Defragmenting PC

A smarter SMARTPlacement is smarter defrag and disk space management

Friday, January 8, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

SMARTPlacement is PerfectDisk's patented optimization strategy that groups files on drives according to users' unique usage patterns. Rarely used files are grouped together, as are occasionally modified files and recently modified files. This strategy in essence "shrinks" the drive, because many of the driver's files don't need to be moved at all while defragmenting PC - they've been defragmented, they've been put together, and they don't need to be touched. A byproduct of this is total free space consolidation. Putting all this together, you receive the all around best performance for PCs and servers, physical and virtual. And you get a much-reduced rate of fragmentation, as new files are typically created contiguously because of all the large chunks of free space.

While it's all well and good, we know there are many smart users out there that want more out of SMARTPlacement. For these users, files could be arranged according to someone's own custom strategy, taking the basics of SMARTPlacement but adding one's own unique perspective. Identifying files, applications and directory data that can be placed on a drive to further improve and maximize the drive and file performance most important to the particular user.

Taking our patent a step further with a smarter SMARTPlacement makes for a smarter defrag and smarter disk space management. Not your basic disk defragmenter program.

PerfectDisk 11 -- March 2010.

Related Post:

PerfectDisk 11 -- on the horizon

I'll take Defrag PC for 2,500 -- are you in?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Joe Abusamra

Defrag PC for 2,500. Windows 7 defrag for three thousand. No, it's not another round of Jeopardy -- it's the PerfectDisk Pro Users Community, and it's here for you.

A year ago, a few hundred "early adopters" made up this community. Over the past year, we've seen a big increase, with the community now home to over 2,500 PerfectDisk users, both corporate and home and growing daily. They share information and suggestions. They ask questions, and answer them. They applaud the good, and gripe about the not-so-good. They make their feelings known to each other and to everyone here at PerfectDisk and Raxco Software.

A more fun and more engaging way to defrag metadata. Are you in? PerfectDisk Pro Users -- www.perfectdiskprousers.com.

And for more fun, and surprises and prizes too -- become a fan of PerfectDisk on Facebook and follow along.

From the Using Windows Home Server blog -- Friday night fun

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

Defragmenting computer or your Windows Home Server on a Friday night? Seems like a great idea!

Tim Daleo did just that on Friday night. Tim is a Project Resource Analyst and Oracle Applications Trainer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Tim currently runs a Dell Power Edge server running Windows Home Server and a HP MSS at an off-site location. On Friday nights, Tim posts in the Using Windows Home Server blog - which classifies itself as "your number one stop for all things Microsoft Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center and anything in the Connected Home."

Tim provides a good overview of PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server, although he is still looking for the definitive answer as to whether disk defrag software is needed, especially since there is not a Microsoft defrag for Windows Home Server.

Here is how Tim concludes his review:

Overall I like the functionality and interface of PerfectDisk 10. If you are looking for a Disk Defragmenter for your WHS then this is a great choice. In addition, like I said earlier, their manual has 325 pages so there is a lot more to it then what I covered here.

Only time will tell whether PerfectDisk10, and disk defragmentation in general, is worth the effort and money. For now I will give PerfectDisk 10 the benefit of the doubt.

That said…does WHS really need a Disk Defragmenter? Microsoft would have included it if it needed it, right?"

Well, PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server lets you not only defrag the server but also defrag PC or multiple PCs in your environment. One of the reasons HP partnered with PerfectDisk for its MediaSmart Servers is that its testing showed PerfectDisk would eliminate hard drive fragmentation, consolidate free space to speed backups, and allow HP users to stream media faster.

HP recognizes the need to defrag Windows Home Servers, and it has partnered with the leading disk defrag utility as part of its validation. This review provides some more insight. And thousands of users around the world provide more evidence.

Your entire connected home defragmented is a better-connected home. You can read the entire review here.

PC World's Missed Myth

Friday, December 4, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

PC World is just one of numerous magazine's I read and monitor for various industry news, reviews and opinions. Heck, earlier this week I wrote a post about an article in PC World. But since I work for a software vendor that helps people and businesses achieve performance and storage management improvements (primarily through defragmenting computer), the January 2010 edition's PC Performance Myths article caught my eye immediately.

So as sure as not to misquote, here is PC World's stated "myth" (I have the print edition, the online version was not online as of the writing of this post):

Defragging your hard drive: Back when drives were small and OSs were simpler, doing this was necessary. But Windows XP, Vista and 7 all have automated disk optimization, and it's rare for a drive to become so fragmented that it hampers performance. While defragmenting isn't harmful, it's usually a waste of time.

Ok, by mentioning that there are built-in XP, Vista and Windows 7 defrag options, presumably at least part of PC World's real message was that you don't need to buy one or use anything other than what the OS comes with. Although this article didn't say that, that is what this portion of the article meant (you're welcome, PC World editors).

Now for the rest -- "back when drives were small and OSs were simpler, doing this was necessary," but not now and not since the advent of Windows XP. Really. So a good old- school 80GB drive running Windows 95 might have needed it, for all that Word and Office stuff people were doing. But now, take all that, and add terabyte drives, volumes of pictures and videos, editing and deleting, and even more work and more play being done at home and at work, now fragmentation is not a problem? Humorous at best - detrimental at worst. So more people and more businesses than ever before are buying defraggers, and there are more defrag offerings than ever before, all because Microsoft, Diskeeper, PerfectDisk and a bunch of freeware apps are all crazy? Defrag PC? PC World thinks you're an idiot...

"It's rare for a drive to become so fragmented that it hampers performance." Try doing something real (for fun or work) on your computer today, with larger files and larger drives, without a defragmenter, and see what happens. Anyone saying that performance won't be impacted does not have an even marginal understanding of the NTFS file system. Hello, ivory tower....

"...it's usually a waste of time." I guess I better get on the phone and call the CIOs and IT directors of Global 1000 companies and others and tell them all that research and testing they did to determine specific performance and resource usage improvements was invalid, and despite what came out of the labs, it ain't true. Sorry World of Warcraft users - you only think you're playing your game faster. Sorry, videographers, the time you thought you were saving was really a dream. Productivity increases and faster access to databases? It's just your imagination...

Are you using a disk defragmenter program, built-in or otherwise? PC World thinks you're crazy. I'm just one of many that knows you're not, and you're smarter than those guys.

This is the type of writing that gives the mainstream media a bad name...

Information Week -- multi-vendor VM management

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Joe Abusamra

In a report by editor-at-large Charles Babcock, Information Week recently reported on IBM's plans to bring the virtual machines of multiple vendors under one management umbrella called IBM VMControl. The new VMControl is due out in December, and no, it won't include any defragmenting PC or server defrag software. But, from a single management console, it addresses a new data center reality - VM sprawl (as opposed to the old physical server sprawl).

So it is with the approach we are taking with PerfectDisk as we move beyond hard drive defragmentation to the new virtual world. We've certainly learned a lot and continue to learn since we started moving in this direction. We've built up our virtualization expertise and continue to do so, both internally and through alliances and partnerships outside Raxco.

On the data center side, PerfectDisk has evolved from its initial ESX offering to more comprehensive solutions for the new vSphere 4 as well as Microsoft's Hyper-V environment. This is in addition to our disk defragmentation tool for VMware Workstation and VMware Server. Now, through the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console, this more heterogeneous environment can be managed and controlled, and there will be additional capabilities added with PerfectDisk 11.

In his article, Babcock reports numbers in the 60% - 80% range for IBM customers using multiple hypervisors. The trend is clear for this still-evolving world of virtualization, and it carries over to virtualization defrag as well. The data center is moving well beyond a simple server defrag. Physical and virtual servers need to be addressed, as do guests and hosts, and all from multiple vendors. With our patent-pending Virtual Awareness technology, we're working hard to build on the foundation we've started, and move forward with our customers, as their virtualization partner.

To help manage the sprawl.