PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

Giving Back (Cont'd)

A few months ago Raxco Software announced a significant donation to the Ronald McDonald House Charities as part of the Washington, D.C. Ronald McDonald House's new building effort. Due to the fantastic growth we experienced in 2006 (and really, thanks to all our users around the globe), we were in a position to do this for what we deem a very worthwhile cause. We have continued to contribute to causes as part of our corporate commitment to give back to the communities in which we live and do business (we live in the Washington, D.C. area and serve customers in six continents).

Our most recent donation is to the Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that has built more than 225,000 houses all over the world. The organization builds houses almost everywhere - in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

We have enjoyed unprecedented sales of PerfectDisk and other products, and our family of users continues to grow. We feel fortunate to be able to give something back. We understand it is all because of our expanding user base.

Thanks for your continued support.

A proclamation of reclamation

We introduced PerfectDisk for Exchange several years ago, and it has been somewhat of a silent hero for us. It's widely used by Exchange administrators, and we receive lots of praise for it from these administrators, but since it's not as high-volume as other products (even the largest companies don't have bundles of Exchange servers), we tend to talk and hear about it less. However, over the last couple of years we have seen a large increase in usage and sales for PerfectDisk for Exchange. This has actually corresponded with the product receiving Windows IT Pro Magazine's Readers' Choice Award for Best Storage Management Software for two consecutive years.

Here at Raxco Software, we recovered over 10GB of storage running it last weekend. And we hear similar stories frequently - storage recovered, hours of time saved. In a nutshell, PerfectDisk for Exchange automates the process of defragmentation and compaction of Exchange data stores. But it takes a little cooperation by your users! Have your users delete all unnecessary items from any of their Outlook folders, especially their SENT folders. And they MUST then delete items from their DELETE folder. Without getting users to delete, you won't reclaim much. But if you do - and many administrators have rules set up to enforce this - the payback will be big.

You too can make your reclamation of wasted Exchange space.

5 Stars from Download.com

I'm happy to announce more high-profile recognition for PerfectDisk. This one is from the highly reputed Download.com (part of CNET). The Editor's review can be read here, and is entitled "This close to perfect." The editor points out a few of PerfectDisk's highlights and states that the product "picks up where Window's Disk Defragmenter leaves off."

Download.com also has lots of users' reviews on PerfectDisk, where it's achieved an average rating of 4.5 stars out of a possible 5. But we don't expect anyone to believe anyone's rating other than their own. That's why we tell home users, small business users, corporate users, Microsoft MVPs and anyone else - try it for yourself.

Seeing is believing - reach for the stars.

5 percent separation

No, this has nothing to do with Kevin Bacon or his new web site launched earlier this year to promote charitable giving. I'm referring to 5 percent free space. That's all the free space you need on your drive in order to defragment your drive completely and consolidate that precious free space you do have with PerfectDisk. Actually, you can often do it with even less. It's part of PerfectDisk's exclusive Space Restoration Technology, that also completely consolidates your free space in a single pass.

As new PerfectDisk user Paul told us yesterday, "after 70+ hours and no completion in sight" after using a competitive defragger, he gave PerfectDisk a try on his large, very fragmented drive. After a little over 10 hours, Paul had a completely defragmented drive and noted "that was with 6% free space."

He expressed disappointment with the other product he tried, not so much for the fact it wasn't able to defragment the drive, but the fact that the other product was not upfront about needing 15 - 20% free space and having to do multiple passes.

Here's a message you'll find in other products, but not in PerfectDisk:

     "Free space on this volume is low. Take actions to free more disk space."

Nor will you see this message in PerfectDisk:

"The free space on this volume was very low (10%), making it difficult to defragment the volume."

But you'll see it elsewhere.

5 percent - that's all PerfectDisk needs. And that separates it from other defragmenters.

A good place for video news and tips

I know we have a lot of PerfectDisk users who do great work (and have great fun) with video. Just a quick note to make you aware of an interesting site updated daily on industry news and video tips, tricks and techniques. It's presented via a Vidcast at Videomaker Magazine's website.

All you video enthusiasts might want to check it out.

Product Activation -- followup

A brief followup to my post last week about product activation. As I wrote previously, it's not for us. And despite what those who implement it might say, the general consensus is that it is NOT to prevent piracy. Programs are going to be hacked. It's to prevent the casual copying.

As Brian Livingston, co-author with Paul Thurrott of "Windows Vista Secrets" notes, Microsoft invoked product activation almost solely to prevent individuals from installing a single copy of Windows on more than one PC and does nothing to prevent mass piracy. He notes that Vista's product activation is even less effective than the version of the technology used in previous Windows versions. Or as an IT manager noted in a recent Tech Republic article -- "piracy is pretty easy and will ALWAYS be around." Or an IT consultant noting in Tech Republic that Vista was cracked less than a month after its release. Or similar comments like "sheer madness" and "XP forever!" As Gartner analyst Chris LeTocq notes - Microsoft's product activation scheme is aimed at halting "casual copying" more than software piracy.

So when you hear a vendor speak of their humbleness with regards to product activation, check your wallet. Buyer beware...

Game time -- hope you've defragged

One of the benefits of PerfectDisk's Space Restoration Technology is the large chunks of free space made available through single-pass free space consolidation. While some are not bothered by a defragmenter that continually monitors your system and is often running in the background, many appreciate PerfectDisk's ability to defragment all files and consolidate free space when you want it to.

Take PerfectDisk user David Narbutus, an intense gamer (as well as video editor). One of the things he likes best about PerfectDisk is that even after several hours of intense gaming, his drive does not have much fragmentation. Why? Because the free space is so-well consolidated that files remain intact, even new files. That's not the case with any other defragger, built into Windows or otherwise.

So whether you're playing World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Eve Online, or any of the top MMORPGs, make sure you defragment regularly to achieve your best gaming experience. As the WoW support site states, defragmenting is important for peak performance of your system.

Stay on top of your game, defrag today.

Independent experts, real world answers -- Got PerfectDisk?

According to Microsoft, Microsoft MVPs are "a highly select group of experts that represent the technical community's best and brightest, and they share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others." At Raxco Software, we are fortunate to have an MVP on our staff - Greg Hayes. Greg's MVP area-of-expertise is the NTFS file system. As the only defragmentation vendor with an MVP on its staff, Greg not only is able to share his expertise with others around the world, but he maintains close ties to other MVPs and Microsoft technical experts, which helps him further add to his and Raxco's body of knowledge.

Greg just returned from the annual MVP Global Summit in Seattle and the Microsoft Redmond campus. The event included hundreds of technical sessions and a keynote address by Bill Gates. Greg is anxious to share his findings and we're anxious to hear all about it back here at Raxco headquarters. One thing we knew already is that there are a lot of MVPs who are diehard PerfectDisk fans. We knew that even before Greg headed out to Seattle, as we regularly here from them. If you go to Google and search the newsgroups, you'll see there are lots of MVPs recommending PerfectDisk for their defrag needs. Several of them, like John Barnett, recommend PerfectDisk in their blogs.

No surprise there...they are, as Microsoft says, a group that shares "a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others." 

Product Activation -- not for us

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 or other products. There are many articles and writings that lambast the practice. 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 is growing so fast and PerfectDisk sales are going up and up.

March Madness -- IT style

Here in the United States, we are about to embark on a 3-week "festival" dubbed March Madness - a series of often thrilling college basketball games, usually punctuated by upsets of well-known teams by underdog schools that few people have heard of or are familiar with. And for the few days before the tournament starts tomorrow, there's a lot of discussion and there are lots of arguments about which teams were invited to the tournament (65 in all) and which were left out. A committee of a few members makes the decision on who to invite. There are always disputes over a few teams left out that people feel should have been invited.

While I have my own disagreements with some of the teams left out, I was intrigued by a comment the selection committee's leader, Gary Walters, said in defense of the disputed selections: "You've heard me say from time to time if you torture the numbers long enough, you can get them to confess to anything."

This statement is true for a lot of things, including purported market shares reported by IT companies. Raxco Software sells its products, including PerfectDisk, through a wide range of channels. We have a direct sales force that deals with enterprise customers as well as small- and medium-sized businesses. We have a partner program whereby resellers work with our channel team to purchase products and then sell to their customers. We work with resellers such as CDW, Insight, ASAP and others, along with distributor Ingram Micro, for customers that choose to purchase PerfectDisk through those channels. We have resellers around the world who work directly with us to bring PerfectDisk to their customers. And we have a huge ecommerce business that is growing rapidly and meets the needs of consumers, small businesses, and large enterprises.

This wide range of sources is just one reason why, for example, leading market intelligence firm IDC does not report on disk defragmentation market share. It does not have the necessary information to make an accurate determination. Their analysts do understand the issue, and occassionally report on it.

Rather than be potentially bamboozled by numbers and slight-of-hand marketing, do what today's savvy professionals and consumers do, including enterprise IT managers and thousands of Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) around the world. Evaluate for yourself, check newsgroups, and see what real people are doing and using.

That way, you won't be tortured by the numbers.