PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

New Daemon Tools Driver

Some third-party products open a drive for write access prior to PerfectDisk's boot time/offline defrag being able to mount the drive for exclusive access. If the drive has been opened for write access, PerfectDisk will not be able to perform a boot time/offline defrag and PerfectDisk's boot time/offline defrag will not run, so there is chance for file system issues to occur.

Most recently, a new SPDT driver (SPTD.sys) for Daemon Tools was just released yesterday to fix a problem that Daemon Tools had with PerfectDisk 8. For the complete Knowledge Base article, go to www.raxco.com/support/windows/kb_details.cfm?kbid=537&issue=41.

Vista support

For those of you running Vista, there is a Beta version of PerfectDisk 8 that runs on Vista (to download the Beta, go to www.raxco.com/products/downloadit/perfectdisk_download.cfm). Raxco Software's engineering team works closely with the Microsoft file system group, and until we are assured that all final changes have been made, we will keep this is Beta. When Vista becomes generally available, PerfectDisk will support it.

Windows Vista will have a Disk Defragmentation utility, but it will, not surpringly, be limited in scope. In fact, users will see even less than they have in previous versions of Windows. No progress bar, no information of how fragmented the drive is, what files are fragmented, nor any exclusion list. PerfectDisk will continue to be a far superior way to completely defragment your drive, including optimizing the drive and fully consolidating the free space. We'll discuss the differences in more detail in later posts.

Video Didn't Kill the Radio Star, But Did Stress the Drive

It seems everybody wants to do everything faster these days - whether it's work or play. Do more work, and do it more quickly. Play more games, and play them as fast as possible. And if you're watching a video on your computer, you want the experience to be uneventful and seamless - so you can get on to the next video. For you video editors, you know that when your drive becomes full, the harder it can become to cut, splice and reorder frames. We know video professionals can go through several drives a week. As they become full, it becomes virtually impossible to keep editing efficiently, or at all. A big part of the problem is fragmentation, one of the main causes of dropped frames. And not just fragmented files, but fragmented free space.

In the video editing environment, file systems are constantly working overtime to process large numbers of relatively large files. To make the most of your system, consider how to use the space that's empty as much as you consider the space that's full. Continuing to fill up and throw away disks may work in the short term, but it's an expensive long-term approach. Make the most of your free space - consolidate it so it's ready for your next video file.

The easiest and cheapest solution? Defrag regularly. For more about fragmentation and video editing, read http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/whitepapers/Video_FreeSpace.pdf.

Does Free Space Really Matter?

For a company that develops and sells a product that "officially" falls under the category of disk defragmenters, we write and talk a lot about free space, particularly free space consolidation. That's different than other vendors that market disk defragmenters. In fact, since more and more users have begun to understand the importance of free space consolidation, and more and more reviewers and analysts have studied and learned about it, we have seen a bit more attention paid to it from the other products. In other tools, it typically gets a bit of lip service, and maybe an option or two are thrown in to appease those that have some understanding of the issue.

But the fact is, without exceptional free space consolidation, you may as well just skip the whole defragmentation issue. That, of course, would be unfortunate, since defragmentation is critical to good file and system performance. Raxco Software has studied and tested the issue at length, and concluded that free space consolidation is critical to optimal file system performance. Independent tests have also been conducted and validated the conclusions. Free space is critical in postponing refragmentation of a file system. If free space is not consolidated, refragmenation occurs more rapidly. Free space consolidation results in fewer wasted disk seeks, which helps extend a disk's life. Test after test shows that PerfectDisk's ability to thoroughly consolidate free space results in performance improvements and a slower rate of refragmentation. Free space matters - very much. For a look at a third-party opinion, visit http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/whitepapers/FreeSpaceConsolidation.pdf.

 

Why Single Pass?

One of the many ways in which PerfectDisk is unique is its single-pass approach to defragmenting drives and consolidating free space. Our users, for the most part, understand and appreciate this approach - once and done, as opposed to chipping away at the problem in the attempt to get it right. Other defragmenters employ a multi-pass approach. There's even one claim out there that the multi-pass method employed is patented. While we have yet to locate the patent, that is one that we would not be anxious to duplicate anyway. Just one of the problems associated with a multi-pass approach is that during all the time it takes to go through the multiple passes, your drive is likely to have become more fragmented again. The free space doesn't get "fixed" (i.e. consolidated) and your drive gets more fragmented. Alternatively, with PerfectDisk's single-pass method, a drive is left completely defragmented with a large block of contiguous free space, resulting in slower fragmentation going forward. As my father once told me, if you're going to go through the trouble of doing something, do it right the first time.

Or as Gartner Research published in a 2003 report on defragmentation: "The Windows defragmentation tool is a multi-pass defragmenter that must be run over and over to defragment the disk, especially when defragmenting very large disks with heavy fragmentation and limited free space. As such, multi-pass defragmenters characteristically fragment the remaining free space on the disk, which accelerates fragmentation later. It is receommended that a third-party single-pass defragmentation tool be implemented instead."

That's why once and done makes sense to us, and industry observers, rather than over and over and over again.

McAfee 2007 Issue

We wanted to make you all aware of an issue that has come up if you are running McAfee 2007. What happens is that PerfectDisk continues to recommend an offline defrag even after one has been completed. McAfee has identified an issue with NTFS file systems that is encountered by McAfee 2007 applications. This issue causes fragmentation of system files that may be visible in third-party defragmentation tools such as PerfectDisk. The problem has been reported to Microsoft, and McAfee has a work-around in the latest update of their software. In order to make sure you are running the latest update to McAfee 2007, right-click on the "M" icon and select "Updates."

To see the Raxco Software Knowledgebase article on this, go to http://www.raxco.com/support//windows/kb_details.cfm?kbid=540.

In case you weren't sure, the Command Center is Free!

Since PerfectDisk 8 launched on September 12th, tens of thousands of users around the world have already upgraded from PerfectDisk 7. And we have thousands of new users as well, including home users, small businesses, and large corporations. For the new users, it may have been easier to tell -- the new PerfectDisk Command Center management console is free. This may not have been as clear to some of our long-time users.  If you've upgraded from PerfectDisk 7 to PerfectDisk 8 and manage a group of PCs and/or servers running PerfectDisk, whether just a few or several thousand, make sure you download the Command Center and take advantage of it. The people who are using it tell us they absolutely love it.

If you're running on a standalone computer, you could still download it for free, but it won't add any value for you.

The Command Center helps you manage everything across your business or enterprise. Deployment, configuring, scheduling, management and reporting - anything and everything to do with fragmentation and defragmentation across your systems. The main dashboard is your entry point to the Command Center - it's your mission control. It helps you be proactive, because it has a dozen setpoints you can set according to your requirements - everything from fragmentation levels to potential free space problems. You can check out our white paper on the Command Center

You can also learn more by visiting the PerfectDisk Command Center product page on our web site at http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/command_center.cfm.

If you're running a network, download the Command Center. It's free...and priceless.

PerfectDisk 8 is here!

PerfectDisk 8 has been officially released and is available now! The feedback we have had from our beta users, the press, analysts, and others who have had a "sneek viewing" has been unbelievable. Our enterprise customers are excited to have the Command Center management console and CPU and I/O throttling. Our home users like the automatic shutdown after defrag. And everyone is happy to have a defragger that finally has an intelligent screen saver mode. Add to that a Single File Defrag capability (great for people with large video files or other large files), enhanced scheduling with AutoPilot Scheduling to automate everything, Consolidate Free Space Defrag, new statistics and reports, and lots more....and you can understand the excitement. But don't take my word for it - I encourage you to take it out for a test drive with the free 30-day eval.

Joe

But What About a Console?

While we have built what we believe (and thousands of users concur) is the most thorough defragger on the market, over the last several months administrators of large enterprises have come to us and said, basically, “PerfectDisk is great, but without a console, it won’t work for us.”

They have told us that PerfectDisk does a better job of defragmenting than any other defragger on the market. They like SMARTPlacement optimization, they like Space Restoration Technology’s single-pass free space consolidation, but…..they need a management console. Even though we had (and still have) complete Active Directory integration, we were told we needed a management console. Well, I am happy to report that now we have it – the PerfectDisk Command Center, a no-charge complement to PerfectDisk 8.

And we tried to be smart about it – we listened to large enterprise users and have come up with what we think is the management console that beats anything out there. We put in extra things like many more alerts and warnings than in other consoles, remote management capabilities, and more. If you’re an enterprise user, it is likely the one piece you’ve been waiting for.

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Welcome from Raxco Software

Welcome to the PerfectDisk Blog. We want this to be a forum for information not only about PerfectDisk from Raxco’s perspective, but also from our users’ perspective. We know there is a fair amount of discussion in various user groups and online forums about defragmentation in general, and PerfectDisk in particular.

We won’t make this an advertising forum, although we will try to keep users and those curious, informed about particular events related to PerfectDisk. But we want to also provide insight on some or our decisions related to the product, and response to inquiries people might have related to PerfectDisk or Raxco.

We receive a lot of unsolicited input from the user community – most of it, I’m happy to say – is very positive, either about the product, the technical support, or customer service received. And there is of course feedback that is not positive – either someone has had a bad experience or someone wishes we did things a different way. We’ll try to address those issues here as well. If you have something you’d like us to comment on, or some feelings you’d like to share, let us know. We understand that listening to our user community is what has led to the success we’ve had to date – and we want to keep listening, and listen even more.

Thanks for checking us out.

Joe Abusamra
Vice President of Operations

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