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.
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.
Computerworld's first issue of 2010 is out with its
Forecast 2010 Special Report, along with the headline
Ready to Roll. The premise? "IT budgets will be flat in 2010, but savvy IT execs are betting on new projects that have a big ROI and tap the best consumer technologies." Are ho hum topics such as defragmentation utilities, boot time defrag, and disk cleanup tools specifically in the report? No, but a lot that directly ties to defragmenting PCs is. Virtualization defrag, Windows 7 defrag, Windows Server 2008 defrag and a lot more are all connected. I'll be writing about some of these Computerworld topics and their relation to PerfectDisk and disk defrag software in coming posts.
And speaking of being ready to roll...the PerfectDisk 11 beta is too. We're anticipating our largest field test ever and are excited along with our testers to get it going. Because of the large number of testers at both the enterprise and consumer level, the test will be staggered a bit. So some of you may get access to the software before or after others. Please don't worry, you will be able to have at it soon. And I'll also be sharing bits about PerfectDisk 11 here from time to time and on up-to-the-minute news on
Twitter.
We appreciate your patience. As always, we're excited and looking forward to it all.
Here we go...
Related Post:
PerfectDisk 11 defrag -- on the horizon
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.
Here’s a little something on defragmenting with Windows 7 from a single user perspective. Greg Smith, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a full-time software engineer, and also is a part time audio engineer. He wrote the following to me:
“I mainly use my PC for software development and productivity, but occasionally I use it for live recordings of small concerts around the area.
"The computer is a self-built Intel Q9400 system with 4 GB RAM. There are two hard drives installed – a Western Digital 320 GB drive as my system drive, and a Western Digital 640 GB drive for storage. The system drive is partitioned for dual-booting. The outermost partition (200 GB) is my software development partition, which is running Windows 7. The innermost partition (100 GB) is my recording partition, which is running a stripped-down version of Vista x64. The 640 GB storage drive is partitioned as one large partition.
"Since I use my Windows 7 installation 99% of the time, that’s the Windows installation on which PerfectDisk is installed. It is configured for StealthPatrol on the Windows 7 partition and the Storage partition (I have the Vista partition set to manual). All my programs are installed on the 200 GB Windows 7 partition, but my data is entirely on the 640 GB storage partition. PerfectDisk keeps my program files and data perfectly optimized. I don’t even have to think about defragmenting my drives anymore – I just always have outstanding disk performance. This is especially important when recording, as the large audio files (sometimes several GB per track) can quickly become extremely fragmented. I simply kick off a SmartPlacement defrag on the storage partition before AND after a recording session, and everything is perfectly optimized.”
Greg also had a little to say about PerfectDisk support:
“Your support is simply amazing. If you have a problem, you are contacted within 24 hours, and often times within a few hours of your submission. The support staff are an absolute pleasure to work with - friendly, knowledgeable, competent, and above all — HELPFUL. Raxco has provided some of the best product support experiences I’ve ever had.”
You won’t get any of that from freeware disk defrag software or Microsoft's Windows 7 defrag.
As evidenced by our partnetrship with HP and scores of success stories from users everywhere, it is widely recognized that Windows Home Server users can benefit from using a disk defrag utility. But the real value goes beyond what you might think of when putting those files back together when you say you want to defrag a hard disk.
Many WHS users tell us there are a couple things in particular they are looking for to help their environment. And they don't care if it comes from disk defragment software or anywhere else - they just want results. They want to stream media faster and they want to mximize use of their disk space, since they are generally using a lot of it with big video files and the like.
So disk defragmentation becomes pretty obvious for part of this. Defrag hard disk, access times improve and media is streamed faster. Simple enough. Now, add in PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server's free space consolidation and you also benefit from a reduced rate of refragmentation, fewer resources used, and backup and anti-virus performance is improved.
Complete optimization of the WHS environment - for a better experience.
Welcome to the new look of the PerfectDisk Blog. I'm Joe Abusamra, and in this space I'll continue to provide the latest updates and information on PerfectDisk. I'll also provide my views on related topics, from general defragmentation utilities to Windows 7 defrag to free space consoldation and more. From time to time, I'll continue to highlight how some of our consumer and business users are using PerfectDisk and our disk defrag software family of products.
I welcome any and all comments. Comments are all displayed immediately, to be removed only if they contain inappropriate language or spam. Thanks for visiting.
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