Defrag Windows 7

                         Welcome to PerfectDisk 11

                              www.perfectdisk.com

                                    
                    

• It's an 11 -- start your engines
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- What's New
• Windows 7 performance -- defrag to get it 
• It goes to 11 -- in 11 days
• Mini-sneak peek: a few few PerfectDisk 11 videos on the PerfectDiskNews YouTUbe Channel
• Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100
• VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control
• More than defrag -- to space and beyond
• Bipartisan support on the best defrag software -- from the defrag capital
• Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management
• A smarter way to speed up PC performance 
• Size matters; then again, it doesn't
• Exchange defrag software -- ready for Exchange 2010
• Look beneath the surface, clean your PC, shrink your drive
• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- Gearing up for Beta
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon

• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- What's New
• Windows 7 performance -- defrag to get it 
• It goes to 11 -- in 11 days
• Mini-sneak peek: a few few PerfectDisk 11 videos on the PerfectDiskNews YouTUbe Channel
• Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100
• VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control
• More than defrag -- to space and beyond
• Bipartisan support on the best defrag software -- from the defrag capital
• Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management
• A smarter way to speed up PC performance 
• Size matters; then again, it doesn't
• Exchange defrag software -- ready for Exchange 2010
• Look beneath the surface, clean your PC, shrink your drive
• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- Gearing up for Beta
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon
   

• Windows 7 performance -- defrag to get it 
• It goes to 11 -- in 11 days
• Mini-sneak peek: a few few PerfectDisk 11 videos on the PerfectDiskNews YouTUbe Channel
• Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100
• VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control
• More than defrag -- to space and beyond
• Bipartisan support on the best defrag software -- from the defrag capital
• Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management
• A smarter way to speed up PC performance 
• Size matters; then again, it doesn't
• Exchange defrag software -- ready for Exchange 2010
• Look beneath the surface, clean your PC, shrink your drive
• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- Gearing up for Beta
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon
   

• Windows 7 -- defrag with confidence
• Windows 7 defrag -- no file or folder exclusion
• Windows 7 defrag in a corporate environment
• Windows 7 defrag -- real world, real guy
• Defrag for Windows  7 -- "Raxco Software has outdone itself again"
   

• It goes to 11 -- in 11 days
• Mini-sneak peek: a few few PerfectDisk 11 videos on the PerfectDiskNews YouTUbe Channel
• Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100
• VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control
• More than defrag -- to space and beyond
• Bipartisan support on the best defrag software -- from the defrag capital
• Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management
• A smarter way to speed up PC performance 
• Size matters; then again, it doesn't
• Exchange defrag software -- ready for Exchange 2010
• Look beneath the surface, clean your PC, shrink your drive
• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- Gearing up for Beta
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon
   

                                    

Are you ready? The people below certainly are. They're just a small sampling of feedback from the largest beta test in PerfectDisk history. Thousands of users -- home users, small businesses and enterprises -- have lent their time, energy and expertise to making sure we deliver the best defrag software ever.

And with their help, we've done it. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an 11.

Coming March 9th, 2010.

                                    


"...once again, the best compliment I can give is that YOU GOT IT RIGHT!  I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit and the interface is clean, beautiful, and totally functional. This version appears to be noticeably faster than PD10, which was already pretty good.  You have stepped ahead of the competition yet again."
                                                                Paul T. Blades

"...lots of goodies in this new version. Many times products come up with a new feature here and there or fix things that should have been fixed in the prior version—you guys really aired it out and took a whole new crack at the product. Really speaks volumes of the caliber of your people and company. VERY fast compared to prior editions -- great!

"Like the new progress bars showing how much of the drive is left to defragment and the activity indicators along the bottom right in the drive map view showing 'defrag' 'recycler' and 'schedule.' Again, pounding on the GUI stuff, I really like the new block effects -- the blocks with the 'shine' effect and bright colors are great.

The SMARTPlacement types you can select based upon resources available and performance needs so far as fast file access etc., blew me away.  Pretty much ended my even checking to see what each new version of *** expletive deleted *** looks like before I upgrade to one or the other. I did have a chance finally to compare the amount of file information *** expletive deleted *** gives you when you use the 'cluster inspector' versus your new right click feature-- not even close. PD11 wins the details award there.  Everything anybody would ever want to know is reachable through a right click and a few other clicks to get to the specific details you want-- very nice."
                                                               Gary Michelson

"I've noted significant defragmentation improvement on the Windows-7 system. Very much appreciate the usability features...thanks for a wonderful product." 
                                                               Henry Gardiner

"Your claim that initial analysis of a drive is faster in Version 11 than in previous versions is an understatement. Analysis used to take several annoying minutes, just to determine whether defragging was needed. I just ran the analysis for an 80GB PATA HDD in 19 seconds. In the past, the analysis of that drive always took several minutes, even when it was not highly fragmented."
                                                               Kenton Machina

"Thank you. I have participated in many Beta tests, including Microsoft XP Beta and Vista Beta, but never has the experience been as easy or as pleasurable as my experience with you and PerfectDisk 11. PerfectDisk 11 has been faultless in its operation. You have done an outstanding job with this program."
                                                               Michael Downs

"I now find the software excellent and a big improvement on v10.  The drive map does not take so long to build; the menu tabs are clearer and more logical. Well done!"
                                                               Julian Grenfell

"Version 11 Beta operated flawlessly. Solid, stable and much faster than Ver 10."
                                                               Richard Lindsay

"New StealthPatrol features make this a very feature-rich version."
                                                               Alfred Morgan-Jones

"I think you're showing off a little - when I installed this build, PD11 immediately analysed my 4 1TB disks simultaneously in just a few seconds. Keep up the good work."
                                                              Robert Rigby

"The speed improvements are very obvious with the analysis. Going maximum window and analyzing gives the WOW to the client. Just two words: Love it."  
                                                             James Brown

"I've noted significant defragmentation improvement on the Windows-7 system. Very much appreciate the usability features...thanks for a wonderful product."
                                                              Henry Gardiner

"...faster than previous versions. So far everything looks great to me." 
                                                              John Hull

"PD 11 Home Edition is looking good, and its performance is excellent. I like the changes you've made to the Drive Map tab."
                                                              Greg Webb

"...quick....smooth..."
                                                              Richard Futch

"...faster....solid..."
                                                              Richard H. Brown, Jr.

"....much faster....thank you...."
                                                              John Hall

Having used PD11 HE and Pro the same as I have been using PD10, the overall impression I have is one of a more professional and robust feel. There are many minor interface tweaks and additions, input and output, which contribute to this feel and after a while I could tell that there are many improvements under the hood too." 
                                                             Mark Stubbs

"It is substantially better on the Win7 x64 system! So the better the system, the more performance gains you'll see with PD11 (which makes perfect sense). Congratulations on a smooth dev cycle. I generally leave PD in Stealth Patrol, and forget about it. Once in awhile, I check on things and find all my hard drives in optimal condition. I just smile and silently thank you guys for a great product."
                                                            Stephen V. Smith

"...noticeably faster and has a very nice feel. Congratulations." 
                                                            Alan Burt

"Product has worked flawlessly on several different machines using various operating systems and hardware."
                                                            Ronald Chenoweth

“awesome software”
                                                            Shawn Antosz

“…very impressed…”
                                                            Bryn Pritchard

"Analyzing and defragmenting is noticeably faster than previous versions and I like the new layout.  I've not noticed any issues. Installed on Win 7 x64.  Looking forward to the final release! Good work." 
                                                            Adrian Jefferies

"I like the intelligent handling of SSD drives."
                                                            Tom Bruce

"Bravo Zulu!!"
                                                            Tom Vaughn 
 

Related Posts:

• Mini-sneak peek: a few few PerfectDisk 11 videos on the PerfectDiskNews YouTUbe Channel
• Well, well -- aren't you picky -- defrag a file -- or 100
• VSS defrag -- more flexibility and control
• More than defrag -- to space and beyond
• Bipartisan support on the best defrag software -- from the defrag capital
• Enterprise defragmentation evolved -- Remote Free Space Management
• A smarter way to speed up PC performance 
• Size matters; then again, it doesn't
• Exchange defrag software -- ready for Exchange 2010
• Look beneath the surface, clean your PC, shrink your drive
• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- Gearing up for Beta
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon
   

                                                

As more and more PCs come to market with x64 architecture, users need to be assured that the applications and software they use on their computers handle the 64-bit architecture corectly. That includes a top defrag utility. There are certain features of the x64 platform that need to be taken into account when designing and building a program for this environment. Microsoft provides a guide for the development, migration and porting to the 64-bit platform, and our development team has had the opportunity to meet directly with Microsoft on this issue. The result is that PerfectDisk’s operation in a 64-bit environement is completely transparent to the user and it runs flawlessly.

                                           

Here are some of the issues we’ve dealt with for PerfectDisk on x64 defrag:

• The pointer size on 64 bit is 8 bytes; therefore all the code that contains pointer math needed to be reviewed and modified as necessary to avoid possible truncation.
• Changes needed to be made with regards to registry reflection and redirection for WOW64 (Windows-on-Windows 64-bit).
• There are very strict rules on digital signatures for kernel modules for Vista and Windows 7 x64 editions which had to be adhered to.
• When compiling code under x32 platforms, compilers issue warnings for compatibility issues with x64. All this code and all of the warnings needed to be reviewed in order to ensure compelte transparency under x64.
• Finally, our development team needed to clearly understand the differences between 64 bit and 32 bit in order to confirm that any other applications they worked with handled the differences properly. And since sometimes they did not, they would then need to work with other vendors to make sure things worked just right.

The result? As PerfectDisk user Brian Dohery told us: “I just switched to a new machine with the Vista 64-bit operating system on it. (Product name removed) was extremely buggy on the 64-bit architecture and PerfectDisk was not…ran like a dream and so I switched.” What the top defrag software should do.

For most people, switching to x64 is inevitable. That new computer you get is likely going to be 64 bit. It is very common now to have 4 BG of RAM or more, even on consumer desktop computers. Theoretically, the 32-bit architecture has a limit on the memory size it can address - and that limit is 4 GB. Given the fact that about 1 GB is reserved address space to be used by the motherboard, the maximum amount of RAM that a 32-bit XP or Vista system can use is even less, more like 3 GB.

No need to pinch yourself, it’s not a dream. We did the work, so PerfectDisk just works on x64.

                                            

                                                    

This paper that outlines some of the key differences between PerfectDisk and the Windows 7 defragmenter was published a few months ago. It continues to be one of our most popular, so I'm reposting. You can download the PerfectDisk - Windows 7 defrag paper here.

Learn.

                                                

Want to speed up your boot time? We're often asked how to make people's PCs boot quicker. There are a couple of options within PerfectDisk to do so:

Let PerfectDisk Manage:

This option is the recommended option and is selected by default . If selected, PerfectDisk optimizes the location of the files needed to start your computer. This decreases the time necessary to reboot your computer, so you boot quicker. If not managed by the Operating System or PerfectDisk, your computer could become unbootable if a file needed to boot the system is moved beyond the BIOS limit of your computer. This is a subset of the files listed in the layout.ini file (i.e. only those needed to boot the operating system).

                                                

Let PerfectDisk Manage all layout.ini files:

The file stores every file that is accessed from the moment you power up your computer to one minute after the desktop appears. By placing files on the disk in the exact order recorded in the layout.ini file, your machine boots faster. With all Windows versions starting with Windows XP through Windows 7, Microsoft includes a prefetch routine, which reads this file and loads the files in memory prior to them being needed. In this way, the operating system can access the files faster during boot up. If selected, PerfectDisk defragments and places all the files listed in the layout.ini file in order, starting at the beginning of your disk. This list contains all files loaded by Windows from the second you turn on your computer until about 1 minute after the desktop appears. This list not only contains the files needed to boot, but also the applications you routinely start after the system has booted.

Boot quicker and get to work...or play.

                                                  
 

• Defrag analysis -- catch me if you can
• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon

• A smarter SMARTPlacement is a smarter defrag and disk space management
• PerfectDisk 11 -- on the horizon

                                        

I won't add to the barrage of articles, posts and more reviewing 2009 that list the the top stories of the year. But I did want to touch on 2009, from our perspective, as a supplier of a disk defragmentation tool that has evolved and continues to evolve with the times.

2009 brought the reality of a deep recession and tough times for many technology companies; there was Windows 7, Chrome, Bing, more mobile action. But 2 big areas that also stood out, and which helped us grow this year, was the increased movement towards virtualization and big growth on the storage front. Virtualization has been taking hold for awhile now of course, but the tough economic environment has accelerated its growth. For many companies, the potential savings realized from virtualization are too hard to ignore. And that's why our vSphere defrag and Hyper-V defrag solutions are resonating with users. Virtualization defrag with virtual awareness such as that provided by PerfectDisk allows organizations to maximize their investments in virtualization and help realize its benefits. Without proper management and resource control, virtualization efforts can fall short.

                                               

Storage was another big segment in 2009, with people and companies buying increased amounts of storage and different types of storage, including SSDs, as prices plummeted. Data requirements continue to expand, with new applications and lots of video driving demand. And cloud-based storage was another key driver.

                                           

These were the biggest factors (there were others) behind the growth of defragmentation utilities this year, even in a down economy. Individuals and companies looked for savings, and the result was an investment in infrastructure and certain types of software. Virtualization defrag and vSphere defrag to better manage the virtualization movement. Efficient hard drive defragmentation to control the storage explosion. 

All wrapped up in the PerfectDisk family of defragmentation utilities. 

                                                 

 

There have been a number of blogs and articles written in recent months on the topic of best defrag software. I think that just begs the question, what would you want in your best defrag software?

At a minimum, you would want any defrag software to defragment all of your data files. The Windows 7 defragmenter and the free defrag utilities do a decent job in this regard, but the disks still re-fragment quickly. File defragmentation is just half the job, to truly hinder file fragmentation you need a defrag tool that also consolidates the maximum amount of free space. If the file system can find contiguous free space it will write files in one piece.

So, if you start to really look at what constitutes the best defrag software you want something that defragments all your files and consolidates the maximum amount of free space. But is there more to look for in a disk defrag program?

The location of the files can also make a difference. Files that don't change often can be defragged and placed together. The next time the defragger runs these files don't have to be moved. The same goes for frequently changing files, they can be located near the free space so they can grow in the fewest number of pieces. Boot files can be placed next to the Master Boot Record for faster system boot ups, and you can defrag system files, the ones Windows 7 doesn't touch, to get them out of the way so your on line defrag is faster.

Combine all of this with flexible scheduling, automatic defragmentation, a duplicate file finder, virtual system support and ease of use and you have something that really qualifies as the best defragmentation software. This is why PerfectDisk 10 is the choice of thousands. These users know that the best defragmentation software does the whole job.

In the continuing story of what is missing from the Windows 7 defrag tool, today I’ll touch on drive optimization. PerfectDisk’s patented file placement strategy (SMARTPlacement) is based on file modification activity. This strategy groups files with similar modification patterns together, in a single pass. Since the rarely modified files are typically unchanged and grouped together, PerfectDisk is not required to use resources to process them during a subsequent defrag. This saves system resources and improves speed, as the drive is in essence “shrunk,” and you get a fast defrag on subsequent passes.

The recently modified files are adjacent to the contiguous free space. If one of these files grows, the fragment will be created in one piece from the contiguous free space. As a result, fewer defrag passes are actually needed, saving more system resources.

                                            

The Windows 7 defragmenter has no file placement strategy whatsoever. Files are defragmented haphazardly with no regard to type and usage pattern. No consideration is made to slow the rate of fragmentation build up. No attempt is made to improve the speed of subsequent defragmentation passes in order to reduce resource impact, and no attempt at free space consolidation for the best possible write performance is made. As a result, the Windows 7 defrag will never provide the same level of performance and resource optimization that PerfectDisk does.

Lucky 7? Not if you're going to defrag Windows. 

                                           

• Windows 7 defrag -- no file or folder exclusion
• Windows 7 defrag in a corporate environment
• Windows 7 defrag -- real world, real guy
• Defrag for Windows  7 -- "Raxco Software has outdone itself again"