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Diskeeper 2008 is a program with lots of options and features. To realistically test Diskeeper will take between 3 and 4 weeks

Diskeeper is a utility that offers advance tools for eliminating problems caused by disk defragmentation.  Operated in a "set and forget" mode Diskeeper will work behind the scene to keep your drives defragmented.

The Windows Disk Defragmenter is based on  Diskeeper. The version  included with Windows  provides limited functionality in maintaining disk performance. Diskeeper 2008 in the full function program that offers some nice features.

Diskeeper is available in 4 versions for the home or small business environment, and 3 versions suited for large businesses. This review will address the versions suitable for the home or small business: 

*Prices current as of 21 April 2008

Comparison Chart of Diskeeper Home - Home Business Versions

Description of Diskeeper 2008 Features

The program is still undergoing testing. Below are the results of test we have completed to date.

1. 2 1/2 year old P4 2.8 GHz in service and used every day

2. 2 Gig of RAM

3. Windows XP home

4. Partition tested: Primary partition 70 Gig NTFS

The drive was defragged using the Windows Defragger approximately 2 weeks before the test.

Using the windows Defragger is better than not defragging, but Diskeeper does a better job, and does it quicker.

The numbers speak well for Diskeeper and defragging in general but what do they mean for computer operation.

After running Window Defrag it took 8 seconds to read the fragmented files and 18 minutes to read all the files on the drive.

After running Diskeeper 2008 it took 5 seconds to read the fragmented files and 15 minutes to read all the files on the drive. This is  a healthy improvement.

We ran a virus scan on the entire system (320 gig drive capacity) before any defragmentation took place. The scan took 48 minutes.

After the Diskeeper Defrag the same virus scan took 39 minutes and 25 seconds.  Unfortunately the was no virus scan after  the Windows scan. So this does not prove the value of Diskeeper over the Windows Defrag tool, but it does show the potential performance gained by a good defrag.

Defrag Often

After the initial test we did a daily defrag with Diskeeper. Over a 5 day period there were 6693 fragments eliminated. Based on that we could be looking a badly defragmented drive in a months time. 

This would indicate that you should defrag often, daily would be great. Diskeeper offers an Automatic Defrag feature. We are now starting our test on this feature

It is estimated that this test should take 1 week

What is Automatic Defrag

You set Diskeeper to do constant real time scans of your drives. It eliminates fragmentation they are created. That's a good thing, but even better is that you just set and forget it. If it works you'll never have to think of defragging again, because the program will do it for you. Truly "set and forget"

25 April 2008

So far we have tested Automatic Defrag for 14 hours and have noticed no slow down in our system. The program is using system idle time to complete its task so it seems to be working as advertised. It has eliminated over 1500 fragmentations in the 14 hours.

We will continue to test this feature and report on its progress

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