Diskeeper Corporation Diskeeper 2007 Professional

Diskeeper Corporation was Executive Software. Its defragging app was Diskeeper 6, 7, 8, etc. The defragger is now Diskeeper 2007 and comes in six versions ranging from Home to Administrator. Name changes aside, Diskeeper is a longtime favorite of those who know why defragging is important. Defragging is still a tough sell, though, to less-informed newbs and power users set in their defragging routines. Ultimately, DK2007’s new background defragging ability is an excellent match for anyone who wants an effective defragger he can turn on and tune out.

Diskeeper calls its on-the-fly defragging ability (on by default) Automatic Defragmentation. New InvisiTasking technology powers the tool by grabbing idle, otherwise wasted system resources. With AD on, drains on my system were barely noticeable while running a video editor and other apps concurrently. To track resource use, DK2007 includes a real-time chart, comparison charts, stats, reports (one lists your most fragmented files), and a Dashboard tab to configure your AD schedule.

Overall, DK2007’s three-pane interface couldn’t be much more intuitive. A Quick Launch pane puts the essentials in one area, plus walks you through manually analyzing and defragging volumes. Power users will appreciate the gory details the Computer and Volumes panes offer and DK2007’s support for software and hardware RAID arrays, running multiple defrags at once, keeping the swap file near a volume’s front, and defragging system files that Windows typically won’t let you touch after startup via the Boot-Time Defragmentation tool.

Indicative of my three test systems, DK2007 took seconds to analyze and generate reports on a WD 79GB drive in a WinXP 2.41GHz Athlon XP 3700+ rig (DK2007 supports 768GB max volumes). Post-defrag stats indicated an average of 1.34 fragments per file and DK2007 increasing system read time of fragmented files by 9% and all files by 6%. Boot times increased initially on all systems (I ran CHKDSK on each volume after running Boot-Time Defrag), but bumps in speed were noticeable during video conversions and gameplay, particularly on a WinXP Intel P4 3.2GHz rig with a 150GB Seagate drive, 1GB RAM, and five user accounts.

If your current defragger has you satisfied, pass on DK2007 for now. If you’re uninitiated or uninterested in defrag duties, DK2007 is an excellent, automatic fit.

[tags]Diskeeper[/tags]