Defrag a Computer

Defrag a computer and do a PC tuneup like a Microsoft MVP

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

I've done MVP stories in this space from time to time. As a refresher, a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) is someone recognized by Microsoft for technical excellence and more. According to Microsoft, MVPs "freely share their deep knowledge, real-world experience, and impartial, objective feedback to help people enhance the way they use technology. Of more than 100 million users who participate in technology communities, around 4,000 are recognized as Microsoft MVPs. MVPs are independent experts who are offered a close connection with people at Microsoft."

That explanation is just one example of why thousands of Microsoft employees' PCs, laptops and servers are defragmented by PerfectDisk - they're often on the lookout for the top defrag software. In any event, it was nice to hear last week from Dudley Henriques, recently retired professional pilot and Microsoft MVP.

Dudley explains his use of PerfectDisk and why he thinks it's the best disk defrag software:

"As a retired professional pilot active both as a flight safety advisor to the Warbird display flying community and to the flight simulation community on realism, fidelity, authenticity, and accuracy, my computer systems need to be in top notch condition at all times. My work in the simulation industry involves highly detailed testing of new add-on aircraft, where files and folders are being constantly worked, altered, moved about on the system, added to, and deleted. It doesn't take long in my job to turn an organized computer into a computer deeply fragmented and in serious need of a PC tune up.

"I've used most of the major computer maintenance software at one time or another, trying to find the very best to suit my needs. My choice of software that does the job for me since 2006 has been PerfectDisk from Raxco Software. To put it bluntly and in plain language, Raxco software works. Once installed, PerfectDisk has never once failed to meet my rigid expectation demanding maximum performance. It's simple to use, and it's rock solid dependable.

"I've been recommending Raxco products since the day I discovered them in 2006. In my opinion, you can't buy a better product to keep a computer clean and running properly as it should."

The best disk defrag? For Dudley Henriques, and thousands of Microsoft MVPs, it's PerfectDisk.

VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Shadow Copy (also called Volume Snapshot Service or VSS) is a feature introduced with Windows Server 2003 and made available in Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. VSS allows taking manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of a file or folder on a specific volume at a specific point in time. VSS is used by backup software providers, including System Restore in Windows 7 and Vista, and provides previous versions of files for Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows 7/Vista.

When VSS is enabled on a drive, VSS may detect defrag activity as changes to the drive and attempt to replicate those changes (MS KB article 312067). Depending on the amount of data that VSS attempts to replicate, Shadow Copies/Restore Points may be purged or "dropped". This means that previous versions of files may no longer be available or Restore Points may be purged. If a VSS enabled drive has been formatted with a cluster size of 16K or larger (default cluster size is 4k), VSS has the ability to detect defragmentation activity and minimize replication - reducing (but possibly not eliminating) the number of Shadow Copies/Restore Points that may be purged.

Today, PerfectDisk can be configured to detect if VSS is enabled on a drive and to take appropriate action. By default, if VSS is configured on a drive and the cluster size is less than 16k, then PerfectDisk will defragment in VSS compatible mode. If VSS is configured on a drive and the cluster size is less than 16k, then PerfectDisk can also be configured to not defragment the VSS enabled drive at all or to defragment the VSS enabled drive normally.
If PerfectDisk is configured to Stop if any Shadow Copies exist, PerfectDisk will NOT defragment the drive at all.
If PerfectDisk is configured to perform normal defragmentation, it may result in Shadow Copies/Restore Points being purged as defragmentation is performed. When configured to defragment in VSS compatible mode and the drive cluster size is less than 16k, PerfectDisk limits the number of files "moved" during the defragmentation pass so that purging of Shadow Copies/Restore Points is minimized. For VSS enabled drives where the cluster size is 16K or larger, PerfectDisk defragments drives normally.
Note that when PerfectDisk defragments a drive in VSS compatibility mode, it may not defragment files/free space as completely as it normally does.

What was just described is current PerfectDisk behavior. But some users, particularly power users, may want more control over their VSS environment. Like the ability to specify a percentage threshold on a drive that limits how much of the drive will can be defragmented, to minimize the purging of Shadow Copies/Restore Points even more than is currently available.

As always, we're looking to put more into an auto defrag. For those that want to defrag a computer with more flexibility and control than a standard auto defrag can provide.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. March 2010.

eWeek's 25 technologies that changed the decade -- plus defrag

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

eWeek Labs recently put together a list of the 25 Technologies That Changed the Decade, an interesting list of hardware, software, applications and more "that have changed the way we work, play and live" over the last 10 years. I guess since Windows defrag software has been around more than a decade, and defrag programs in general have been around for much more than that, the simple yet important task to defrag a computer was nowhere to be found (insert smirk here).

But I was interested to see how much defrag programs touched on many of the 25 technologies. While the expected flashy consumer products were on the list, including the iPhone, iPod and other smart phones, several back-end technologies that power our world of technology were also there, and disk defrag software played a role with those technologies. From multicore processors to netbooks to blade servers to virtualization to Windows XP, PerfectDisk is there to help these technologies work better. Whether it's a faster PC startup or the need to speed up PC performance or a server defrag to ensure a mission critical application runs fast and efficiently, auto defrag has played a role.

Regarding the 25th spot, it seemed a bit amusing to see Windows XP listed, since the flashier and well-received Windows 7 seems a more likely candidate. But as the article states, "Windows XP is certainly the most dominant operating system of the decade." I can see some merit in that selection.

You can read the entire article here and compare it with your Top 25.

Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Photgraph of Muhammad Ali standing over a prostrate Sonny Liston

While reasonable people can argue the merits of using freeware to defrag a computer or to defrag a file, if that capability exists in the particular defragmentation software, no such arguments exist when it comes to enterprise defragmentation. The choice becomes greatly limited. The freeware utilities, the built-in Windows defragmenter, and even most of the chargeable ones are simply not designed for enterprise defragmentation.

Putting aside for a moment the actual quality, flexibility and customization capabilities of the defrag program to improve PC performance, a large enterprise or even relatively small business has a lot more to worry about to ensure successful enterprise defragmentation. Installation and deployment across the organization to the required PCs and servers. Configuration and management. And reporting. Any good administrator requires full reporting capabilities to have a handle on the status of his or her enterprise. And better yet, be able to be proactive. Which is why PerfectDisk provides an elaborate alerting and warning system for administrators within the PerfectDisk Enterprise Console.

And now comes Remote Free Space Management, a shot in the arm to IT administrators responsible for enterprise defrag. It allows IT administrators to generate detailed reports on disk use, including graphical representations of storage usage. This new functionality provides significant improvements over Windows Storage Server Reports, providing not just data, but actionable reports. For instance, you can run a Duplicate File Report in Storage Server, but it does not allow you to remotely identify and execute duplicate file removals across the enterprise. PerfectDisk does.

Enterprise defragmentation evolved. March 2010.

Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

With every new release of PerfectDisk, we're always working on performance improvements for a fast defrag, regardless of whatever other features we add. As files and drives get larger and larger, it's always a challenge. But we've always been able to point to some performance gains between versions. Some of these improvements have been more noticeable in particular environments (e.g. large drives, drives with limited free space) than othersbut they're always there to help with fast defragmentation.

This go around, we've made some fundamental changes to the analysis operation in PerfectDisk - it goes beyond a tweak here and a tweak there. I can throw out numbers of several hundred percent, but the truth is, when you defrag a computer, data like this always varies depending on the environment -- number of files, drive size, file size, etc. But I am very confident that just about everyone, if not everyone, will notice a significant change for the good in analyze time of PerfectDisk. Whether you'd doing a Windows 7 defrag or any other Windows environment.

In test after test, it's faster....no doubt.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11. Coming March 2010.

2009 -- more than fast defragmentation and disk cleanup tools

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

Defrag this, defrag that. Fast defragmentation. Defrag a computer, defrag a server. Disk cleanup tools. Okay, even I need an occasional break from defrag banter!

So, to lighten up as the year winds down, here are a couple of "undrag" things for your entertainment:

Wave goodbye to 2009 -- click here.



JibJab -- never a year like '09 -- click here.

Thanks again for all the support in 2009 - and don't forget to defrag Windows one last time!

Saved One Guy a Bundle

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Bob Nolan

I was recently invited to speak at a VMware User Group meeting about the impact of file and free space fragmentation in a virtual environment. Before I started the presentation I asked the audience how many had ever defragmented a physical server and about 30% raised their hand. Then I asked how many had ever defragmented a virtual server and about 10% raised their hand. This is a pretty typical response.

Systems administrators running virtual machines seem to overlook the fact that each virtual machine is running its own version of Windows Server and within that machine NTFS is busy fragmenting files and free space. While fragmentation is a performance-stealing problem on physical servers, the problem is compounded on virtual machines where each virtual instance is competing for a finite amount of resources. This leads to resource contention between Windows guests and, with Hyper-V, contention between the Windows guests and the host. It is essential to keep the files defragmented and the free space consolidated on Windows guests to maximize performance and minimize resource contention in a virtual world.

After my presentation one attendee told me his company was having performance issues with several of their virtual servers. They were looking at upgrading the hardware and bringing in a consultant. He knew these virtual machines were frequently updating files, the kind of activity that produces fragmentation, but he never thought of fragmentation as the problem. After sitting through my presentation he was convinced fragmentation was the culprit and we just saved them a lot of unnecessary expense. In complex technical environments it is easy to overlook the obvious when looking for a solution. Sometimes you just need to defrag a computer to get a lot more out of it, and that includes VM's.

Camcorder Buyer's Guide -- roll tape! And defrag after editing

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

My favorite video magazine, Videomaker, has its annual Camcorder Buyer's Guide out in the just-released December edition. And as the guide's author Randy Hansen states, "in video, if there's one constant, it's change." Like so much of electronics, do you buy today or wait a few months for the price to drop and/or for extra storage and capabilities to be added.

It's a very comprehensive guide, covering a wide range of camcorders, including those that start as low as $50 and skyrocket to the "if you have to ask" range. For me - I'm asking...and I have to! And there are lots of choices in the various categories - not like the choices for defragmenting a computer, of which I find very few if any (insert grin).

But unlike a disk defrag utility, where you'll receive regular updates to the software, a camcorder is typically an investment that you will hold onto for quite a long time, as is - barring add-on accessories.

We get emails from people every week who are video editors and videographers of all types - just starting out and professionals. The more anyone performs video editing on their computer, the more they realize the importance of a disk defragmenter program like PerfectDisk. The video editing gets them better videos; disk defragmentation makes it all easier, from a faster PC to better use of their PC's space through free space consolidation and things like duplicate file removal. It really acts as a disk cleanup program as well.

If this upcoming holiday shopping season includes shopping for a camcorder, I'd recommend taking a look at this guide before you spend your money. And of course, once you start taking those videos and editing and storing them, I'd recommend maximizing your investment with the necessary software to keep your computer performing like new.

You can see the entire roundup here.

Computerworld et al - shrink drive and migrate to Windows 7 with PerfectDisk

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

Rick Broida, writing last week in PC World in an article also picked up by Computerworld, Network World, InfoWorld, The Industry Standard and more, describes his moving to Windows 7 from Vista on a new hard drive partition. Because Rick wanted to get more "shrinkage" on his drive than Disk Management would give him, he "turned to PerfectDisk, a drive defragmentation program that can perform the all-important function of moving system files to the beginning of the partition, thus freeing up much more of the available space."

This is just another benefit of PerfectDisk's free space consolidation available through its Space Restoration Technology. Defragmenting software that can also provides disk space management such as shrinking a drive effiently. If you're moving to Windows 7, you'll need more than the built-in Windows 7 defrag utility to effectively shrink your drives, just as you did with Vista. With PerfectDisk, you can do more than defrag a computer.

A lot more.