Diskeeper 7.0

URL: http://www.executive.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp

Check Prices On This Product

E-mail this article to a friend

Rating: Excellent!

Review:

Executive Software's Diskeeper is a very solid disk defragmenting application that helps you keep your disk defragmented for optimum performance. We reviewed Diskeeper version 6 last year, and were impressed with this application.

Note: If you are not familiar with disk defragmentation or Diskeeper, you might want to read our Diskeeper 6 review first for the basics on defragmentation and some information about Diskeeper.

Features

In addition to the feature set already known from version 6, Diskeeper 7 offers the following new features and improvements:

• Faster Defrag Engine - Diskeeper 7 features an even faster defrag engine, making it supposedly the fastest Windows defragmenter ever built
• Fast Boot time Defragmentation Technology - Boot Time Defragmentation defragments the Windows paging file, consolidates directories, and defrags the Master File Table during bootup, now even faster
• Command Line Interface - Diskeeper 7 offers a basic command line option to defrag a volume from a command prompt
• Windows XP Support - Diskeeper 7 is specifically designed for Windows XP as a result of working closely with Microsoft
• Remote Scheduling of Boot Time Defragmentation - Diskeeper 7 allows you to schedule Boot Time Defragmentation from a remote console, eliminating the need for manual Boot Time Defragmentation
• Push Installation - Diskeeper 7 Server now has the capability of installing Diskeeper 7 Workstation on machines on a network by pushing the software down to each workstation (requires admin rights)

Regular Defragmentation

I installed Diskeeper 7 on a test machine under Windows 2000, and first ran a manual defragmentation. As you can see below, the drive is pretty heavily defragmented - directories all over the place, paging file in pieces, and a number of defragmented files.

While the initial manual defrag took care of the defragmented files, it did not consolidate the directories or defragment the paging file as you can see below.

Boot Time Defragmentation

Time to bring out the big guns. I scheduled a boot time defragmentation to clean this partition up. The result is impressive - all directories consolidated and the paging file in one piece.

Scheduling

Of course you don't want to do this manually every time, so Diskeeper offers Smart Scheduling, which allows you to set a custom defrag schedule and then forget about it. Diskeeper runs at a low priority to begin with as to not interfere with your applications if you're using the machine during defragmentation. Using Smart Scheduling you can tell it to run only in a certain time window when you're least likely to use the computer.

Boot Time Defragmentation can be scheduled as well, allowing you to get the full benefit of the program on an ongoing basis without any user input.

Conclusion

Diskeeper continues to be an impressive program. While keeping its simple and easy-to-use interface, it keeps improving performance and offering new features. The improved performance and Windows XP support alone make version 7 worth the upgrade from Diskeeper 6. For machines with no version of Diskeeper this one is a must as it offers many more features and much faster defragging speed than the one that comes built-in with Windows 2000 or XP (a lite version of an earlier Diskeeper version).

Submitted by: Alex "crazygerman" Byron