Keep Your Files Together

excellent
key review info
application features
  • High-speed defrag engine with I/O Smart� technology provides undetectable background defragmentation.
  • (5 more, see all...)

Keeping your computer up and running has become a very important issue. More and more computer users have become aware of the fact that most softwares installed on their machine will leave traces after uninstall. And this will inevitably make your computer work in slow-motion.

Fragmented disks may give you severe headaches, but fortunately, the Internet provides you the access to the antidote. But what is disk fragmentation, anyway? On one hand, pieces of individual files are not contiguous, but scattered all over the disk volume. On the other hand, the free space is not all gathered together in chunks, but "sprinkled" between the fragmented files.

Disk fragmentation will result in longer time to access the files as they are in small pieces and creating a file will also take longer as the computer has to allocate it wherever there is space. The general idea is that fragmentation slows your operating system's performance significantly.

Diskeeper is a veteran in such problems and has gained its respect among defragmenting tools a long time ago. It has reached its 10th version and as I saw in testing it only got better. The version analyzed today is the Professional one because it includes much more features than the Lite version and it is not so "complex" as the Premium version.

The installation file may seem to you a bit large (26MB) but the software is worth sacrificing the space. The interface will look familiar to those who used the Disk Defragmenter in Windows. The first time I opened the application I felt overwhelmed and helpless. But I soon discovered that help comes from all over the place in this application.

The first button in the toolbar is the Manual Defragmentation Job Properties and here you can choose between two menus: Defragmentation Methods and Disk and CPU Priorities. The defragmentation methods let you select the way how a job will defrag files and consolidate free space.

A quick defrag will not result in thorough free space consolidation and the recommended option will provide a balance between file defrag and free space consolidation; the comprehensive defragmentation will use more resources and will take longer to complete, but it will also provide additional free space consolidation.

Disk and CPU Priorities will let you control the disk and CPU resources. Enabling I/O Smart option will "throttle" the defragmentation process on all jobs whenever disk I/O activity is detected on a disk while it is being defragmented. Set the CPU priority between "highest" and "lowest" in order to increase or reduce the time for defragging the volumes.

Before getting started with putting files in order on the disk, make an analysis of the volume to see exactly the arrangement of the files. Volume map will display both the fragmentation level and the performance of the files on the volume.

In Job Report tab, the user will have pieces of information about the health of the volume, defragmentation statistics, access time and recommendations. Historical Report tab displays the total number of fragment eliminated. If you hover the mouse over the graphics a detail box will appear.

The quick launch menu in the right side of the application will provide you with the Set It and Forget It menu (can also be accessed from the toolbar) that is designed to schedule the software for volume defragmentation.

The Primary Defragmentation Job Properties will defrag the user defined volumes according to the user scheduling settings. Here you can set the frequency, schedule type (smart, custom, screensaver, after hours, every night or weekends only), start/end time. Secondary Defragmentation Jobs are a second, independent defragmentation job type you can assign to a volume.

Thus you can use a Primary Job with its own Defrag Method and Disk and CPU Priority for a certain day of the week and the Secondary Job with different options for the weekend. The user can use both jobs on the same volume or on separate volumes.

In the Action tab in the menu bar you can choose to configure Diskeeper to prevent defragmenting the MFT (Master File Tables) and paging files (Frag Shield). The user can also create an exclusions list to specify the files and folders that will not be subject to the actions of the software.

You can monitor the software to see its activity and you can specify what information should be recorded (service start/stop, defrag start/stop, defragged files, moved files, disk info, file info, directory info, paging file and MFT info).

A great feature is the Power Management one that is designed specially for laptops and portable computers and prevents the software to run (Set It and Forget It) when the computer is running out of battery.

The Good

The software makes beginners feel like they have an expert on their side and the more advanced users as real disk defragmenting experts. You do not have to know too much about defragmenting when using Diskeeper because after reading the help menu you will become an expert in keeping your disks properly defragmented.

You can schedule the software to defragment your volumes at any time and any day you want due to the Set It and Forget It feature.

The Bad

I was a bit annoyed by the fact that you can access the same option in too many ways (analyzing and defragmenting options can be accessed in no less than four ways). But I guess this will make beginners' job easier.

The Truth

Diskeeper is indeed a keeper. It will maintain your disks and volumes and you do not have to "tell" it twice. Powerful yet easy to use, the software provides the shortcut from beginner to expert in respect of volume defragmentation.

You will not be disappointed by it as its many features concert in making your work easier. Your computer will never move like an 80 year old if you maintain it with Diskeeper. And the best part is that you can schedule it for a job or two and you no longer have to check your disks. It is reliable and the Help menu covers almost everything about disk maintenance.

The trial period is 30 days so you have nothing to lose if you try it. And if you decide to buy it, there could not be a better investment.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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