PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

Vista Defrag -- lots of opinions

Go to Google and type in "vista defrag" or "vista defrag s***s" or "vista defrag good" and you will find lots of opinions and exchanges about how terrible the Vista built-in defragger is or defenses of why Microsoft did what it did with this iteration. As I represent a company that produces a third-party defrag solution, you know my opinion and I won't go through a lecture here.

Look, people can go back and forth (and do all the time) about whether or not defragmentation is necessary. I can (and do all the time :)) but won't do it here today. Some vendors will try to equate defragmentation to a life or death (I can do THAT too, but won't here today :)). I do want to make a few points. IF you want to defrag your system or systems on Vista, you should know:

• With the Vista built-in defragmenter, fragmentation information is only available via a command-line tool
• The Vista built-in defragmenter is a multi-pass defragmenter, meaning whenever it runs it's only doing a partial job of defragmenting files and a partial, very limited job of consolidating free space
• The Vista built-in defragmenter requires significant free space on your drive in order to operate
• The Vista built-in defragmenter does not defragment all NTFS metadata.

And for those running in an enterprise environment:

• The Vista built-in defragmenter has no management console
• The Vista built-in defragmenter is not designed for large, multi-terabyte drives
• The Vista built-in defragmenter does not integrate with Active Directory.

And there are a lot more differences.

The NTFS file system is still the NTFS file system. It fragments. Free space fragments. Fragmented files and fragmented free space are detrimental to a computer's performance. Depending on what you do, it could be more or less than for someone else. It could be an annoyance, or it could be a severe problem.

If you determine that the limitations of the Vista defragmenter are something you can live with, then you have your solution. If not, then we have a solution for you. I can tell you this - as the only disk defragmenter certified for Vista, we now have more requests, inquiries and purchases for PerfectDisk than ever before from Microsoft employees, Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Certified Trainers, as well as users, corporations and government agencies around the world.

They see the need, and we are pleased to provide the solution.

Many are missing, PerfectDisk is not

We're starting to see more and more articles on the lack of Vista-certified applications. In tracking these reports, I came across what I thought is an interesting site -- AppScout - Stalking the Killer App. This is how AppScout describes itself:

"AppScout is brought to you by the editors and analysts of PC Magazine, who scour the world in search of the best software, sites, and Web apps. We’re reporting on it all: the killer apps, the crazy startups, the useful (or just gimmicky) Web sites, and the beta software that crashes our machines. And we love to give advice, so ask away!"

Noting the lack of Vista-certified applications, AppScout states "... just 81 third-party apps have earned the Vista logo..." and "...just a few popular apps carry the Vista certification: Cyberlink's PowerDVD, Nero 7 Premium, Raxco's PerfectDisk disk optimization tool, Trend Micro's PC-cillin, and Ulead's VideoStudio 10..." Here is the complete post on AppScout -- click here.

Getting certified for Vista by Microsoft is somewhat of a pain and costs money, but we think it's worth it, and we're proud to be the only defragger certified and one of just a few apps overall that are. I'm not so proud about that resizing problem, but glad it's fixed...:)

Announcing a new newsletter on PC health - not for the power user

Raxco Software has just launched a new enewsletter entitled "Keep Your PC Healthy." It contains tips for keeping your PC in top shape.  The newsletter is not for everyone. As the first edition states, the newsletter is for the "everyday" computer user to learn - quickly - how to keep his or her PC running like new - as fast as when it was purchased. It's for the user who has some basic computer knowledge - not a "power" user, not a computer or IT professional. Someone who uses their PC or laptop for fun, hobbies, or unrelated business pursuits.

So if this sounds like it's for you, sign up below. If not, you can continue to look here for PerfectDisk news, Raxco news, and industry opinion.

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Build 54 is available

PerfectDisk 8 Build 54 is now available. Resizing and positioning bugs have been fixed, performance enhancements have been made to the Command Center, and various other bugs have been fixed.

Thanks to everyone for your comments, patience, and support.

We're almost there -- really

We are planning to release a new build of PerfectDisk 8 next Tuesday. This new build will correct some bugs with the GUI resizing and positioning, and will also contain some performance enhancements. I appreciate that many of you have been frustrated by the resizing problem and thank you for your patience as we also address some other issues to bring you the best product we can.

Thanks for your continued support.

Article on Vista defragmenter

Susie Colon of our technical support team has just put together an article for our upcoming enewsletter, Raxco Connections, on the major differences between the Vista built-in defragmenter and PerfectDisk. I'm posting a few excerpts here.

Vista's built-in defragmenter interface has been simplified from previous versions. There is no longer a disk map, and fragmentation statistics are only accessible from the command line tool. There are a few built-in scheduling options, but only one schedule can be setup through the tool. If you schedule the built-in defragmenter to run automatically, then it will always tell you that performance is good - regardless if it is actually defragmenting the drive! No matter what the fragmentation level is! The progress indicator has also been removed. This prevents users from knowing the status of the defrag run.

There have been some improvements to the built-in's defragmentation ability, but not nearly enough to handle the demands of today's hard drives. Vista's built-in defragmenter can defragment files when there is plenty of contiguous free space, but as the drive fills up and the free space fragmentation is not addressed, more files are left fragmented, and as a result the performance of the drive deteriorates. Free space fragmentation can also speed up the rate of refragmentation, which causes the defragmenter to use more resources to defragment files.

Susie's article also points out what PerfectDisk gives you that Vista's defragger does not. And there's a lot...

Windows Vista/XP x64 Fix

We have come across a problem with PerfectDisk running on x64 with Vista and XP -- PDAgent abnormally terminates. The AutoUpdate key has an incorrect value, which causes the crash.

We have a workaround you can do, as well as a script you can run - see it here. The fix will be in the next V8 updated.

PerfectDisk 8 Certified for Vista

PerfectDisk 8 is now certified by Microsoft for Windows Vista. PerfectDisk 8 Build 50 is now available for use on Windows Vista, as well as Windows XP Home/Professional, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Professional/Server.

During the PerfectDisk 8 Vista certification process, Raxco Software's development team uncovered a bug within a component of Windows Vista. Microsoft is working to resolve the issue. In any event, Raxco has designed PerfectDisk 8 Build 50 to specifically work around this issue.

To get PerfectDisk 8 Build 50:

• If you are running PerfectDisk 8 on Windows Vista, it is critical that you update to Build 50. You can do this by clicking on Perfectdisk and selecting Run as administrator and then click on Help and then select Check for Updates.
• For non-Vista versions of Windows, run PerfectDisk, click on Help and then select Check for Updates
• To redownload a purchased PerfectDisk 8 installation, follow the instructions in the email receipt that you received when you purchased PerfectDisk.

PerfectDisk -- first defragmenter to support Vista. First and only certified for Vista.

World of Warcraft -- Beef up your game

I've been meaning to write about games and gamers for awhile, and got just the kick in the rear I needed yesterday. Before I get to the kick, a few words. Depending on the particular game a gamer might be playing, there are certain files that comprise the game that are updated, deleted and so on. Typically, the files are large, meaning the more they're deleted or modified, the worse the potential fragmentation problem. Add to that all the other stuff you might be doing on your computer, and you could be losing a step or 2 in your games. Now before you say "there he goes again," see what gamer and new PerfectDisk customer Lee (he who delivered the kick) had to tell us:

"PerfectDisk is an amazing product. I originally downloaded the demo to see how it could improve the performance of World of Warcraft. Specifically WoW's MPQ files, which are huge files that are updated weekly. They fragment so easily and when fragmented they cause lagging and hangs during interactive game play as you cross particular boundaries between geography. Once I used PerfectDisk, I had nearly flawless performance. No hangs or lagging. I bought the tool immediately and scheduled the defrag after each patch from Blizzard. I've never had any lag since. I bought a 5 user license for my guild mates. Totally amazing product that's fast running and reliable. Might as well call it a WoW optimizer. Kudos!!"

It looks like Lee has found one way to really boost his gaming world...