Defragmentation Program

Big, bad and ugly drives -- what's the best defrag software?

Thursday, July 22, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

The debate about whether or not free is good enough for a defrag of the data on your disk drives will likely go on as long as Windows and NTFS are around. I've discussed the merits of third-party defrag software that is not free here before, but I'm not doing that today. However, there are some instances and conditions that lend themselves to a much easier conclusion and a clearer delineation between free and "not free". And I do want to share an interesting user experience with you.

Like the case of the CNN newsroom that was brought to a halt because its servers were so severely fragmented. And a recent story that was brought to my attention by Andrew Hart of Australia. Andrew is a heavy Photoshop user and has 5 1TB hard drives that he gives quite a workout with all he does. And he needed to defrag Windows 7. He gave a couple of freeware defrag tools a try. For his environment, they didn't cut it.

This is how Andy describes his situation:

"After only 3 days of trialing it, albeit to the point of having tried, almost exhaustively, all the available defrag options on very large, heavily fragmented data drives, I have concluded that PerfectDisk 11 PRO is a very competent and comprehensive defragging program. I am very pleased to have it looking after my 5 x 1 Terabyte HDDs in a 64-bit Win 7 computer. On days when I am working in Photoshop CS5, which is quite often, I can generate and delete several gigabytes of image data in a single session, and this makes it virtually mandatory to have a defrag program with robust strength, speed and intelligence to keep my system from becoming bogged down and unresponsive. I have tried the defrag utility built into Win 7 64-bit, as well as another free 64-bit program, but unfortunately neither are quite up to the task of both completely defragging and simultaneously compacting all free space quickly in a single pass. For those requirements I have to look to PerfectDisk."

How to make your PC run faster? There are various things that can help, defragmentation being one. When people look at a defrag utility to defrag Windows 7 or auto defrag XP, at the individual user level, freeware may be considered. But they might not be good enough for the biggest, baddest and ugliest of your drives - the ones with large files that are edited, created and deleted frequently. And when you add things like the ability to find and remove duplicate files, the decision becomes easier still.

Sometimes the best things in life are free. Sometimes, however, as in the case of the best defrag software, free just doesn't cut it.

Hybrid drives and do I need a hybrid drive defrag

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Hybrid drives use the fundamentals of a hard drive, but add additional capability with RAM or an SSD for increased performance. Wikipedia gives the following definition:

A hybrid drive, hybrid hard drive (HHD), or hybrid hard disk drive (H-HDD) is a type of large-buffer computer hard disk drive. It is different from standard hard drives in that it integrates a cache using non-volatile memory or even a small solid-state drive (SSD). Although the cache typically uses non-volatile flash memory, some drives use battery-backed volatile RAM (a hybrid RAM disk). The flash memory buffer can speed up repeated reads to the same location; a RAM buffer speeds both reads and writes, but must be written to backup storage when power is lost.

Benefits of hybrid drives can include decreased power consumption and heat generation, the ability to boot quicker via faster boot times and faster PC startup, decreased noise, improved reliability, and improved performance.

But there are drawbacks too. Such as lower performance for non-cached data and small disk writes. They are more expensive than regular hard drives and don't last as long. There may actually be more noise and power usage in some cases. And importantly, recover-ability of data can be problematic.

Hybrid drive, hybrid drive defrag or SSD defrag

Well, once you've look at all the considerations and do your research, if you do end up with a hybrid, what about defragmentation - do you need a defrag program for your hybrid drive? The short answer is -- yes.

As for the why, it's due to the fact that at the core of a hybrid drive is a good ol' fashion hard disk drive. So just think - if you need to a defrag utility to defrag hard drive, defrag metadata and defrag, you'll need to defrag a hybrid drive -- because a good portion of it is a hard drive. The reading and writing - and therefore the modifying, adding and deleting that causes fragmentation -- ultimately occurs on the hard drive itself. And that had drive is where the NTFS file system resides, along with all its peculiarities and problems.

A lot of activity may occur in a RAM drive (or now, SSD), but when this happens, periodically the data is moved to the hard drive. This periodic flushing of the data occurs within the controller and is determined by the drive manufacturer. But once it ends up on the hard drive, it's prone to fragmentation just like a non-hybrid drive.

Hybrid drive defrag? Yes, and use your best defrag software, as always.

Related Posts:

SSD overview and do I need an SSD defrag -- Part 1
SSD overview and do I need an SSD defrag -- Part 2

Nature photographers, NatureScapes, and video performance and defrag

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Video performance and best disk defrag program

The NatureScapes web site labels itself The Resource for Nature Photographers. Its goal is to be an invaluable resource for nature photographers by offering relevant content and nourishing a growing community of photographers. I have not verified this, but NatureScapes claims to "offer more content in one place than any other website targeted to nature and outdoor photo enthusiasts." The site offers a wealth of editorial content that includes tips and techniques, reviews of equipment, an online store for photo gear, and photo galleries for members. It also hosts several community forums for member to share information and ask and answer questions.

Now, we know there are thousands of photographers and videographers that use PerfectDisk as their defragmentation program of choice, whether they are professional photographers or casual hobbyists. They simply want the best disk defrag software. Many of them write to us telling us why they use PerfectDisk and also how they came to learn about this defrag utility.

Many of them mention NatureScapes. Turns out there are a lot of recommendations for PerfectDisk in the NatureScapes forums from the real photographers who use it every day for the best PC optimizer and for superior PC tuneup. Comments like:

"I used to have problems defragging some drives. A few years ago I purchased PerfectDisk and haven't had a problem since."
"PerfectDisk is the industry standard for serious defragmentation."
"For defragmenting, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better than PerfectDisk."
"PerfectDisk and it works like a charm. Not a hitch!"
"I run PerfectDisk every night which defrags my drives. (A great tip I got on this forum."

For top video performance, look to what other photographers and videographers see as the best disk defrag software.

Video performance and best disk defrag software

Is your defrag tool smart enough? 12 ways to tell

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Is your defrag smart enough to be the best defrag software

Information Week had a recent cover story entitled Are Your Apps Smart Enough? This got me thinking, like most things do, of defrag programs and the "smarts" that are required to make the best defrag software. After all, any decent defrag utility, even freeware, is going to do a bare minimum (hopefully), to at least attempt to put fragmented files into a single piece and get you faster PC performance.

But how do you know if your defrag program is smart enough to be the best defrag software? Here are 12 to get you started:

The developers of your defrag utility meet regularly with Microsoft development teams, including file system experts, for a true understanding of file system behaviors, strategies and plans.
The defrag utility employs disk and file optimization strategies for the best possible drive optimization, rather than simply defragments files, so it is a true PC performance optimizer, beyond just a simple defrag utility.
It performs robust free space consolidation to significantly prevent fragmentation, reduce the rate of future fragmentation and improve write performance.
It's smart enough to just defrag a file -- a single file or a few selected files -- rather than the entire drive, if that's all that is fragmented and that's all you need done at a particular time.
It doesn't force you into a single way to defrag - it provides flexible scheduling options that are accommodating to your activity and requirements, whether you need or want automatic background defragmentation during idle time, screen saver defrag, or daily or weekly schedules.
It optimizes boot files to improve boot time by 20% or more.
It provides a free, Microsoft-certified duplicate file remover and file recycler to further assist disk cleanup and optimization efforts.
It's simple enough for the novice user but with free, optional advanced features for power users.
It's smart enough to be the choice for tens of thousands of World of Warcraft users around the world to improve World of Warcraft performance and used by millions of gamers around the world to improve the performance of other PC games.
It's intelligent enough to contain patent-pending technology that ensures no resource contention in virtual environments and can boost virtualization performance with specific solutions for vSphere and Hyper-V.
It's passed the internal tests, pilot programs and RFPs of many of the world's largest companies and government agencies, and is deployed in and helping those enterprises today.
It is certified by Microsoft for Windows 7.

Make sure your defrag tool is smart enough to be the best defrag software possible.

Smart defrag tool is best defrag software

The Windows 7 green light for IT -- Windows 7 defrag too

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

It looks like now it's time for the big boys and girls, as all indications are that the move to Windows 7 by businesses is on. In the Computerworld article Windows 7 gets the green light, Robert L. Mitchell details the results of a recent Computerworld survey to IT professionals. It's not a secret that just about all the initial enthusiasm for Windows 7, of which there was a lot, originated from the consumer side. Home users have been quick to embrace Microsoft's latest operating system since its launch several months ago.

Now, the enterprise market is moving, either deploying now, in testing, or planning to deploy over the remainder of 2010 and into next year. Mitchell writes that "after taking a pass on Vista, IT shops are ready to commit to Microsoft's new PC operating system." The top 2 reasons they're moving? They skipped Vista so Windows XP is getting too old, and they just want to keep current. Surprisingly (to me), over a third won't wait for SP1 of Windows 7, while over a quarter expect SP1 to be available by the time they get around to deployment.

Windows 7 green light and Windows 7 defrag

While Windows 7 performance is not a primary consideration in the move to Windows 7, it will be a consideration when testing and deployment is ultimately done. And while there is a Windows 7 defragmenter built into the OS as always, the Windows 7 defrag option that comes with Windows 7 is, like its predecessors, not a viable solution for the enterprise. Yes, you can defrag Windows 7 with the built-in function, but only on an individual basis. From a purely functional standpoint, it is not close to the best defrag software. But beyond that, it's not for an IT organization. It lacks enterprise deployment, scheduling, management and reporting capabilities at even the basic level. This is why top IT teams continue to implement robust enterprise defrag programs - the Windows 7 defrag that comes with Windows 7 does not cut it.

With the green light on, the move to Windows 7 by businesses is on. With Windows 7 performance an important aspect of the move, having the best defrag tool is a necessity, and that move is on too.

You can read the entire Computerworld article here.

Related posts (Windows 7 defrag):

Product activation and defrag -- not here

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Much has been written over the years about product activation, a license validation procedure required by some computer software programs that validates the installation with the software manufacturer. While there are those that defend the process (certainly Microsoft), this is not a path that Raxco Software has gone down with PerfectDisk defrag or other products such as PerfectSpeed for PC tuneup.

Our view is that we don’t want to penalize our millions of loyal customers. Product activation doesn’t prevent pirating and it’s an annoyance for legitimate users. I believe most users want to do the right thing - receive a fair value for their investment. We try to provide that value in our disk defragmenter, and that is one reason that Raxco Software continues to grow and PerfectDisk sales continue to rise. Yes, pirating exists, we don't deny that, and pirating happens to products with activation...all the time.

To our millions of home and corporate paying defrag customers, I thank you. We appreciate the partnership. Defrag a computer, and sleep well at night.

Microsoft at work -- cleanup and defrag for faster PC performance

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

The Microsoft at Work website was put together by the folks in Redmond to help people ”streamline” their work life” so you can spend a little more time on your life…"we hope the information gathered here will help you get—and stay—ahead at the office.” In a collaboration article entitled 5 ways to speed up your PC, Microsoft recommends disk defragmentation as a key component to keeping your PCs running fast. The article states “disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.”

And Microsoft continues, noting in particular some instances when performing defragmentation is particularly important. These times include:

adding a large number of files
free disk space totals 15% or less
you install new programs or a new version of Windows,

There are always doubters, but coming from the maker of the operating system that it tells us all is so wonderful, the need for defragmentation is clear. Microsoft has designed a file system that fragments. It tells you so and tells you it should be fixed through defragmentation. It's an easy slow PC fix. Now, what you don’t need is one that isn’t automatic, that can’t run with low levels of free space, and has just a fraction of required functionality. Microsoft creates the problem, go to someone else to fix it. I don’t take my kid back to his sick friend to get better….we go to a doctor.

There’s a smarter cure for faster PC performance.

Confident professional doctors standing in hospital over white b

IndyGeek.net -- PC spring cleaning with PerfectDisk for faster PC speed

Monday, May 10, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

IndyGeek.net was formed last fall "to serve the latest in technology news to both geeks and non-techies alike by using a mix of social media, blogging and in-person networking." According to the site, "we place emphasis on the end user and small businesses looking to gain an edge in the ever-competitive mid-west market."

Well, it turns out the mid-west market is a lot like the rest of the world when looking for faster PC speed, faster PC startup, and overall faster PC performance. In a PC tuneup article on the IndyGeek site last week, Senior Editor Alex Connor wrote about PC Spring Cleaning Done Right, for those looking for faster PC performance. To get faster PC performance, Connor writes that, in his article, "we will use a variety of free tools, and I will recommend a few paid tools where I feel they provide a good value."

PC tuneup for faster PC speed and faster PC performance

Connor covers backup, anti-virus, and cleanup of various files, including temporary files (while not mentioned in the article, PerfectDisk 11 Pro also does cleanup of duplicate and temporary files). Then Alex gets into my favorite part of every story - the defragmentation program:

He writes -- "defragging will usually help performance. Here’s where I make a recommendation – go order PerfectDisk and install it. It will prevent your disk from becoming highly fragmented and it has an offline boot-time defragger that can defrag your system files to really give you a performance boost. I even get a pretty significant runtime boost on my laptop by keeping the disk highly defragmented with PerfectDisk. If you use PerfectDisk, run the defragment on your drive, then do an offline defragmentation of your system files – which will require a reboot..."

For faster PC speed and slow PC tips, IndyGeek has some answers that you can read here.

Boot time defrag and system files

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

One way PerfectDisk stands out is its ability to defragment all system files (including all NTFS metadata). System files is the designation that PerfectDisk uses to identify important files that the operating system uses at runtime to operate your PC. These include the Windows paging file (pagefile.sys), the hibernation file used to support sleep mode on desktop Windows PCs (hiberfile.sys), and numerous operating system files (primarily found in the %systemroot% — often C:Windows — and %systemroot%System32 — often C:WindowsSystem32 — directories).


Depending on whether or not the drive is a system drive, or some other drive that PerfectDisk can’t lock, offline file defragmentation may or may not run on the drive(s). As long as PerfectDisk can lock a drive for exclusive access at runtime, it will defragment system files immediately. But for a Windows system disk or any other locked drive — one, for example, where a paging file might reside in a whole or in part — attempts to defragment system files at runtime will usually fail.

These files are then defragmented if the drive is not locked. Otherwise, this occurs at boot time with a boot time defrag. PerfectDisk locks the drive for its own exclusive use, so it can then defragment and move files the operating system would otherwise not allow to be altered. So, a boot time defrag is really only mandatory for drives that cannot be locked at run time.



Occasionally when you schedule a boot time defrag pass in PerfectDisk, it doesn’t work. This is because PerfectDisk is unable to lock the drives during boot time, so the system gets booted without the defrag pass getting executed. When this happens, it is almost always because a third-party program has modified the BootExecute registry key so that PDBoot.exe (the name of the PerfectDisk boot time defragmenation executable file) is no longer the first entry in its value string. This entry must occur first in that key for boot time defrag to run correctly. Another possibility is that a third-party software product has opened the drive for write access before PDBoot.exe can mount the drive for exclusive access. If the drive is open for write access, PerfectDisk will not run a boot time/offline defrag in order to avoid potential damage to or corruption of system files.

All system files…to complete the drive.

Is the best defrag software now even perfecter? Defrag program review

Thursday, April 8, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Another review of PerfectDisk 11 is out. This one comes from 2phatgeeks, a site that covers many many things, including computers and software. The author originally came across PerfectDisk years ago knowingly, but with some skepticism, writing that PerfectDisk "was single purpose, it was small but it was full of intelligent features and it was cheaper than Norton. I was, of course skeptical at first. I’d been fooled by bright and shiny baubles and smooth talkin’ before."

2phatgeeks writes that "the newest iteration, version 11, continues the outstanding tradition set by its predecessors while upping the bar even higher for the competition...the feature set for PerfectDisk 11 is expansive enough that rather than just referring to it as a defragger, it’s more accurate to call it a drive management system...the end goal of any system maintenance software is to promote stability and speed and PerfectDisk continues to deliver."

Regarding price, the reviewer writes that "I’m not a millionaire. If you are, please buy me things and/or send me money. For the rest of you that aren’t, price matters. Norton = $49.99. PerfectDisk = $39.99 for Pro, $29.99 for Home premium. Better product for less money. How the hell could this not be a selling point?"

Need to defrag Windows 7 or just a good defragmentation program? Get the best defrag tool -- it's even more perfecter now.

You can read the entire review here.

PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- What's New

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

For those of you following this space over the last several weeks, you've seen a glimpse of what's new in PerfectDisk 11. For an overview, here's a link to follow to what is new in the PerfectDisk 11 disk defrag program:

PerfectDisk 11 Whats New

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. Coming Tuesday.

PerfectDisk 11 What's new in best defrag software

It goes to 11 -- in 11 days

Saturday, February 27, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Are you ready? The people below certainly are. They're just a small sampling of feedback from the largest beta test in PerfectDisk history. Thousands of users -- home users, small businesses and enterprises -- have lent their time, energy and expertise to making sure we deliver the best defrag software ever.

And with their help, we've done it. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11.

Coming March 9th, 2010.



"...once again, the best compliment I can give is that YOU GOT IT RIGHT! I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit and the interface is clean, beautiful, and totally functional. This version appears to be noticeably faster than PD10, which was already pretty good. You have stepped ahead of the competition yet again."
                                                                Paul T. Blades

"...lots of goodies in this new version. Many times products come up with a new feature here and there or fix things that should have been fixed in the prior version—you guys really aired it out and took a whole new crack at the product. Really speaks volumes of the caliber of your people and company. VERY fast compared to prior editions -- great!

"Like the new progress bars showing how much of the drive is left to defragment and the activity indicators along the bottom right in the drive map view showing 'defrag' 'recycler' and 'schedule.' Again, pounding on the GUI stuff, I really like the new block effects -- the blocks with the 'shine' effect and bright colors are great.

The SMARTPlacement types you can select based upon resources available and performance needs so far as fast file access etc., blew me away. Pretty much ended my even checking to see what each new version of *** expletive deleted *** looks like before I upgrade to one or the other. I did have a chance finally to compare the amount of file information *** expletive deleted *** gives you when you use the 'cluster inspector' versus your new right click feature-- not even close. PD11 wins the details award there. Everything anybody would ever want to know is reachable through a right click and a few other clicks to get to the specific details you want-- very nice."
Gary Michelson

"I've noted significant defragmentation improvement on the Windows-7 system. Very much appreciate the usability features...thanks for a wonderful product."
Henry Gardiner

"Your claim that initial analysis of a drive is faster in Version 11 than in previous versions is an understatement. Analysis used to take several annoying minutes, just to determine whether defragging was needed. I just ran the analysis for an 80GB PATA HDD in 19 seconds. In the past, the analysis of that drive always took several minutes, even when it was not highly fragmented."
Kenton Machina

"Thank you. I have participated in many Beta tests, including Microsoft XP Beta and Vista Beta, but never has the experience been as easy or as pleasurable as my experience with you and PerfectDisk 11. PerfectDisk 11 has been faultless in its operation. You have done an outstanding job with this program."
Michael Downs

"I now find the software excellent and a big improvement on v10. The drive map does not take so long to build; the menu tabs are clearer and more logical. Well done!"
Julian Grenfell

"Version 11 Beta operated flawlessly. Solid, stable and much faster than Ver 10."
Richard Lindsay

"New StealthPatrol features make this a very feature-rich version."
Alfred Morgan-Jones

"I think you're showing off a little - when I installed this build, PD11 immediately analysed my 4 1TB disks simultaneously in just a few seconds. Keep up the good work."
Robert Rigby

"The speed improvements are very obvious with the analysis. Going maximum window and analyzing gives the WOW to the client. Just two words: Love it."
James Brown

"I've noted significant defragmentation improvement on the Windows-7 system. Very much appreciate the usability features...thanks for a wonderful product."
                                                              Henry Gardiner

"...faster than previous versions. So far everything looks great to me."
                                                              John Hull

"PD 11 Home Edition is looking good, and its performance is excellent. I like the changes you've made to the Drive Map tab."
                                                              Greg Webb

"...quick....smooth..."
Richard Futch

"...faster....solid..."
Richard H. Brown, Jr.

"....much faster....thank you...."
John Hall

Having used PD11 HE and Pro the same as I have been using PD10, the overall impression I have is one of a more professional and robust feel. There are many minor interface tweaks and additions, input and output, which contribute to this feel and after a while I could tell that there are many improvements under the hood too."
Mark Stubbs

"It is substantially better on the Win7 x64 system! So the better the system, the more performance gains you'll see with PD11 (which makes perfect sense). Congratulations on a smooth dev cycle. I generally leave PD in Stealth Patrol, and forget about it. Once in awhile, I check on things and find all my hard drives in optimal condition. I just smile and silently thank you guys for a great product."
                                                            Stephen V. Smith

"...noticeably faster and has a very nice feel. Congratulations."
                                                            Alan Burt

"Product has worked flawlessly on several different machines using various operating systems and hardware."
                                                            Ronald Chenoweth

“awesome software”
Shawn Antosz

“…very impressed…”
Bryn Pritchard

"Analyzing and defragmenting is noticeably faster than previous versions and I like the new layout. I've not noticed any issues. Installed on Win 7 x64. Looking forward to the final release! Good work."
Adrian Jefferies

"I like the intelligent handling of SSD drives."
Tom Bruce

"Bravo Zulu!!"
Tom Vaughn

Related Posts:

Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100

Friday, February 19, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Savvy computer users looking for slow PC fixes often look to defragmenting programs to speed up PC and generally improve slow PC problems. As we've pointed out before, there are many users who make great use of PerfectDisk's Selected Files Defrag feature to defrag a file or a few files. It's very valuable for users who have a particular set of files that are heavily and regularly modified. For example, a videographer doing lots of editing may be focusing on just a few files needed to improve video performance, but the entire disk does not need to be defragmented as often as the few video files he or she is working on.



PerfectDisk has progressed from allowing a single file to be defragmented to several files. Now the number moves to 100 with ongoing counters of selected files. Defrag a file -- or defrag a hundred files. Be a picky user -- another way to speed up PC performance.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. March 2010.



Related Posts:

More than defrag -- to space and beyond

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

While the ultimate goal for a defrag programs is faster PC speed and faster PC performance, a best defrag tool should be able to go beyond that. There is a lot of information about your drive and files that are of interest to many users.

Answers to questions such as:

how much space is being taken up by certain file types
what percentage of files on a drive are new and how many are old
what percentage of files on a drive are recently modified or recently accessed
what are the largest files on a drive, which are the oldest.

Space Reports -- more comprehensive, improved charts and graphs.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. March 2010.

Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Photgraph of Muhammad Ali standing over a prostrate Sonny Liston

While reasonable people can argue the merits of using freeware to defrag a computer or to defrag a file, if that capability exists in the particular defragmentation software, no such arguments exist when it comes to enterprise defragmentation. The choice becomes greatly limited. The freeware utilities, the built-in Windows defragmenter, and even most of the chargeable ones are simply not designed for enterprise defragmentation.

Putting aside for a moment the actual quality, flexibility and customization capabilities of the defrag program to improve PC performance, a large enterprise or even relatively small business has a lot more to worry about to ensure successful enterprise defragmentation. Installation and deployment across the organization to the required PCs and servers. Configuration and management. And reporting. Any good administrator requires full reporting capabilities to have a handle on the status of his or her enterprise. And better yet, be able to be proactive. Which is why PerfectDisk provides an elaborate alerting and warning system for administrators within the PerfectDisk Enterprise Console.

And now comes Remote Free Space Management, a shot in the arm to IT administrators responsible for enterprise defrag. It allows IT administrators to generate detailed reports on disk use, including graphical representations of storage usage. This new functionality provides significant improvements over Windows Storage Server Reports, providing not just data, but actionable reports. For instance, you can run a Duplicate File Report in Storage Server, but it does not allow you to remotely identify and execute duplicate file removals across the enterprise. PerfectDisk does.

Enterprise defragmentation evolved. March 2010.

Size matters; then again, it doesn't

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

When it comes to defrag programs and what they can handle, size does matter. As drives and files get bigger and bigger, the challenge for a defragmenter program is to be able to handle the increased sizes efficiently and the best disk defrag software should not fall down when drive and file sizes increase.

But a professional defragmentation program should not cost more just when the going gets tough -- or bigger. So you won't find extra fees for even the largest drives with PerfectDisk, and you can hold onto your money.



We've worked hard on the algorithms and back end work that goes on when analyzing and defragging large drives and files, so the time it takes to handle them decreases. But there's still no extra charge, no matter what the drive size is.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. March 2010.



Related Posts:

Real world, real company -- Vigilante Security cuts costs and boosts productivity with defrag

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Sometimes we get so far down in the weeds of our disk defrag utility that it's easy to lose sight of what can be gained from a top disk defragment program. Today I wanted to touch on the success achieved via PerfectDisk's auto defrag and console management system by Vigilante Security, a Michigan-based alarm system company serving the residential and large industrial markets that uses PerfectDisk for its disk defragmentation and storage optimization needs. Vigilante services over 60,000 subscribers in 43 states.

Vigilante Security maintains 17 servers, 15 laptops and over 50 workstations, with employees working on a range of applications from Microsoft Office to Vigilante Security’s own proprietary alarm monitoring system. There are also dedicated CAD workstations and several PCs dedicated to remote access of Alarm control systems. The company also provides central station monitoring to other alarm dealers throughout the industry. Vigilante performs server defrag as well as desktop and laptop defrags with PerfectDisk.

Ron Ross, president of Vigilante Security, had this to say: “The ROI for PerfectDisk was quickly established, as we’ve saved a huge amount of time using the PerfectDisk Enterprise Console to administer the entire disk management operation from one location. Manual defragmentation with the Windows built-in defragmenter took too much time and also resulted in lost employee productivity while employees waited for defrag completion. PerfectDisk Server and PerfectDisk Professional have eliminated all those wasted resources, and the Enterprise Console allows us to manage the entire process effortlessly.”

Behind all the noise, real benefits.

A smarter SMARTPlacement is smarter defrag and disk space management

Friday, January 8, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

SMARTPlacement is PerfectDisk's patented optimization strategy that groups files on drives according to users' unique usage patterns. Rarely used files are grouped together, as are occasionally modified files and recently modified files. This strategy in essence "shrinks" the drive, because many of the driver's files don't need to be moved at all while defragmenting PC - they've been defragmented, they've been put together, and they don't need to be touched. A byproduct of this is total free space consolidation. Putting all this together, you receive the all around best performance for PCs and servers, physical and virtual. And you get a much-reduced rate of fragmentation, as new files are typically created contiguously because of all the large chunks of free space.

While it's all well and good, we know there are many smart users out there that want more out of SMARTPlacement. For these users, files could be arranged according to someone's own custom strategy, taking the basics of SMARTPlacement but adding one's own unique perspective. Identifying files, applications and directory data that can be placed on a drive to further improve and maximize the drive and file performance most important to the particular user.

Taking our patent a step further with a smarter SMARTPlacement makes for a smarter defrag and smarter disk space management. Not your basic disk defragmenter program.

PerfectDisk 11 -- March 2010.

Related Post:

PerfectDisk 11 -- on the horizon

Best Defrag Software?

Monday, December 28, 2009 by Bob Nolan

There have been a number of blogs and articles written in recent months on the topic of best defrag software. I think that just begs the question, what would you want in your best defrag software?

At a minimum, you would want any defrag software to defragment all of your data files. The Windows 7 defragmenter and the free defrag utilities do a decent job in this regard, but the disks still re-fragment quickly. File defragmentation is just half the job, to truly hinder file fragmentation you need a defrag tool that also consolidates the maximum amount of free space. If the file system can find contiguous free space it will write files in one piece.

So, if you start to really look at what constitutes the best defrag software you want something that defragments all your files and consolidates the maximum amount of free space. But is there more to look for in a disk defrag program?

The location of the files can also make a difference. Files that don't change often can be defragged and placed together. The next time the defragger runs these files don't have to be moved. The same goes for frequently changing files, they can be located near the free space so they can grow in the fewest number of pieces. Boot files can be placed next to the Master Boot Record for faster system boot ups, and you can defrag system files, the ones Windows 7 doesn't touch, to get them out of the way so your on line defrag is faster.

Combine all of this with flexible scheduling, automatic defragmentation, a duplicate file finder, virtual system support and ease of use and you have something that really qualifies as the best defragmentation software. This is why PerfectDisk 10 is the choice of thousands. These users know that the best defragmentation software does the whole job.

PC World's Missed Myth

Friday, December 4, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

PC World is just one of numerous magazine's I read and monitor for various industry news, reviews and opinions. Heck, earlier this week I wrote a post about an article in PC World. But since I work for a software vendor that helps people and businesses achieve performance and storage management improvements (primarily through defragmenting computer), the January 2010 edition's PC Performance Myths article caught my eye immediately.

So as sure as not to misquote, here is PC World's stated "myth" (I have the print edition, the online version was not online as of the writing of this post):

Defragging your hard drive: Back when drives were small and OSs were simpler, doing this was necessary. But Windows XP, Vista and 7 all have automated disk optimization, and it's rare for a drive to become so fragmented that it hampers performance. While defragmenting isn't harmful, it's usually a waste of time.

Ok, by mentioning that there are built-in XP, Vista and Windows 7 defrag options, presumably at least part of PC World's real message was that you don't need to buy one or use anything other than what the OS comes with. Although this article didn't say that, that is what this portion of the article meant (you're welcome, PC World editors).

Now for the rest -- "back when drives were small and OSs were simpler, doing this was necessary," but not now and not since the advent of Windows XP. Really. So a good old- school 80GB drive running Windows 95 might have needed it, for all that Word and Office stuff people were doing. But now, take all that, and add terabyte drives, volumes of pictures and videos, editing and deleting, and even more work and more play being done at home and at work, now fragmentation is not a problem? Humorous at best - detrimental at worst. So more people and more businesses than ever before are buying defraggers, and there are more defrag offerings than ever before, all because Microsoft, Diskeeper, PerfectDisk and a bunch of freeware apps are all crazy? Defrag PC? PC World thinks you're an idiot...

"It's rare for a drive to become so fragmented that it hampers performance." Try doing something real (for fun or work) on your computer today, with larger files and larger drives, without a defragmenter, and see what happens. Anyone saying that performance won't be impacted does not have an even marginal understanding of the NTFS file system. Hello, ivory tower....

"...it's usually a waste of time." I guess I better get on the phone and call the CIOs and IT directors of Global 1000 companies and others and tell them all that research and testing they did to determine specific performance and resource usage improvements was invalid, and despite what came out of the labs, it ain't true. Sorry World of Warcraft users - you only think you're playing your game faster. Sorry, videographers, the time you thought you were saving was really a dream. Productivity increases and faster access to databases? It's just your imagination...

Are you using a disk defragmenter program, built-in or otherwise? PC World thinks you're crazy. I'm just one of many that knows you're not, and you're smarter than those guys.

This is the type of writing that gives the mainstream media a bad name...