September 20, 2010

Hard drive fragmentation happens as you save and delete files. When a file is deleted, it leaves a "space" on the hard drive. Although Windows tries to save files in a contiguous fashion, the next file saved may not quite fit in that space, so Windows puts most of it in the empty space and the rest of the file elsewhere, keeping track of exactly where it is in a Master File Table (MFT). This operation splits and fragments the file. So, when the MFT file is read, the hard drive needs to go to two (or more) places to get the complete file. This slows down your computer or results in computer crashes or freeze-ups. Think of trying to make a ham sandwich when the bread is in the kitchen, ham in the basement, cheese in the attic and mustard in the bedroom.

The files on your computer that become fragmented aren’t just the ones you save, change or delete while you work; some are added as Windows creates and deletes files behind the scenes as a result of Windows’ internal hidden operations. These fragments add up fast: in one of our computers that we hadn’t defraged in a while, there were 11,199 fragmented files, with one in 2,803 fragments and another in 1,879 fragments. That’s enough to slow down any computer.

Defragmenting your hard drive puts all the pieces of a fragmented file in one place so the file can be read contiguously; this speeds up the read process and improves performance.

Diskeeper 2010 offers many useful features not in the simpler manual defragmenter found in Windows. For example, Diskeeper starts with an analysis of a drive and then provides a lot of information regarding the fragmentation of that drive. This information includes a Performance Report, where the read times of fragmented files are displayed, along with an optimized read time, a helpful graphic display, an estimate of performance improvement, recommendations with details and explanations, and more.

Now on to the defragmenting: the program defrags your hard drive faster than the Windows built-in defrager. You can do it manually or have it done automatically in a "Set It and Forget It" mode called InvisiTasking, where the defrag runs in the background and eliminates the need for manual or scheduled defrags. New to this version is real-time defragmentation, IntelliWrite, which can prevent fragmentation before it occurs.

Best of all, when the defragger runs, you can still use your computer because the program sets its priority to a low level and sports a zero resource conflict so it won’t interfere with your use of other applications. If you’re using the program on a laptop, defragmentation is suspended while the laptop is on battery power. Smart, eh?

Help in Diskeeper 2010 is especially good, with detailed explanations of the various operations and options. Highly recommended.