PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

Are you ready for some football? Ready for Madden NFL 08? Get your best game performance

Here in the United States, summer is winding down, and that means (American) football season is gearing up. While baseball has long been romanticized as this country's national pastime, it is now pretty much recognized that football is the most popular sport here. And one of the most popular video games ever is Madden NFL 08. The 18th installment of this wildly successful game was released earlier this month.

For those playing Madden NFL 08 on the Windows platform, one of the keys to maximizing performance and enjoyment of the game is to get the most out of your PC. With 2GB of hard drive space required, there is plenty of opportunity for systems to become fragmented and bogged down. With PerfectDisk's single-pass defrag, SMARTPlacement optimization, and complete free space consolidation through Space Restoration Technology, PerfectDisk can put the zip back into your game. As self-described "NFL Madden freak" Dan Rothberg told us, "I installed Madden 08, then defragmented my drive with PerfectDisk, then got playing - fast as can be with my system humming!"

Get to the end zone, put up your goal line stand -- make sure your files and free space are in the best shape possible. Maximize your Madden NFL 08 performance.

                               

The trouble with...

Just when you thought you've seen all the Vista bashing there is, eWeek comes out this week with "The Trouble with Vista" slideshow, outlining 12 reasons why Vista is struggling, along with 5 fixes to address its current state. While it was all interesting to me, a couple of reasons in particular caught my eye, because they parallel the world of enterprise and power user defragmentation.

#6 Cost. "Microsoft went for what consumers would buy rather than what they needed." We believe in a fair value, which is why PerfectDisk Pro and Server give what we believe is the best value. Not only a better price, but not hidden costs or nickel and diming for particular features. So nothing extra for things like large drive support, Space Restoration Technology, customizable scheduling, and more...and even a free management console. 

#7. Slow performance even on high-end systems. eWeek points out that "gamers are disabling many features on Vista in order to improve the game performance." Well, one thing we do know is that whether running XP or Vista, gamers playing World of Warcraft, Half Life 2, and others are using PerfectDisk to improve their games' performance, as are enterprises to improve server, desktop and laptop performance.

And one fix in particular caught my eye:

Fix #2 Package all features for one reasonable price. See Reason #6 above. No extra charges for features. Here's the price, here are all the features - no games on the price.

Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Watch is quoted as saying that "no amount of marketing is going to fix" the Vista issues.

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."  -- Warren Buffett

                     

                  

Virtualization -- Server? Desktop? Both....

This week's Information Week cover story on "The Future of Virtualization" analyzed the recent big virtualization news - VMware's IPO and Citrix Systems' acquisition of XenSource - and how it would play out in the market over the coming months and years. While most of the action these days is on the server side, many believe that over the long term, the really big opportunities will be on the client (i.e. desktop or laptop) side.

In either scenario, defragmentation of virtual machines - including free space consolidation - is important as one key piece of ensuring optimal performance in a virtual environment. Which is why PerfectDisk's Space Restoration Technology is a key part of many enterprises' virtualization implementation today. Without total free space consolidation, complete defragmentaiton of physical and virtual drives doesn't happen.

Believing otherwise is really - not virtually - a mistake.

                         

GUI-less installation for secured environments

Some of our large enterprise customers have a secured, "locked down" environment where users are kept on a short leash. With PerfectDisk, these users are able to install PerfectDisk across the organization without the GUI present on the users' machines. In these scenarios, the enterprise receives the benefits of automated, single-pass defragmentation and free space consolidation, without any GUI exposure to the user community. In these environments, only administrators can schedule or initiate defragmentation. No other enterprise defragmenter offers this capability.

Not for everyone, but very powerful and important for some.

             

Coming home from Baghdad -- Tom and PerfectDisk

As I wrote on July 18th, PerfectDisk user Tom R. is using our defrag tool to keep his laptop in top shape as he patrolled the streets of Baghdad. Well, Tom last week reported some exciting news, as he emailed me with a subject line of "the end is near!". Tom writes:

"We are very (oh so very) close to end of operations for us in Iraq! After leaving Baghdad for awhile, we are heading back soon (yay), and then home sometime between the 11th and 18th of September. I'll find out when exactly as the date draws near. I can't wait!"

From the entire PerfectDisk family, Godspeed, Tom.

            

Technology with attitude

Serving the IT community, BLORGE.com has a mission to provide, in its words, "gutsy, honest and informed coverage and comment on key technology news and issues, without fear or favor." BORGE wants to "inform, stimulate and entertain readers and provide them with a fresh, independent perspective - technology with attitude."

Here's a new, interesting review on PerfectDisk they did.

                

PerfectDisk Rx Suite now available in French and German

PerfectDisk Rx Suite, our popular PC health tool for the novice user, now has French and German versions available. The demand for this tool has been very strong, so this will help address a couple of additional important markets. PerfectDisk Rx Suite includes a defrag piece, without offline defrag, but with Stealth Patrol automatic defragmentation and AutoPiot Scheduling, as well as a registry cleaner, duplicate file remover, trace eraser, and tweaker.

VMware goes IPO -- users go PD and SRT

Yesterday was a big day for VMware. As the undisputed leader in virtualization technology, the company had its Initial Public Offering and raised probably a billion dollars or so. It was to be offered at a price of around $29 a share, and ended the day up over $50 a share, even as most of the US stock market took a nosedive. This illustrates how hot the virtualization market is right now. It's one big reason so many companies and organizations are utilizing PerfectDisk and its Space Restoration Technology for total defragmentation of disk drives.

Without comprehensive free space consolidation, you're not maximizing the performance of your virtual machines.

          

Whether scrubbing or wiping, make sure you're defragging when you're editing videos

                

There are several video magazines on the newstands and available for subscription, but my favorite is Videomaker. Every issue has something for video editors of all skill levels, from novice to expert. The September issue (not on newstands yet) has an article on video jargon - a list of common computer video editing terms. Since we have so many video editors who use PerfectDisk, I thought I would point out this handy glossary. The magazine also has some interesting instructional books and videos available through their store.

               

You can't bend it like Beckham if you don't play the game

Our home town of Washington, DC has been buzzing about the arrival of David Beckham to town and wondering if he would play last night against D.C. United. He did, so the 46,000 people who went to RFK Stadium got their money's worth - plus the home team won.

The event got me thinking of the movie Bend It Like Beckham, and the tricky way Beckam is known for curving his ball through the air to score a goal. Not easy, so most won't try. I thought of that a couple of days ago as I read a "white paper" distributed by another company that seemed to be trying to curve a story. But just as no "goal" was scored a few years ago when the attempt was made to distort fact, trotting that old pony out for another shot at it won't work this time.

Here's the story, or curve ball. It tries to say that free space consolidataion is a waste of time and resources, doesn't really matter all that much and doesn't buy you anything. Uh...right. I guess that's why left out of the story was that Microsoft recognizes the importance of free space consolidation, Microsoft MVPs recognize it, and just about everyone else does. This one must have slipped by the editors; or perhaps it's true that there are some dogs who can't be taught new tricks, so they try the same old ones. Didn't fly a few years ago, won't fly in 2007.

Only David can bend it like Beckham.