Raxco's PerfectDisk Defragmenter

Disk drives continue to grow in capacity, and the growing size and quantity of digital files means that you need more frequent access to larger files. In a commercial environment, files may be located on a server, desktop, or laptop, and copying files between locations only adds to the drive traffic. Increased drive traffic leads to increased fragmentation on drives as the free areas are available for new files continues to shrink.

Most users don't really understand why defragmenting a drive is a good thing. However even if they comprehend the benefits of defragmenting their drives on a regular basis, the likelihood of them actually running the defrag program is as likely as their creating regular backups.

Microsoft's Disk Defragment tool can make a difference to system performance if it is used, but true management of the process is nearly impossible because the program lacks critical management features like remote configuration and installation. Raxco's PerfectDisk is specifically designed to deliver highly optimized defragmentation on a full range of Windows operating systems across organizations running as few as one PC up to those that have thousands installed.

Ease of installation

Installation of PerfectDisk on a single PC is simple, requiring only the insertion of the CD and running the wizard. Happily, installation on multiple PCs is almost as simple, and what makes it that way is its flexibility in using standard remote/network installation facilities you may already be using. PerfectDisk integrates with Microsoft's Active Directory Group Policy, Windows Installer, Systems Management Server, and can be deployed through most third-party systems by using PerfectDisk's command line interface.I installed PerfectDisk on two computers and was able to view and manage the second PC from my Windows XP Pro system. The fact that an administrator is not limited to performing management functions from any one particular PC can be a liberating experience. From the remote management console, I was able to check the status of the remote computer's disks and change scheduling and other performance factors.

Scheduling is easy, partly because PerfectDisk includes its own scheduler. In contrast, the Windows Disk Defragmenter needs to be scheduled using either the Windows or a third party scheduler, making setup less than simple for end users and administrators alike. The system's scheduler wizard walked me through the process of setting up multiple schedules. It also allows scheduling for groups of connected computers.

Timing your defragmentations

For most desktop computers, a daily or weekly defrag is appropriate, but for systems with critical time and performance demands, running a defrag unnecessarily can interfere with normal operations. I set up PerfectDisk's threshold control to skip the defrag process unless the drive was more than 10 percent fragmented. That let me schedule daily occurrences that only execute when fragmentation justified.The first defragmentation process ran in about 40 minutes on my 70-GB drive and was able to pull the free space together into a few relatively large sections. Next, I opted to perform a boot-time defrag to further clean up the file system. When a defrag is done before the OS and applications are loaded, the system files (swap, page, meta info, etc.) are available to be moved and optimized. After completing the boot time defrag, the number of groups of free space were reduced by about half, and each was much larger than before.

Additionally, larger segments of free space allow for better placement of new and changed files, meaning they are less likely to start life as fragmented files.

With regard to performance, boot time on my most frequently used computer dropped to nearly half its previous time. My casual testing produced a better startup time in most applications, particularly for Outlook.

PerfectDisk sells for $50 for standalone versions and $250 for a single server version. Keeping all the drives in your organization optimized without putting in a lot of time managing them may keep your users happier as their systems maintain some of the performance they had when first installed.0