Last week we asked you to share your favorite disk defragmenter, and after we rounded up the top contenders, you cast your votes to crown the most popular of the bunch.
Now we’re back to share the results of the rather tight race. At the top of the heap is Defraggler, followed by a neck-and-neck—less than a percentage point difference—race for second and third place for Auslogics Disk Defrag and MyDefrag, respectively.
For more information about the top five contenders, check out the full Hive Five.
A well tagged MP3 collection makes everything from organization to playback easier. Keep reading for a closer look at your fellow readers’ favorite tools for cleaning up their MP3 tags in this week’s 
TuneUp is a music cleaning addon for iTunes. TuneUp’s simple drag and drop interface combined with an extensive database of more than 90 million acoustic fingerprints makes cleaning up your music a breeze. You can drag hundreds of songs onto the TuneUp sidebar in a single go and let it chug through the pile. When it’s done, you’ll have a list to approve with any tricky songs or albums flagged for your approval before the tags are altered. The same drag and drop system works for cover art; you’ll be presented with a list of available cover art for coverless albums. The free version of TuneUp is limited to 100 songs and 50 album covers per month, the Gold version is unlimited. If you try TuneUp and love it, the Gold version is currently 15% off (with the coupon SONGFLU) through June 2, 2009.
MediaMonkey is a popular iTunes alternative among Lifehacker readers and also a rather robust tag management tool to boot. Once you have your music collection imported into MediaMonkey, you can automatically update tags from Freedb and update cover art from Amazon. MediaMonkey has a very strong focus on tag-based organization and support for 
Although development was discontinued on ID3-TagIT in 2007, it still has a base of happy users. It isn’t the most spartan or automated entry in the Hive Five, but it does offer an extremely granular amount of control over even the most minute details of tagging. If you’re not interested in digging into the more obscure tags, the app’s quick edit box handles basic changes. Like MediaMonkey, the program will query the Freedb to help you out. ID3-TagIT has no help file or online documentation, so be prepared to spend a little while going through each menu bit by bit to get a feel for all the features and their layout.
MusicBrainz is an enormous user-maintained metadatabase of album information. Their popular iEatBrainz music tagging tool has been replaced by the cross-platform PicardTagger. On top of using available information, like file names, to suggest changes to your tags, Picard also uses AcousticFingerprints of songs to semi-automatically identify songs in your collection. Once Picard finishes scanning your collection and checking it against the MusicBrainz database, it flags the tracks with a green, red, or orange flag to indicate how close of a match each file is to a fingerprint in the MusicBrainz database. From there you can check the suggested changes against your existing files side by side before approving them. Picard has an extensive drag and drop feature list, and almost every type of dragging and dropping within the interface does something useful. Dragging a file from the browser pane onto an album for example, prompts Picard to check the file against that particular album. Picard is open source and scriptable, leaving it wide open for tinkering to suit your needs.
Mp3Tag is a an MP3 tagging tool with a rather spartan interface which lends itself to easy use. You can batch edit your MP3 tags, including iTunes specific tags like media type or TV Show settings. If your MP3 files are named with tags in the file name like band-album-track-title.mp3, you can tell Mp3Tag to convert the naming convention of your files into the actual tags. You can also go in the opposite direction, renaming your files to reflect their tags. The latter trick is handy if you’d like to make the file name easily recognizable during searching and also have a backup of sorts should the ID3 tag become corrupted or overwritten with an incorrect tag. Mp3Tag also supports expression-based renaming, allowing you easily reformat the naming convention or formatting style of your files. Mp3Tag supports multiple online databases such as Freedb, Amazon, Discogs, and more for easy tag importing.
foobar2000 is a music player before all else, but it does have some basic tag editing functionality built in. Many readers were more than satisfied fixing the occasional misplaced tag in foobar2000, not needing the more robust automated scanning and tagging of more advanced tagging software. foobar2000 can query the the Freedb, and the basic tags like artist, album, genre and such can be edited quickly. If you really want to see what makes foobar200 special, take a look at 
Public declarations and diatribes have their place, but sometimes you need a private space for your thoughts, dreams, and ramblings. Whether you crave a digital or analog tool, you’ll find it in this 
Many a person has started journaling by simply opening up the default word processor on their computer and setting to work. Microsoft Word is a fixture on hundreds of thousands of personal computers, and many Lifehacker readers found it more than adequate for their journaling endeavors. On top of creating documents in a commonly used format, most of us use Word at work and at home and are already quite familiar with the interface, formatting, and shortcuts. Being comfortable with your journaling tool of choice goes a long way towards encouraging you keep at it.
Long before people were pecking out their missives on typewriters, let alone keyboards, they were quietly scribbling them onto paper. In an age of instant sharing and easy digitization, many of you showed a strong affinity for recording your most private moments with the solidly analog and difficult to share medium: pen and paper. For many Lifehacker readers there is no substitute for the privacy and ease of use that comes with keeping an old fashioned paper-based journal. Among the variations of the pen and paper motif you submitted, readers showed a distinct passion for high-quality pens and Moleskine notebooks. Rich paper and smooth flowing ink is apparently the icing on the cake of analog journaling. Photo by 
Designed as a sophisticated note taking tool, Microsoft OneNote can easily do double duty as a journaling tool. If you like to drop photos, music, and other media into your journal entries, the file integration of OneNote makes such journal keeping tricks a cinch. The app can also easily link together your journal entries by text links and tags. OneNote’s Windows Mobile client and hand-writing recognition make it easy to record your thoughts during the day and dump them into your journal when you return home. If you’re unfamiliar with OneNote, our review of 
Evernote is a wildly popular application for capturing and organizing all manner of information thanks to its trifecta of desktop application, web-based interface, and mobile client. For many readers, it makes sense to simply work their daily reflections into the tool they already have at their fingertips. If you’re using Evernote as your personal journal, you can leverage the text recognition and tagging to make your journal entries available and easily search friendly. If you’ve avoided journaling because you consider it antiquated and hardly something a busy modern person takes the time for, Evernote makes it easy to write when you have the time, since it’s almost always with you thanks to a web and mobile phone presence. The free account can easily handle basic journaling, but if you find yourself needing more storage or use of the multimedia functions, there is a $5 a month premium account.
While blogging is usually intended for a larger audience, many of you used blogging software to maintain a personal journal. Among the blogging tools used, WordPress was a clear favorite thanks to its ease of use, ability to keep entires completely private, and a free-as-in-beer price tag. Using blog software as your journal tool has several benefits: You can log into your journal from anywhere, tag your entries, use text and calendar-based search, and take advantage of WordPress’s vast extensibility to customize and tweak your journal to include all the tools and information you desire. WordPress will run on your own web server (including your 
MindMeister is by far the most simplistic mind mapping tool in the top five, but its simplicity is definitely an asset. Once you’re logged into the service, you can create a fully functional 
Mindjet MindManager isn't cheap by any means, but you get more than your share of value and sophistication for the hundreds you spend on the program. The interface and feature set of MindManager are very polished, and the primary menus are set up like the Microsoft Office Ribbon. After the initial installation, MindManager walks you through the creation of a sample mind map—helpful both to familiarize you with the interface but also to show you features you may have overlooked. MindManager is definitely oriented towards corporate environments, including extensive integration with the Office suite and support for linking your mind maps directly into common database formats like MySQL and Access. Finding information in large mind maps is easy thanks to topic sorting, filtering, and text search tools. Mind maps can be exported in a variety of formats, but most notably in interactive PDF files and embeddable Flash animations. MindManager is available as a 30 day trial.
XMind is the kind of free application that makes you forget you’re not paying for the privilege of using it. The interface is simple and intuitive to use. You can quickly move through your entire mind map with only a handful of keystrokes or jump over to the outline view for even quicker navigation. In addition to a basic mind map you can also create fishbone, organizational, tree, and logic charts. You can export charts as HTML, images, or text, and XMind comes a free account on 
One of FreeMind's strongest selling points is a Java-based implementation. Whether you use it on Ubuntu or Windows, the features and user interface remain consistent. FreeMind is keyboard friendly with the core functionality well covered by keyboard shortcuts—I made the sample mind map pictured here without ever touching the mouse. The visual elements of your mind maps are highly customizable, including custom icons for flagging nodes on the map, color coding, grouping, and more. Mind maps created with FreeMind can be exported as HTML, PDF, and PNG files, among others.The support wiki for FreeMind is extensive and goes well beyond simply explaining how the application functions, covering things like how to add your own keyboard shortcuts and how to make the application portable.
iMindMap can claim two distinctions among the top five tools. First, it's the biggest download—weighing in at 135MB. Second it's the only application on the list developed by Tony Buzan—who lays claim to being the inventor of the mind map. iMindMap takes a different approach to mapping than the other applications in the list. Rather than create new nodes off the main idea by adding boxes, nodes are created by clicking in the center or the main idea and drawing away from it with the mouse. Each new idea is a branch off the center. Strangely, many of basic feature available in free mind-mapping software are only found in the more expensive versions of iMindMap, like the ability to expand and collapse branches. Mind maps created in iMindMap can be exported as PDF, JPG, PNG and text outline; a 7 day trial is available.
Live CDs (and DVDs) are versatile tools, allowing you to boot into an operating system without installing anything to your hard drives. Let’s take a closer look at the five most popular live CDs.
Knoppix is a Debian-based Linux distribution and one of the first Linux live CDs that was available. While the Knoppix distribution is packed with open-source goodness, one of the most popular uses for Knoppix is 
The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows has a familiar interface. If you’re a Windows user, booting into a copy of Linux to get work done could be disorienting. The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows uses your Windows installation discs (only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are officially supported) to create a bootable version of Windows contained on a disc. Tons of quality Windows-based tools are included in the custom disc covering everything from backing up and cloning your discs to running diagnostics to partitioning and recovering data. Many of the tools on the disc are tools you may already be somewhat acquainted with, like UltraVNC, Recuva, and CCleaner. If you’re looking for a well packed toolbox that keeps you firmly planted in a comfortable Windows environment, The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows is an excellent choice.
Puppy Linux belongs to the family of ultra small linux distributions. Weighing in at under 100MB, it can easily be loaded on everything from a CD to a USB drive. The user interface is friendly even for a non-Linux user, and the basic tools you need for partitioning and file recovery are readily available—although it's just as great for web browsing and basic computing. Puppy Linux also has a rather handy feature: If you burn it to a re-writable CD, you can save your user settings for your next session.
Ubuntu's enormous popularity as the mainstream Linux distribution certainly helps bolster its rank among live CDs. Many a new user to Ubuntu has messed around with the operating system using a live CD before using that very same live CD to install the full operating system. Even if you don't intend to do a full install, just like Puppy Linux you can do all manner of computing tasks without leaving a trace on the computer you're using. The Ubuntu live CD comes packed with Open Office, Firefox, Pidgin, the BitTorrent client Transmission, and the open source image editor GIMP—a decent stable of tools for using Ubuntu as a portable computing platform.
