By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator
Golden Triangle PC Club
March 2008

Program Overview

Diskeeper 2008 is the newest edition of this marvelous program that focuses on an important area of computer maintenance, namely the defragmentation of hard drives.

About File Fragmentation

The term disk fragmentation means two things:

 a condition in which pieces of individual files on a disk volume are not contiguous, but rather are broken up and scattered around the disk; and

 a condition in which the free space on a disk volume consists of little pieces of space here and there rather than a few large free spaces.

The effects of excessive fragmentation are twofold as well:

 file access takes longer because a file must be collected in pieces here and there, requiring several disk accesses instead of just one; and

 file creations take longer because space for the file must be allocated in little pieces here and there instead of just one contiguous allocation.

The bottom line is fragmentation slows Windows system performance. The longer you wait to defragment your disk volumes, the slower your computer runs.

With Diskeeper, all the volumes in a Windows operating system can be kept defragmented indefinitely. Diskeeper cleans them up and keeps them that way. This includes volumes with compressed, encrypted and sparse files on NTFS volumes. Running either invisibly as a background process or as a manual defragmenter, Diskeeper carefully rearranges files and free space on a disk volume so they consist of as few pieces as possible.

Diskeeper runs when other processes are active on the computer, so there is no need to lock users off a disk while it is being defragmented. The end result: Your computer will run faster when Diskeeper is enabled.

Your PC will run better, faster and more reliably with Diskeeper installed.

What's New?

Breakthrough Technology! InvisiTasking
—InvisiTasking is the foundation for up-to-the-moment defragmentation that does not drain system resources. The cutting-edge InvisiTasking technology monitors resources and makes certain only unused, untapped resources are drawn on to defragment your system. Systems always run at peak performance, even when Diskeeper is solving fragmentation.

Exclusive! Real-time Defragmentation
—Handle fragmentation as it occurs, providing maximum speed and performance at all times!

NEW! Complete File and Free Space Defragmentation
—Defragment in the most extreme of conditions—even if your systems have as little as 1 percent free space available or if a file is split in millions of fragments, Diskeeper 2008 will restore lost performance and protect against system errors.

NEW! "Defragmentation Intelligence" Enhancements
—Diskeeper monitors and analyzes each drive, then chooses a defragmentation strategy specific to the needs of that drive. Every drive is defragmented using the best method possible.

NEW! Frag Shield 2.0
—Boosts reliability and availability by automatically preventing crash-inducing fragmentation of critical system files.

Exclusive! I-FAAST 2.0
(Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology) automatically boosts access speeds for the most commonly used files.

NEW! Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Compatibility Mode
—Diskeeper works intimately with the automatic backup system already on your PC. VSS compatibility mode means, Diskeeper does not damage your ability to recover lost files and does not take up valuable free space with unnecessary file information.

Native 64 Bit Operating Systems Support

BOOT-TIME MODE

Safely performs Microsoft-recommended defragmentation of critical system files.

Network Management Support
—Control Diskeeper settings and functionality via Diskeeper Administrator edition or Group Policy

Diskeeper 2008 marks the release of the first-ever truly automatic defragmenter. Through the use of InvisiTasking technology, Diskeeper 2008 defragments on the fly, in real time with no drain on system resources and will make your system run faster and more reliably than it ever has before. Fragmentation-related problems such as slowdowns, long waits, freeze-ups, crashes and failures will be a thing of the past.

Speed up Your Systems With New Diskeeper 2008!

Disk fragmentation causes crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures. The number one reason for performance bottlenecks is fragmentation. Even the best hardware will eventually slow down when fragmentation is left unchecked. The disk drive is by far the slowest of the three main components of your computer: CPU, memory and disk.

The Diskeeper Corporation has long realized that new operating systems and larger systems have more files, so fragmentation is actually more of a problem now than it ever has been. Defragmentation really needs to be done daily and manual daily defragmentation is an impossible task. Given this, the only real workable solution is an automatic defragmenter.

Manual defragmentation just isn't practical— the built-in defragmenter takes many minutes to hours to run. The built-in defragmenter requires that you keep track of fragmentation levels, determine when performance has gotten so bad you have to do something about it, and then manually defragment each drive using the built-in defragmentation tool.

Without Diskeeper's "Set It and Forget It" automatic scheduling your computer will slow down.

With Diskeeper, you never need to worry about fragmentation-related slowdowns and crashes, because Diskeeper handles the problem for you. Diskeeper 2008 keeps your systems running as fast as they did when they were brand-new.

One of the major reasons for sluggish server performance is due to file fragmentation. File fragmentation occurs on servers just as this happens on individual workstations, but when this happens on servers the implications are greatly multiplied compared with the issues on a single machine.

When a computer file is created and saved, it is stored on the hard disk in contiguous clusters. When the file is later read, the read-write head in the disk drive moves directly from one cluster to another on a single track. The head stays in one place over that track and reads the file as the disk moves beneath it. As more files are written to the disk, they are also laid out in contiguous clusters.

As files are erased, their clusters are made available again as free space. Eventually, some newly created files become larger than the remaining contiguous free space. These files are then broken up and randomly placed throughout the disk. As the file creation, editing, and deleting processes continue, fragmentation becomes pronounced, exacting a progressively serious toll on system performance.

Without file fragmentation, large amounts of disk space would remain unutilized. Disk storage capacity is greatly expanded by allowing files to be split into smaller pieces that can be randomly placed on whatever clusters are available. If the file fragments fall into largely contiguous clusters, there is minimal performance impact. If fragments are placed in non-contiguous blocks, this results in a significant degradation in system performance. This is because the disk's read/write head must jump from track to track to find all the pieces of the file and reassemble these pieces into a single file. This results in disk latency and overall system slow down. 

As new files are created and older files are either edited or deleted, the situation rapidly deteriorates. Eventually, virtually every file becomes heavily fragmented. Files that once took a second or two to open have been reported at taking 10 to 15 times longer to access, due to heavy fragmentation. Boot time has tripled in some cases, and nightly back-ups have been extended by hours.

In the case of Win NT/2000/XP/Vista, excessive disk fragmentation can create substantial performance degradation on both servers and workstations across a site. Buying more expensive hardware is a cover to what may be actually happening on a heavily fragmented drive. 

The answer to this reality of how computers work is to run some sort of system defragmentation procedure, to try and "clean up" this fragmented file mess. On standard workstations running Windows XP and Vista, the individual user can look to the defragmentation utility already built into their operating system, the Microsoft defragmentation utility, that basically does a good job for these stand-alone machines.

As is the case with any entrepreneur, problems are always opportunities, and this is certainly the case with this super utility from the Diskeeper Corporation, Diskeeper 2008.

Diskeeper 2008 Home Edition

Diskeeper 2008 Home edition puts your PC in the driver’s seat, allowing you to enjoy unprecedented performance and reliability while you work, browse and play. Fragmented hard drives drain critical system resources and compromise almost every aspect of daily computer use, leading to longer load times, persistent lags and costly crashes. Diskeeper 2008 Home shifts your system into high gear, ensuring that all your programs are running at peak performance.

The Breakthrough Of InvisiTasking InvisiTasking's true transparent, background processing technology allows Diskeeper 2008 to defragment your computer in real-time, completely eliminating the need for cumbersome maintenance operations.

Free up gridlocked resources and let your computer hum along at peak performance while you work, browse and play. Diskeeper 2008 Home enhances the reliability and performance of your computer—automatically!

Increase Computer Speed
Your computer will run faster with Diskeeper 2008 installed - period. You’ll enjoy using every aspect of your system, from downloading to accessing files to surfing the web with greater ease and efficiency. Leave hang-times, freeze-ups and other fragmentation-based crashes in the dust.

Diskeeper 2008 - A Disk Performance Revolution Diskeeper 2008 Home is unlike any other product on the market today. Now, more than ever, it is important to have a system that is reliable and performs at the peak of its ability.

Remember how your PC or laptop ran when it was new? Diskeeper 2008 has been designed to keep your system faster than new, making it the ideal choice for your home. Simply install Diskeeper 2008 and your computer will run faster and more reliably than it ever has before.

Diskeeper 2008 Professional Edition

Diskeeper 2008 Professional edition puts your system in the driver’s seat, allowing you to enjoy unprecedented performance and reliability while you work. Fragmented hard drives drain critical system resources and compromise almost every aspect of daily computer use, leading to longer load times, persistent lags and costly crashes.

Diskeeper 2008 elevates system performance, debugging fragmentation-based problems as they occur, without ever compromising vital system resources, even during times of heaviest demand.

The Breakthrough Of InvisiTasking
InvisiTasking's true transparent, background processing technology allows Diskeeper 2008 to defragment your computer in real-time, completely eliminating the need for cumbersome maintenance operations.

Free up gridlocked resources and let your computer hum along at peak performance while you work. Diskeeper 2008 Professional enhances the reliability and performance of your computer—automatically!

Increase Computer Speed
Your computers will run faster with Diskeeper 2008 installed—period. You’ll enjoy using every aspect of your system—from downloading to accessing files to surfing the web with greater ease and efficiency. Leave hang-times, freeze-ups and other fragmentation-based crashes in the dust.

Diskeeper 2008: A Disk Performance Revolution Diskeeper 2008 Professional is unlike any other product on the market today. Now, more than ever, it is important to have a system that is reliable and performs at the peak of its ability.

Remember how your PC or laptop ran when it was new? Diskeeper 2008 has been designed to keep your system faster than new. Simply install Diskeeper 2008 and your computer will run faster and more reliably than it ever has before.

The Power Of Frag Shield
Frag Shield 2.0 is a feature which dynamically prevents fragmentation of critical system files, maintaining system stability and reliability. It helps you configure your MFTs (Master File Tables - the place where information about every file and directory on an NTFS hard drive is stored) and paging files (a hidden file on your computer's hard disk that Windows XP & Vista uses as if it were RAM) as recommended by Microsoft. Following these guidelines will help you keep these critical system files working their best. Your system will not slow down from fragmented MFT's or paging files.

Frag Shield 2.0 is comprised of two components: the MFT configuration tool and the paging file configuration tool. These tools allow you to set up your MFT's and paging files so that fragmentation will be very unlikely to occur in the future.

Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition

Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer edition is top-speed cruise control for your Windows Home Server (WHS), allowing you to enjoy unprecedented performance and reliability for centralized applications and shared files. Fragmented hard drives drain critical system resources and compromise almost every aspect of daily computer use, leading to longer load times, persistent lags and costly crashes.

Diskeeper 2008 elevates system performance, debugging fragmentation-based problems as they occur, without ever compromising vital system resources, even when the whole family is connected to the computer.

The Breakthrough Of InvisiTasking
InvisiTasking's true transparent, background processing technology allows Diskeeper 2008 to defragment your computer in real-time, eliminating the need for cumbersome maintenance operations. You’ll never need to log in to your Windows Home Server to manage fragmentation again.

Free up gridlocked resources and let your computer hum along at peak performance while you work. Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer enhances the reliability and performance of your computer—automatically!

Increase Windows Home Server Reliability
Your Windows Home Server will run faster with Diskeeper 2008 installed—period. Hang-times, freeze-ups and other fragmentation-based crashes on your Home Server affect every other PC and laptop in your home. Fragment-free drives will ensure your gigabyte-sized movies stream to your video screen without a hitch.

Windows Home Server Console Integration
Only Diskeeper HomeServer includes full integration with the primary WHS management console. From any PC or laptop in your home you can adjust a setting, view the History graphs. Everything you need to do with Diskeeper is available here.

Super-Car Performance with Economy-Car Efficiency
Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer includes the advanced technology servers need to eliminate large-volume disk fragmentation.

Diskeeper 2008 Performance Reporting

You know fragmentation affects your computer’s performance – but how much? The new Performance Index shows you exactly how much speed is being lost to fragmentation – speed that can be restored by Diskeeper 2008.

Diskeeper 2008 Reliability Reporting

Fragmentation often occurs with important files that are used frequently by Windows. When the fragmentation of these files gets beyond a certain level, Windows begins to have trouble doing its normal, everyday work. Crashes and hangs can occur, leaving you open to loss of data and productivity.

Diskeeper will check for fragmentation on certain critical files used by Windows. It will then make an assessment as to how vulnerable your computer is, and will make recommendations for fixing the problem.

Safety Concerns

This is the highest priority in the design of Diskeeper 2008. No data is ever lost when using the program. Diskeeper uses the following criteria for accessing files:

Contents of data files are never modified
Only one file is processed at a time, not the whole disk
Each processing pass is independent of the other passes
No information is stored on any other device or in a storage space
No user access can conflict with the program
File relocation is aborted if any error is encountered

Convenience of Operations

While there is a defragmentation utility already built into Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Win XP, Diskeeper 2008 provides some important features that make it a superior defragmentation utility and that help save time when running this important utility.

You can schedule Diskeeper to run as a service in the background, and it is fully remote and operates automatically. The "set it and forget it" feature means you can schedule an automatic operation for any number of volumes/disks simultaneously across one machine, or a network.

With Smart Scheduling, you can dynamically configure your defragmentation schedule based on the condition of the disk, and you can schedule groups of disks of any size on any and all disk volumes on computers, workgroups or domains throughout the network. The program also enables direct connection to a specific computer on a network, and remote execution of all Diskeeper operations including analyzing and defragmenting disk volumes, setting schedules, configuring exclusion lists, and setting run priorities.

The speed is going to quickly be perceived as much faster than the standard Windows utility, possibly 300% to 500% faster, and the program runs in the background, does not lock disk volume, and runs by default as a low priority process.

In addition, Diskeeper can be run on one or more volumes simultaneously, and it includes a new boot-time defragmentation technology that will safely defragment system files in about the same time it takes for a typical system boot. Frag Guard helps prevent fragmentation in your MFT and Paging files, greatly reducing the need to defrag at boot-time, something not available in Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Win XP.

Basic Functions

When you first start the program, you will likely want to first analyze the fragmentation of your disk volumes, before defragmenting these. To do this, you click the Analyze button to run the analysis. The summary message provides a brief report of the findings, and then you can view a graphical display of the results that shows the degree of fragmentation in the Analysis Report. You can save the report for later reference, especially after you complete the defragmentation.

You click the Defragment button to start defragmenting the disk volume. All users should remember that running Diskeeper the first time may take considerably longer than the analysis if the disk volume is heavily fragmented. As with the standard approach to defragmenting any desktop machine, the more often you do this, the less time it takes to complete this process.

Once the defragmentation is completed, you can choose the View Report command to see the results which can be saved and printed.

There are three modes of operation. The Manual Defragmentation mode gives you direct control over Diskeeper operation. You have control over which disk volumes are defragmented, when defragmentation is started and stopped, and the priority at which Manual Defragmentation jobs run.

The "Set It and Forget It" mode allows the program to run automatically in the background, either after hours or while users and other processes are active on the system, in accordance with the predetermined schedule you set.

The Frag Guard feature not only adds MFT defragmentation, but it also provides for the prevention of MFT and paging file fragmentation online and the automatic scheduling of boot-time defragmentation.

Generally, you will want to analyze all the disk volumes on your computer when you first install Diskeeper, and then defragment these by running the program in Manual Defragmentation mode. This provides the fastest, highest-priority method for defragmenting the files and free space on the drive.

While the concept of computer networks is one thing, the reality of so many diverse types of machines and other nodes calling the server, or multitude of servers, is so dynamic, the use of this super utility on servers may best be started with a highly specified "test-run" approach, before turning over complete network defragmentation of all workstations to the program.

Targeted Customers

Diskeeper 2008 is a super utility for any computer owner, or network administrator, especially those supporting Windows NT 4.0 (SP 3 or higher), Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Vista machines, especially servers. With this program, now we have a much faster disk defragmenter program that has been specially designed to meet the more demanding needs of servers, while offering the value of keeping servers defragmented and the more efficient approach to defragmenting workstations on the network.

The National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) ran extensive testing of Diskeeper and found the program "was between three and five times faster than the standard Windows defragmenter when defragging drives. In addition, NSTL discovered that Diskeeper did a much more thorough job of defragging the test drives."

With the typical workstation user being less technically proficient with maintaining a defragmented operation than network staff, this program provides a server-side approach to defragmenting workstations that provides cost-effective results that are so important on any computer. For larger networks supporting even more workstations, network administrators would be wise to seriously consider multiple copies of Diskeeper, along with Diskeeper Server, to support the abundance of desktops across their entire system.

With the Desktop/Workstation version, individual computer users have a superior disk defragmenter to their existing utility already built into their operating system. While it is true that in Windows Vista Microsoft did improve their disk defragmenter utility, Diskeeper 2008 Professional provides many features that are not available in Windows Vista. These include a much faster defragmentation process, alone worth considering by any Windows XP user, but also smart scheduling, set it and forget it, scheduling exclusion periods, priority settings, exclusion lists, frag guard, large disk performance, and control of defragmentation job. These are but a few of the many features in Diskeeper owners of Windows XP will not see.

Any serious computer user will definitely want to give serious consideration to this super utility that will allow them to automatically maximize their system performance. Running Diskeeper is like hiring an expert to constantly monitor and maintain a system's maximum performance.

Price

$  29.95 Diskeeper 2008 Home Edition
$  49.95 Diskeeper 2008 Professional Edition
$  99.95 Diskeeper 2008 Professional Premier Edition
$  69.95 Diskeeper 2008 Home Server

Volume licensing is available for the server and the workstation products.

System Requirements

Windows Versions and Platforms Supported
Diskeeper runs on the Intel x86 platform (including Pentium and compatible CPUs from other manufacturers) running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, and Windows 2000 Professional or Server.

Note that Windows 2000 systems must be running Service Pack 3 or higher.

The Windows versions supported varies by Diskeeper edition.

File Systems Supported

Diskeeper supports the NTFS, FAT16 and FAT32 file systems available in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista.

Note that the 12-bit FAT file system is not supported. (The 12-bit FAT file system is used on FAT volumes smaller than 16 megabytes in size, such as floppy disks).

In addition, NTFS volumes formatted with a cluster size larger than 4 kilobytes are not supported (except on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista, which support cluster sizes up to 64 KB).

Disks Supported

Diskeeper supports a wide range of SCSI, IDE, PATA and SATA disks, including:
 Primary Partitions
 Extended Partitions
 Logical Drives
 Volume Sets
 RAID Arrays
 Mirrored Disks
 Mounted Volumes (letterless drives)

Resource Requirements

The disk space requirements for Diskeeper depend on several factors. On most systems, Diskeeper will need about 11MB. Allow about 10MB of extra free space for temporary files during the installation. If Internet Explorer is not present on your computer, some other needed files (hhupd.exe, 50comupd.exe, and wintdist.exe) may be added. Further, your system may require a new or updated version of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which is less than 6MB.

Additional Software Requirements

Diskeeper relies on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Built into Windows 2000 and later operating systems, the MMC provides a single point of control for system utilities such as Diskeeper. The MMC is used as a central location for a variety of Microsoft and third party administrative tools.

About Diskeeper Corporation

With over 29 million licenses sold, home users to large enterprise corporations rely on Diskeeper defragmentation software to provide unparalleled speed and reliability to their Windows-based laptops, desktops and servers. Common installation benefits include faster boot and load times, speeded anti-virus scans, backups or web browsing and boosted access times for Microsoft Outlook, Excel or Word applications. Reliability benefits include increased computer up time and extended lifespan up to 1 - 3 years. Diskeeper garnered 384 industry awards last year alone and, as of this writing, maintains an impressive 89.8% market share in units sold through distribution for System Utilities/General Disk Utilities.

Diskeeper Corporation further provides up-to-the-minute data protection and instant recovery of deleted files with Undelete. Undelete replaces the Windows recycle bin with a catch-all Recovery Bin that intercepts all deleted files, no matter how they were deleted or who deleted them. It is as simple as right-clicking the file, selecting "Recover" and the file is back. Version Protection also makes it easy for Undelete restore "saved over" versions of Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.

Products for VMS and OpenVMS on the VAX and Alpha platforms include Diskeeper, FragGuard, Filemaster and I/O Express.

Diskeeper Corporation (formerly Executive Software) was founded on July 22, 1981 by entrepreneur and humanitarian, Craig Jensen. Releasing his flagship defragmenter to an overwhelming public reception, the company soon exploded onto the computer marketplace, ranking on Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies in America for four years in a row.

By the early 1990s, Diskeeper became the best-selling third party software product of all time for Digital Equipment Corporation® business computers, placing the company on Software magazine’s list of the Top 100 Independent Software Companies in the World.

This caught the attention of Microsoft Corporation and soon afterwards Diskeeper Corporation formed a strategic partnership with them to release a Windows compatible version of its venerable Diskeeper defragmenter for the PC platform. This too went on to become the best-selling standalone defragmenter of its kind and, as of 2008 ,accounts for 99.2% of all 3rd party Windows defragmenter sales in the entirety of North America.

Diskeeper Corporation is a multi-national corporation with products distributed in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. European operations are overseen out of East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. International operations are headquartered in Burbank, California, USA.

Contact Information

Marcus Galindo
Director of Public Relations
Diskeeper Corporation
7590 North Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, California 91504
818-771-1600
FAX 818-252-5514
mgalindo@diskeeper.com
infodesk@diskeeper.com
www.diskeeper.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.