was removed from vista
actually ... (because it IS important) ... rather than removing it, it was integrated INTO vista more tightly than before ....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942092/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939039/en-us
(see manual defrag)
thinking - so you don't have to! ;-) and so it's now a constant process which runs whenever it sees a lull in useage....
(It's actually a "light" version of paragon's offering)
I agree it was strangely hypnotic to look at .... (sad?)
a bought version will optimise using fancy methods and algorythms ... but unless you are a power user ... you won't see much difference.
(if you look in the comp mags ... there is often a free version knocking about)
figure ... no it's not - yes you should still