Diskeeper is a disk defragmentation program compatible with Windows 2000, NT and XP servers and workstations that allows for optimizing physical disk drives by reorganizing files at the logical partition level rather than file by file.
Under our tests, PerfectDisk and Windows XP’s Diskeeper utility took approximately the same time to defragment a partition; however, Diskeeper left behind significantly fewer files and excess fragments than both programs did.
Defragmentation
With the explosion in music and video downloads as well as more applications being run on computers, disks can quickly become fragmented. Over time this fragmentation will cause the system to slow down, become unstable or crash altogether; defragmentation with Diskeeper 12 prevents this type of degradation before it causes issues; by reformatting hard drive files back into more contiguous states it increases performance, reliability and eliminates common causes for system slow downs, crashes or freeze-ups such as these:
Diskeeper employs an innovative algorithm to organize data within the file system of your hard drives. This technology enables Diskeeper to produce results which surpass those achieved by other defragmenters on the market. Furthermore, Diskeeper not only defragments your hard drive; it also actively prevents future fragmentation from occurring by using advanced algorithms which track file activity.
Diskeeper software installs as a background service that runs continuously to keep your systems at peak operating efficiency. It offers customized defragmentation schedules based on disks that you specify, making defragmentation easily configurable; additionally it can be set and forget for automatic operation, with optional Set It and Forget It mode or remote network scheduling support for easy scheduling of remote machines.
Diskeeper provides an intuitive visual display of your disks’ overall condition by way of the Drive Map pane in its Command pane. Each drive is color-coded according to its condition; red indicates fragmented directories and dark blue areas indicate contiguous files. You can also easily access an analysis report for individual disk volumes by clicking Analyze in the Command pane.
Figure 1 depicts a Drive Map for C: drive that illustrates its paging file (used to store frequently accessed data) being in an extremely fragmented state, leading to hard drives having to work harder and slower in reading the data, as well as using more resources than necessary from file systems underlying it.
Cache Management
Diskeeper offers an effective approach to cache management on Windows systems. When combined with its powerful disk defragmentation engine, Diskeeper creates an environment which works to enhance performance and eliminate fragmentation in the future – giving your computer better-than-new performance!
Prevent file and disk thrashing by significantly decreasing I/O operations on your Windows system, keeping SSD or HDD performance at peak levels and prolonging its lifespan by decreasing workload.
Diskeeper, unlike similar programs that consume up to 30% of CPU resources, manages your SSD or hard disk’s cache automatically in the background without using up any processor core. It does this by monitoring your system to assess what percentage of time you spend doing the work asked of you; dynamically allocating SSD or HDD cache accordingly. Furthermore, Diskeeper monitors how much space is left on both SSD and HDDs so requests can be fulfilled promptly when they come in.
Additionally, this solution uses idle memory to serve hot read requests, eliminating the need for your system to defragment or waste processor resources. As a result, disk or SSD performance can stay high throughput mode with an average 95% I/O reduction from fragmentation.
Condusiv Technologies recently unveiled its ExpressCache software product designed for use with solid state drives (SSDs). According to Baldwin, Condusiv is working toward making this software available from five of the seven PC systems manufacturers who carry it.
SanDisk, Samsung and LG use this technology in their SSDs as well as Dell SSDs to cache frequently accessed information, speeding up boot times and application launches. It has proven effective against failure.
Baldwin noted that as a result of these successes, ExpressCache business is experiencing “very healthy growth rates”. Furthermore, OEMs such as Unisys and Supermicro have adopted it into their server platforms as well.
InvisiTasking
Diskeeper can regain lost performance for all systems on a network, from workstations to servers within an entire corporate data center. Utilizing its innovative InvisiTasking technology, vital system performance enhancements occur instantly without impacting system resources or disrupting normal operations. Diskeeper targets disk, memory and CPU cycles never utilized by any process within an operating system – this unique ability known as InvisiTasking distinguishes Diskeeper as the only product which truly performs invisibly and continuously.
Traditional defragmenters may help restore performance losses caused by fragmentation, but they only address one point in the chain: I/O operations completed last time. Diskeeper takes file system performance and automatic defragmentation to an entirely new level by employing proprietary performance innovations like IntelliWrite to prevent up to 85% of fragmentation from ever happening; and Instant Defrag to manage any remaining fragments left by IntelliWrite that cannot be avoided immediately.
IntelliMemory caching engine also serves up to 50% of DRAM read traffic if there is enough memory available, dramatically reducing read traffic to hard drives, helping them operate at maximum efficiency while prolonging their lifespan.
Diskeeper monitors your system for unused disk space and uses its Instant Defrag engine to consolidate free space into small chunks thereby minimizing fragmentation. This feature is key in prolonging hard disk life and eliminating manual defragmentation processes.
Diskeeper’s Space Reclamation feature gives IT administrators a powerful new tool to monitor and reclaim unused disk space on workstations using Active Directory Group Policy or command line interface. Furthermore, CogniSAN, an intelligent SAN/NAS storage optimizer which ensures optimal system performance while eliminating wasted space is now supported in VMware virtualized environments.
Diskeeper helps IT professionals reclaim wasted space from SSDs by eliminating unutilized space on thin-provisioned volumes. IT administrators can deploy Diskeeper Server across their organization’s server fleet through its Administrator console with seamless network deployment – no reboot necessary!
Backup
Diskeeper can defragment files so they can be written to disk as one entity instead of being written piecemeal, decreasing both I/O operations needed and speeding them up – an essential feature for backups.
Diskeeper has proven its effectiveness at managing fragmented files during backup sessions of large files by conducting numerous tests on various disks and file sizes, which have shown significant time savings by defragmenting prior to backup processes using Diskeeper’s service. This has become an integral component of most enterprise backup solutions as fragmentation negatively affects backup time and reliability as well as disk performance – which explains why many enterprise solutions include it as standard practice. Having performed tests using various disks and file sizes showed Diskeeper could significantly shorten backup processes by defragmenting files prior to backup processes compared with doing it manually beforehand using regular service such as Defragmenter alone! This tool reveals this to be an integral component in most enterprise backup solutions offering comprehensive disk management that defragmentation prior to starting backup process!
Diskeeper now includes two groundbreaking technologies that work hand-in-hand to achieve optimal performance: IntelliWrite is designed to prevent over 90% of future fragmentation before it happens and Instant Defrag uses intelligent file recognition technology to intelligently focus on files currently being used or soon-to-be used on drives – helping avoid I/O bottlenecks while optimizing I/O performance across an enterprise.
Diskeeper 18 has also addressed one of its longstanding flaws – its reboot dependency. Additionally, it boasts a more user-friendly user interface.
Additionally, there is now a tab on the main dashboard screen which provides more in-depth details of system activity. It displays disk I/O performance (average and minimum I/O operations per second) and space usage by Diskeeper cache; helping IT administrators better understand how the software affects their servers and drives.
Compatibility-wise, Diskeeper Administrator Edition and Microsoft System Management Server provide seamless support. They work well with all major vendors’ storage systems as well as physical servers connected directly via iSCSI or FC. Furthermore, remote installation can even be achieved using their respective options.
