Disk Defragmentation Software

Cubs win! Baseball club gets better performance through a better server defrag

Monday, August 30, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Sometimes it's fun to take a step back from all the file system, slow PC tips, and Hyper-V performance counters talk and see how the best defrag software tool plays out in the real world. On its own, a server defrag may seem a little drab. But if you see how it's helping a baseball team, well...that can make it a little more interesting.

The Greater Des Moines Baseball Company is the umbrella company for the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team of the Pacific Coast League. Recently, the Cubs selected PerfectDisk 11 Server to boost its servers’ performance through disk defragmentation. The Cubs, with several hundred employees serving an annual attendance of over 500,000, use its servers for ticketing, merchandise sales, food and beverage sales, video boards and score boards, video production, financial and back office functions, and database management. The team's servers have several physical and virtual servers on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 to run the business. Prior to selecting PerfectDisk over a competitive product, the Cubs used the Windows built-in disk defrag utility, but it was not up to the task. “Microsoft’s built-in defragmenter did not really accomplish much in terms of improved performance for our server, plus it was very slow,” said Larry Schunk, Chief Technology Officer at Greater Des Moines Baseball. “With PerfectDisk, our servers are running faster than ever, which means all our employees are more productive; in addition, its automation and powerful reporting tools provide a great value.”

You can see the complete press release of the Cubs server defrag selection here.

Play ball. Win. Give your servers a good server defrag with the best defrag software.

The Cubs are in first place. Coincidence? That's crazy talk.

Defrag with service -- another way to find the best defrag software

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

When trying to figure out how to make your PC run faster, many people turn to look for the best defrag tool and best PC optimizer. Look at reviews, head to the user forums, ask their colleagues and friends to see what the options are. Free or paid for. Automatic or manual. Lots of options or few. Enterprise defrag or for personal use only. It's all well and good, and what drives us here at Raxco to deliver the market's best defrag software year after year.

But we also like to differentiate ourselves in a different way, through our technical support and customer service. So while we truly believe PerfectDisk is the best defrag software available, we also think our service and support are superior as well. That attitude is epitomized by Wendy Clontz, who heads up our customer service department and whom we are proud to have with us.

Dan Baldry is a 20--year IT professional in Sydney, Australia, managing a team of people who sell maintenance and professional services for one of the world's largest networking companies. Dan wrote to me directly recently about what he described as our "excellent service," which he argues is hard to find these days. Here are some of Dan's words:

"I purchased Perfect Disk a few years ago mainly on the basis of an article I came across in a local PC magazine that I thought gave a good impartial review and sold me on the merits of the product. With a computing background, to me disk defragmentation is what I would describe as a routine housekeeping item that I would consider baseline for a healthy PC. In a perfect world this would be delivered as a native part of the operating system. You might argue that it is, but I'm suspicious of the standard utility and a bit wary of the available freeware (though I know they are reasonably good). With my hard disk capacity getting bigger, I was on the hunt for a good utility that would just do the job and I could be confident in (no doubts), so that was why I decided to stump up the dollars and go for Perfect Disk. In short, I wanted to be sure my system was at optimum health and running with maximum performance all the time. You might ask why? Well, I use my PC for a mix of work and play and it became a bit of a mission to drive the best performance without resorting to a massive/expensive upgrade as time went on. A few dollars on PD seemed like a good option. Eventually I did upgrade but I still use PD as part of the same housekeeping approach.

However, over the past couple of years, with reinstalls, losing keys, lost downloads etc... and needing to call on support more than once came to realise that the Raxco company offered me an extension of the confidence that I had in the product, and that was the confidence that if I had an issue I would get a reasonably quick, no nonsense, response. Even though it was probably only a few interactions over something like 24 months, I realised it was the same people assisting me throughout, which made me feel the company must have something going for it to be able to retain people like that. The consistent message I hear back is that while customers choose our physical products to drive their business based on value and the vision of our company, it's the Services we offer that keeps them coming back. Not only that, but our partners value our Services above all for the profitable revenue it drives - and customers are willing to pay as they have confidence that they are getting a total package. I think it's how we treat our customers after the sale that creates real business, and I think that's something Raxco has understood from the get go."

So there you have it, directly from a professional in the IT field. It's not enough for us to deliver the best defrag software or to simply fix a slow PC startup. We need to go the extra mile.

Service -- before and after the sale -- for life.

Best defrag software, best defrag utility -- with defrag service

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.

Building network infrastructures for SMBs with PC optimization software and more

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

One of the great IT challenges in my opinion is helping SMBs (small- and medium-size businesses) maximize their use of technology to achieve their business goals. The reason it is such a big challenge is that there is often minimal expertise in-house, and even less time to devote to thinking about ways in which technology can help. If a business is devoting the majority of its resources to figuring out how to find that next customer, maintain its existing customers, or just keep afloat in these challenging times, there's usually not much time, if any, to spend thinking about how to take advantage of new technology, or planning strategically. Sure, when something goes bad and a problem arises, technology moves to the forefront of the business concerns. But once the fire is put out, it's back to the day-to-day.

But there are SMBs that have figured out that there is true benefit to taking advantage of technology to make their businesses better or smarter. There's a proactive way that not only can stop (or minimize) problems from occurring, but make the business better. Through greater efficiency, more productive employees, better service, etc.

This is where a company called ProsLink comes in. ProsLink is an IT solutions firm headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana that has carved out a niche for itself focusing on helping SMBs run their businesses better. Officially, it "specializes in building and supporting IT network infrastructures for small and medium businesses." What's that mean? Well, it can be anything from helping businesses do a better job of handling their email to helping a company deploy an anti-virus solution so the company can cross that off the list of things to worry about. Things as relatively simple as figuring out the best PCs for a company's workers, to as complex as implementing server virtualization to reduce costs, or vSphere and virtualization performance tuning. The list of services ProsLink provides is long. But the benefits are focused.

ProsLink has even been singled out by Cisco for its work. ProsLink's SmartCare Service works in conjunction with Cisco Services to proactively verify that a network is secure, reliable, and functioning optimally to help improve employee productivity and customer responsiveness to get the most from technology investments. The people at ProsLink know their stuff, and this is all real stuff that helps a business run better.

In looking at server and desktop performance, one area where ProsLink has researched heavily is disk defragmentation. It's looked at all the options and possible solutions out there. It's done its homework, and we're happy that it has found PerfectDisk to meet all its needs and those of its clients, from virtualization performance and vSphere performance to auto defrag, from server defrag to faster PC performance.

As Craig Hickman of ProsLink told me recently, his company "utilizes PerfectDisk solutions for clients who are looking to receive peak performance from their servers and desktops. PerfectDisk is a great solution for those looking to keep older and newer hardware optimized on a continuous basis."

A business that gets it. For SMBs that get 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

Network World on Google Voice and duplicate file software (and a little defrag)

Thursday, June 24, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

It's not often that PerfectDisk and disk defragmentation software get into an article on a hot topic like Google Voice in publications like Network World and ComputerWorld. But yesterday was such a day. Okay, you have to read the entire article and it's not the focus of the article, but hey, I'll take it (and for a ComputerWorld, Network World, PC World article all about PerfectDisk, see this).

Mark Gibbs, writing in Network World in an article picked up by ComputerWorld and others, penned Google Voice turned loose and finding duplicated files in an article stating that Google Voice is now available to the public. And not being a Google Voice user right now, I will be soon. After reading Gibbs article, there seem to be many reasons to follow his advice -- "...you should really check it out...."

Besides giving a brief overview of Google Voice, Gibbs turns his focus to duplicate file removal and duplicate file software. It's a key part of a cleaning and streamlining effort he undertakes, writing:

"...what could need cleaning out? The answer: Duplicate files.

On my storage systems I have literally hundreds of projects along with various resources that simply exist for our entertainment (such as iTunes) that I know contain in many cases many duplicate copies of files.

So, in an attempt to streamline my stuff, I decided to try out three de-duplication products..."

I agree wholeheartedly with Mark that duplicate file removal is important and a great way to clean your PC. What Mark didn't mention was that PerfectDisk includes a duplicate file manager for duplicate file removal. However, he does mention that PerfecDisk is handling his disk defragmentation needs on his servers and PCs.

So check out Google Voice, whether or not you need duplicate file software or a defrag utility. And check out Mark Gibbs article in Network World and ComputerWorld here. Mark knows his stuff - he's done just about everything in the networking business, from serving as an executive in various companies to creating companies; and as an author he has written four books and numerous articles about networking and computer technology.

Apparently, he can't be dupped.

Defrag Exchange database with 110% space -- and 10% of the time

Friday, June 18, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

As another weekend approaches, so does that time when many Exchange administrators think about the need to defrag Exchange database, and if they're smart, some good Exchange defrag software.

Now, Exchange performs, on its own, some basic defragmentation. But here I'm referring to Exchange offline defragmentation. Offline defragmentation and subsequent compaction of your Exchange Server data stores allow the operating system to reclaim disk space occupied by deleted data. How does this happen?

As users delete e-mails, the Exchange Server software frees up the space within the data stores where those e-mails reside, but never returns actual on-disk storage space to the operating system. The resulting data store never shrinks in size, whereas smaller data stores equate with expedient backups and more efficient disk utilization. If an Exchange data store starts to consume increasingly large quantities of disk space, the only way to reclaim those resources is to perform an offline defragmentation and compaction pass.

Now, an Exchange administrator can do this via the ESEUTIL utility, but it's a cumbersome and time-consuming task. There's a lot of manual commands and entering of data that is prone to user error. Which is why we developed PerfectDisk Exchange to automate the process and save Exchange administrators time -- lots of time. PerfectDisk Exchange enables you to automatically shut down an Exchange Server, then copies selected data stores to local or remote volumes, and compacts and optimizes volumes. You can also return data stores to their applicable Exchange directories and restart Exchange Server either through the user interface or via a scheduled event. On Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010, selected data stores are dismounted and no services need be stopped. This leaves your mail server available to other data stores it may manage.

A question we often hear is "how much free space is needed to perform an Exchange defrag?" The answer is 110%.

When your data store is being defragmented, a copy is made and defragmented, then copied back to the location of the active information store. In order to create this temporary working copy of the data store, there needs to be sufficient space on your hard drive. The process requires free space equal to 110% of the size of the data store. By default, the boot drive (i.e., the drive containing the WinSystem folder) will be used.

There's a way to defrag Exchange without all the aggravation and without all the time - with the proper Exchange defrag software.

Games are on -- to the tune of $15 billion -- maximize your investment with WoW performance tips and more

Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

I was reading yesterday that the consumer research firm NPD Group just announced that total consumer spend for video game software in 2009 is estimated to top $15.25 billion. Dang that's a lot of games!

NPD reported further that "in addition to the $10.5 billion spent in the U.S. by consumers on new physical video game software in 2009, the total spend by consumers within other industry channels in the U.S., including used video games, rentals, subscriptions, digital full game downloads, downloadable content, and mobile game apps., is estimated in the range of $4.5 to $4.75 billion. Consumers' digital game spending is concentrated among lower priced full-game downloads and downloadable content."

We regularly have many World of Warcraft users telling us that complete disk defragmentation and free space consolidation are two of their best WoW performance tips for improving WoW performance. The WoW users are the most vocal, but we hear from players of numerous other games as well, such as Fallout 3, etc.

If you're part of that big gaming spend, do yourself a favor and look for some good WoW performance tweaks.

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

PerfectDisk 11 Service Pack 2 (Build 174) defrag update

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

The PerfectDisk 11 Client and Enterprise Console have been updated to Build 174. These latest builds include various bug fixes and minor enhancements.

You can “Check For Updates” in the products or wait for Autoupdate.

Client enhancements and fixes:

Correct issues connecting to and displaying data stores for Exchange 2010
Change behavior when stopping a defrag pass. PerfectDisk used to display the statistics at the time you stopped even though they were inaccurate. PerfectDisk no longer does this.
The display files in block feature has been disabled during a defrag and analyze pass since there was no data to display
Corrected some display issues on the virtual machine tab
Added support for translation into Japanese
Corrected some statistical calculations when files are being added and deleted from the drive during the defragmentation pass.
The list of drive types that can be impersonated was limited to prevent confusion. The purpose of impersonating drive types was due to the inability to accurately determine whether or not a drive is a solid state drive.
Corrected a display issue on the Hyper-V host product. GUID was being displayed in lieu of the guest computer name.
Clarified the code to ensure the user realized the schedules maximum duration only applies to the online portion of the schedule. There is not maximum duration for a boot-time defragmentation pass.
Ensure that PerfectDisk does not attempt to perform an offline defragmentation pass on a FAT/FAT32 from a schedule. This functionality is not supported.
Corrected some typo's in displayed text
Changed the default behavior regarding file modification date on FAT/FAT32 drives. When no date exists we now display nothing. We used to display 1980.
Improved the layout to better fit all the on screen data
Corrected a bug when defragmenting drives greater than 2,147,483,648 clusters (8 TB with 4k cluster size)
Improved boot-time defragmentation logging.
Corrected a display issue with the schedule tab buttons when using Group Policy.
Certain error messages were improved to aid the user in understanding what went wrong.

Console enhancements and fixes:

Improved the task planner
Corrected an infinite loop in the Console User Interface. PerfectDisk Enterprise Console would appear to hang.
Corrected a crash in the Console user interface.
Updated to SQLExpress Service pack 3.
Displayed the Space explorer Client when PerfectDisk is not installed. This feature replies on PerfectDisk Client being present.
Improved the historic data reports.
Default Configuration profile data values have been adjusted to better represent the real world.
Corrected Connect using PD option not being available if Hyper-V Host installed on Console computer.
Corrected Console listing Hyper-V Host software as VMware.
Corrected import of settings that created registry keys that were not correct type.
Corrected Console reports that incorrectly did not include the Console computer.
Corrected issue in Deployment wizard that incorrectly displayed local/GP schedules.

Get PerfectDisk and defrag news like this earlier — follow PerfectDisk on Twitter.

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.

The best defrag tool for video performance - and more

Monday, May 24, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Just about every Windows user can benefit from a defrag utility, and the best results come from the best defrag tool. Certain applications and certain uses of the computer can benefit even more, and the area of video performance is one such particular subject. We're happy to count some of the world's best photographers and videographers as PerfectDisk users, but we're just as happy to have recreational and even novice users benefit from improved video performance with PerfectDisk.

I know better than to talk about religion in a blog about technology and disk defragmentation. However, I'm happy to to write about a particular church's use of what it perceives as the best defrag tool for video performance. And that's where the Fundamentalist Baptist Church comes in. Located in in Santa Ana, California, in the heart of Orange County and just a few minutes from Disneyland, is where this defrag and video performance story starts. The chuirch records videos of its sermons and more. I'll let the pastor's words tell the story:

"The main reasons for my choosing PerfectDisk are:

(1) Consolidation of files on hard drive
(2) Defrag/consolidation of system files upon reboot

I do processing of video. I had used Diskeeper, but that software does not do consolidation of files on the hard drive. When you "capture" video on a hard drive, drive consolidation is very, very important. The reason is that, when a file splits due to running into another file ahead of it on the hard drive, it must fragment at the point. This stopping of the file and continuing it at another place on the hard drive can result in lost frames during a video capture. Lost frames are a "no no" for professional quality video capture, because it causes a momentary jump (because of a lost of frames) in movement when played back later. HDV capture from a Canon HV20 HDV video camera using Cineform was the specific application used.

I heard about your software on a Video production blog, from another guy who had the same problem (the need to consolidate files) and he recommended your product."

No matter what religion, there's only one best defrag tool for video performance.

SQL defrag for SQL server performance improvements

Friday, May 14, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

I’m often asked whether one should or can defragment SQL databases - should you care about SQL defrag. While not an SQL expert, we have looked at this issue a lot and work with numerous organizations that benefit from regular defragmentation of their SQL databases with PerfectDisk. PerfectDisk uses the Microsoft MoveFile APIs, ensuring the SQL defrag of SQL database files is done safely and reliably, without having to first shut down SQL services. This includes both Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.

PerfectDisk does not address internal fragmentation of databases. Fragmentation can, and usually does, exist at both the SQL Server level and at the file level within Windows. There is SQL defrag software -- specific vendor tools to address SQL Server-level fragmentation. But defragmenting at the file level, what I refer to as SQL defrag, will usually also speed up your SQL server. The SQL server doesn’t know about the file system layout - it leaves that to the operating system. But that means it also won’t and can’t report on file system fragmentation. And that’s where PerfectDisk comes in.

Besides defragmenting files, PerfectDisk’s free space consolidation via its Space Restoration Technology helps reduce the rate of fragmentation on SQL servers, as PerfectDisk creates large chunks of contiguous free space, which helps as your database grows. Best practice for highly available SQL servers is to create files on contiguous space that’s already been defragmented, planning ahead of time for data growth and building that growth into the size of the initial files.

Don’t leave your SQL servers behind - defrag them. SQL defrag for SQL server performance improvements.

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.

Windows Home Server V2 (Vail) and PerfectDisk

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

The web lit up yesterday with Microsoft's unveiling of the beta for the next integration of its popular Windows Home Server OS -- Windows Home Server Version 2, codenamed Vail. WHS has a passionate fan and install base now, and this group is excited to see Windows Home Server move forward. Since its release, we have seen the high energy and interest from WHS users even as it relates to WHS defrag with our PerfectDisk Windows Home Server solution.

The Microsoft Windows Home Server Blog outlines the 4 key areas of improvement with Vail:

Extending media streaming outside the home or office
Multi-PC backup and restore
Simplified setup and user experience
Expanded development and customization tools for partners.

And there's something else that has us really excited here at Raxco Software. There are some changes with the Drive Extender technology coming in Vail that will have some big changes in the area of file management. First, a brief overview of Drive Extender - this is how Wikipedia begins its description:

Windows Home Server Drive Extender is a file-based replication system that provides three key capabilities:[16]

Multi-disk redundancy so that if any given disk fails, data is not lost
Arbitrary storage expansion by supporting any type of hard disk drive (Serial ATA, USB, FireWire etc.) in any mixture and capacity — similar in concept to JBOD
A single folder namespace (no drive letters)

We have been briefed by Microsoft and have details on changes being made with Drive Extender. We are unable to give specifics on this until this part of Vail is announced by Microsoft. But we can say that we are working on new Drive Extender-specific technology that we will announce as soon as we can legally disclose information. The technology that we are working on with Microsoft deals with free space consolidation, and goes in a direction that is outside of disk defragmentation.

The WHS Console is updated and renamed in Vail and is now the Dashboard. Our solution will be fully integrated with the Dashboard and Launchpad, and will also have full management and reporting on usage of the Server Storage Pool. Our solutions will be fully ready when Vail is launched.

Windows Home Server is moving forward with Vail. And we're moving forward with it.

PerfectDisk 11 Windows Home Server info is here.

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.

Computerworld -- how to compete with free -- defrag and more

Thursday, April 1, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

After yesterday's post on the PC Magazine article about software discovery being dead, I found it ironic that later yesterday a review of PerfectDisk 11 appeared in ComputerWorld, Network World, PC World, and a host of other sites that picked it up. Here's an "old school" review of PerfectDisk 11 by a set of "traditional," mainstream technology publications.

When looking at how to make your PC run faster and the best disk defrag tool, there is the Windows 7 defrag tool and lots of free Windows defrag software out there. So why pay for one? Ian Harac's review explains why, including features above and beyond simple auto defrag. He even gets into duplicate file software and duplicate file removal.

Harac, in his review PerfectDisk 11 Whips Hard Drives Into Shape, writes:

"Defragmentation is one of the chores of computer ownership, something that's tedious but which has to be done regularly. Windows includes a free defragmentation tool, but there are plenty of competing products. How do you compete with "free"? You make something worth paying for. PerfectDisk 11 ($40, 30-day free trial) is that worthy tool.

"PerfectDisk 11 has one of the best blends of features and usability I have seen....given the range of features and ease of use, it's well worth upgrading from a free product to PerfectDisk Professional."

All disk defragmentation software is not created equally. A very small set is actually worth paying for.

You can read the entire Computerworld article here.

Softpedia Defragmentation Utilities review - PerfectDisk 11

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Softpedia provides news, reviews and information on everything from defragmentation utilities to security software, games, and a lot more. Windows, Mac, Linux, Mobil and gadgets are just a few of the categories it tracks. Softpedia's team of editors and reviewers is usually quick to hop on new releases, and the launch of PerfectDisk 11 proved no different.

Softpedia has issued its PerfectDisk 11 review, with some of the highlights listed as BlockViewer, enhanced SSD defrag support, and the new Advanced SMARTPlacement, which seems to be getting everyone's attention. As always with Softpedia, there's a thorough overview, screen shots, and a final section on The Good, The Bad and The Truth, with The Truth summing it all up.

The review points out that the new Advanced SMARTPlacement optimization technology "is now customizable in terms of the file types that should benefit from faster access times. As top defragmenting professional solution, PerfectDisk Professional does not miss anything."

                                             EDITOR'S RATINGS:

                                             User Interface: (5/5)
                                             Features: (5/5)
                                             Ease of use: (5/5)
                                             Pricing/Value: (5/5)
                                             Overall: (5/5)


Softpedia's review looks at the entire product, which for users familiar with PerfectDisk, know it's a big part of the product: "As Raxco accustomed its users, besides defragmentation power, PerfectDisk also includes space management features that are not at all negligible. The module provides an interesting set of instruments designed to provide accurate reports on the available free space on the drives and the data that takes most of it...comes in handy especially as today's market continually lowers the cost for storage devices, allowing users to keep more an more data on the hard disk(s)."

The Truth

Here's "The Truth" on PerfectDisk 11 according to Softpedia, a summary of its findings:

"The latest release of PerfectDisk does not bring spectacular features to the table and does not clutter the suite with useless functionality turning it into a bloated bundle. Instead, it thrives because Raxco perfects the existent features and matures them to the point they become flawless.

"Flexibility, versatility and ease of use remain the attributes of PerfectDisk Professional although these have been pushed to new limits. It can reduce fragmentation even given some of the most precarious conditions, such as less than 1% of free space and excessive fragments scattered randomly. It simply does its best to gather the files together and stops only when it cannot continue, giving you the reason for its halt.

"The few mischieves present in the application are of little importance compared to the benefits of the product, just like the price. Moreover, the application can be purchased at a lower price than it is regularly available ($39.99) through the constant promotions from Raxco."

You can see the entire review here.