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Optimizing Disks

When Executive Software launched Diskeeper over 4 years ago, they racked up lots of firsts. These included being the first NT utility capable of defragmenting both system files and directory meta data. It even defragmented the page file and could be scheduled to run whenever fragmentation levels crossed a certain limit. Subsequently, a lite (feature-limited) version of Diskeeper is bundled with the Windows 2000 operating system. The latest version 6 too is a path breaker. And is available for all Windows platforms: 95, 98, ME, NT and 2000.

Release 6 includes the best from previous versions and adds features that ensure a warm welcome by both administrators and users. The core remains the same: a relatively fast, well-built defragmentation program that is designed to keep disks speedy and optimized. And as a single utility, is far more effective, has better features and end-results that the native applications bundled with Windows. In the case of Windows NT, there is no built-in defragmenter.

So what's new? There's Smart Scheduling which used to be called Set It and Forget It. This scheduler allow the utility itself to judge when a drive needs defragmenting. Drives with more fragments are optimized more aggressively. And those with lower levels are mostly left alone. However, if you are uncomfortable with auto-pilot and like to keep a firm hand on the wheel, there's also manual control. You can define when a drive must be checked for defragmentation. The frequency can vary between an hour to a week. Activate Smart Scheduling and your PC will shows lots of boot-up drive activity; but things return to normal very soon. And become less frequent with every restart.

The core reason why tools like Diskeeper exist is to optimize (defragment) hard drives. The defrag engine has been overhauled to work six times faster (and has little to do with the version number). Diskeeper now defragment files much faster. At the same time it has become less aggressive about consolidating free space than the built-in programs or competitors such as Raxco PerfectDisk.

Another result of the engine optimization is low disk space defragmentation. Diskeeper now defrags much better on drives with very little free space. Most defrag software needs at least 60% or more space free to store the data being defragmented. No longer. A 4GB Windows 2000 partition with just under 100 MB free was effectively optimized by Diskeeper 6. The Diskeeper Lite version bundled with Windows choked.

Among the best features aren't new just re-optimized. Frag Guard (NT/2000 only) prevents the MFT (master file table) and paging files from becoming fragmented. Fragmentation in these files causes slow data access. Frag Guard too cause lots of start-up disk activity. And new is Network defragmentation that allows you to remotely command workstations to defrag.

The competition includes Raxco's PerfectDisk 2000 and Symantec Norton Speed Disk. However with Diskeeper having almost all their features, except their file placement. This is a holdover from Windows 3.1x in which files least accessed (programs) are stored first. More frequently accessed files (data) are stored towards the end of the drive. However, as a user we don't really find that feature so useful. PerfectDisk appears to give better results but for defragmenting a 4 GB hard disk in Windows 98 took over 4 hours.

In the end, we choose Diskeeper over anything else for use on Windows 2000 and Windows 9x. You need to register at www.execsoft.com/download to download a fully functional 30-day trial copy.

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