Review: Diskeeper 7.0

Keep your hard disks up to speed with arguably the best disk defragmenter that money can buy, writes Dave Cook.

Product	Diskeeper 7.0
Company	Executive Software
Web	www.execsoft.co.uk
Price	Workstation £45 Server £190
We like	Speed, set it and forget it technology
We don't like	Though barely missed, no support for 12-bit FAT file systems
Rating	9/10
Requirements

The hard disk is a vital element to the well-being of your computer. A badly fragmented hard disk, for example, can significantly slow down your computer. Hence, the New Year is as good a time as any to grant those hard disks a much-needed spring clean.

The trouble is, fragmentation occurs naturally. It's due to the operating system saving files to the first available space it finds on the disk - even if that space isn't big enough and it has to store the rest of the file or files in a different sector. Over time, as programs are installed and files are saved or deleted, disks become more and more fragmented, with disk heads having to search frantically through the different sectors to load the various files and applications.

Microsoft operating systems provide their own built-in disk defragmenter, of course. However, the tool is notoriously slow and can take literally hours to defragment one of today's huge capacity drives. So if you're serious about keeping hard disks up to speed, you should consider a third-party defragmenter such as Diskeeper 7.0 from Executive Software.

It's Available

Presently, there are two Diskeeper editions available: Diskeeper 7.0 Server; and Diskeeper 7.0 Desktop/Workstation. The former works on all Server, Workstation, or Professional editions of Windows, while Diskeeper 7.0 Desktop/Workstation supports all recent Windows operating systems except Windows NT/2000 Server and above.

Diskeeper 7.0 works on a wide range of SCSI and IDE disks including RAID arrays and mirrored disks. File systems of FAT16, FAT32, NTFS (Windows NT and Windows 2000/XP are supported, though not the old 12-bit FAT file system.

It's Easy

For those who can't be bothered to read the excellent user guide, an optional Welcome screen provides a quick start reference. In fact, the program is so easy to use, you will likely require neither.

The business side of the Diskeeper screen is made up of two panes. The top pane lists all hard drives that are available for defragmentation. The bottom pane is the Details Pane. Among other things, a legend appears here containing information that relates to the state of your disks. If, for example, the graphics display inside the Details Pane shows a considerable amount of red then your disk is heavily fragmented.

Defragmenting a disk can be as simple as clicking said disk and hitting the Defragment button. Alternatively, you can click a disk, select Analyze, and (almost immediately) hit the View Report button to see a list of the most fragmented files.

It's Smart

You can manually defragment a disk any time you wish, of course.

But one of Diskeeper's best features is its Smart Scheduling option, which assigns Diskeeper the responsibility of remembering when to begin defragmentation. This is surely "set it and forget it" technology at its best. Meanwhile, Windows NT/2000/XP users can also schedule defragmentation at boot time, which automatically defrags important system files.

Another neat feature is Diskeeper's ability to defrag files safely in the background. This avoids the tiresome problem of having to restart defragmentation when some program or background task writes to the disk half way through the process. It's also fast! For example, in tests a disk containing 10,603 excess file fragments reverted to zero fragments in less than 7 minutes.

Finally, if you like to try before you buy, a 30-day trial version of Diskeeper 7.0, plus several system management tools, trialware, and free utilities are available at www.execsoft-europe.com.

Verdict

Not only is Diskeeper 7.0 lightening fast, but its "set it and forget it" option is a hassle-free way to keep hard disks in tip-top condition.

 

Dave Cook