Symantec had SpeedDisk, which would do that job on DOS5.

IIRC, the version that shipped with 6.22 was based on SpeedDisk, but was toned down in features.

An old version of Norton Utilities should have a suitable version of SpeedDisk.

There also was COMPRESS utility (PC-Tools, Central Point Software).

v7 (modern)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIwrCLJSbRg

v6 (classic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDh7l3uXXM

v4 (ancient)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrKDi0xWlz4

I use Norton Utilities version 4.5.1 for this. Even works on a XT with MS DOS 5.0.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll just go with Norton Utilities v6.0 I think, as that seems to be contemporary with MS-DOS 5.0 and also happens to be what I remember using with my 486 at the time.. And it also seems to support 8086/88 as well 😀

"And it also seems to support 8086/88 as well 😀"

Ah, I see where you got this information from.. 😉
Later versions seems to have been compiled to take advantage of the 286 processor.

XT users could get them running, too, if they had a NEC V20/30. Which they hopefully had, anyway.
If they didn't, they were a bit silly, anyway. Still using an 808x in the 90s.. Pfft. 🙄😂

The arch rival product, PC-Tools, was being optimized from early on, without requiring the help of 286 op codes.

A few of its utilities were being licensed/used by both IBM and Microsoft (MS AV).
Though Microsoft did prefer Symantec utilities more, which finally found their way into MS-DOS 6.2x.

In simple words, the relationship was like this :
IBM PC DOS / CP's PC-Tools / White Wine
MS-DOS / Symantec's Norton Utilities / Sparkling Water

Anyway each to this/her/they own. 😁

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-18, 10:19:

Thanks for all the advice, I'll just go with Norton Utilities v6.0 I think, as that seems to be contemporary with MS-DOS 5.0 and also happens to be what I remember using with my 486 at the time.. And it also seems to support 8086/88 as well 😀

Great choice. I use an older version as it's a lot smaller and the XT I own only has a 20Mb HDD. 😜

^Double Space is an option. Did that with my 4, 77 MHz XT, performance was okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XxOtHodSBU

That XT also had an MFM/RLL drive with a lousy 20 MB drive, which was too little for that contemporary software, even.

A bit Quick Basic here, a bit Turbo Pascal here, some comprehensive semiconductor database there ..and the HDD, -err-, fixed-disk drive was basically full. *sigh*

Edit: Or alternatively, if you're running DOS 3.x on that relic and have a period. correct setup: You may want to have a look at Double Disk (Vertisoft).
It's a history drive compression software from the late 80s.
Later versions were being advertised as MS-DOS 5 compatible.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-08-19, 03:49:

^Double Space is an option. Did that with my 4, 77 MHz XT, performance was okay. […]
Show full quote

^Double Space is an option. Did that with my 4, 77 MHz XT, performance was okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XxOtHodSBU

That XT also had an MFM/RLL drive with a lousy 20 MB drive, which was too little for that contemporary software, even.

A bit Quick Basic here, a bit Turbo Pascal here, some comprehensive semiconductor database there ..and the HDD, -err-, fixed-disk drive was basically full. *sigh*

Edit: Or alternatively, if you're running DOS 3.x on that relic and have a period. correct setup: You may want to have a look at Double Disk (Vertisoft).
It's a history drive compression software from the late 80s.
Later versions were being advertised as MS-DOS 5 compatible.

Sorry for derailing a bit.

Thanks for the suggestion. But had too much troubles with Double Space/Disk back in the day. So don't like to run it even nowadays. 😀 I run DOS 5.0 on it (it came with DOS 3.2) mainly because it's needed for the 250MB ZIP drive I use with it if I need something bigger or want to make a backup. Guest.exe doesn't run on older versions of DOS (there is a paid alternative btw which suppose to run on older versions but haven't tried it). Nice thing is that it runs almost at the same speed (= as slow) as the 20MB MFM drive.

But indeed got only Turbo Pascal, Lotus 1-2-3, 3 small CGA games and some utils and it's full. 😜

Another option is to copy all the files off of the hard drive, onto another storage medium, then format /s the harddrive or delete the files, and then copy them back onto the hard drive.
et voila, defragmented drive.