DisKeeper

Fragmentation, you hate it, right?

I know I do, it slows your computer, causes you to have to use the de-fragmenter that Windows has in the System Tools drawer, and generally wastes your time.

Now I could go into why Windows always manages to fragment your drive, but why bother. It happens………..

As I said Windows comes with a de-fragmenter built in. It isn’t fast and does it even do all that well?

I downloaded a utility from the P.C.Format download section. This was a defragmenter by Executive software. It promised to be the ultimate in useful utilities.

Normally I de-fragment my drives about once a month. It takes, no average, around the eight-hour mark, so I start it before I go to work and leave it to chug away.

Before I installed this new software, I had already done the monthly de-frag on the drives.

The software is called DisKeeper and is a “lite” version. This means it’s free, but doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the full version has.

To start with, this software can run while you are doing other things on the computer. It will slow your computer down, since there isn’t a way to change the task priority on the “lite” version. The full version, of course, doesn’t have this restriction and will run the de-fragment process in the background at the lowest priority.

The “lite” version also can only do a “manual” de-frag. On the full version, it has a “set and forget” option, where you can tell the software to kick in automatically and de-frag whenever needed.

This is the usual face of DisKeeper. Most of the buttons will pop up a small “this is in the full version “ when you try them.

Anyway, you simply click Analyse and away you go. DisKeeper churns away for a little while and you get the Analysis of the drive.

As I pointed out before, I had already finished de-fragging my drives beforehand.

The other drive D: gave a worse report and I started a de-frag on it.

The de-frag was very fast and doing an Analysis after it said that the drive was in good nick………well, it would say that, wouldn’t it. I was very impressed by this software. Having the ability to de-frag on the run, so to speak, is a major advantage.

I’d prefer to get the full version. See above as to why………

This is a mighty piece of software, it seems to be built to handle networks more than home computers, but it’s very fast, and an excellent de-fragger. I’ve used it for a few weeks now, and my machine seems to respond a lot better since I started using this to de-frag. De-fragging can be stopped at any time, and the full version gives a lot more options on the de-frag. I also tried it on the other computer in the house, which uses XP. XP didn’t think it needed a de-frag, DisKeeper did and the results were impressive. Program access time was a lot quicker and the kids even mentioned that the computer seemed to boot up faster……

If your computer could do with some TLC in the de-frag department, give this a try and then think seriously about upgrading to the full version, especially if you have a home network. Checking on the Executive software website http://www.executive.com/  the price of upgrading isn’t all that expensive either. It retails (as a download) at apprx. $30, which should bring it under the £20 mark. It is compatible with all versions of Windows, although if you have XP Pro, you need the Pro version of DisKeeper, which is slightly more expensive although still below £30 and can handle NT4.0 networks etc.

I love this piece of software and recommend everyone at least try the “free” version!!

By Ian Urie