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Diskeeper 2007 - download to Try or Buy
One might go to all the trouble of fully handling spyware, adware, viruses, background processes and registry errors and if fragmentation is not also handled, one may still have a "mysteriously" sluggish PC. This is based on the fact that the main bottleneck in a PC is hard drive performance and if this performance is compromised by fragmentation the effect is dramatic.
Defragmentation Software is software designed to reverse the process of fragmentation - software that takes the pieces of files that have become scattered across your hard drive, and puts them back together so they are more quickly accessed.
A description of fragmentation from the developers of Diskeeper 2007 :
Diskeeper handles a primary cause of slow computers. Fragmentation occurs when files are written to your hard disk in separate chunks. Your drive has many bits of storage space here and there; it’s not kept in one big place. So when you save a file, the computer divides it up and sticks these bits of your file wherever they will fit. So the next time you open that file, the computer must look in several places on your drive to open the whole file. This slows everything down. Instead of your file popping up on your screen right away, the computer reads some of your file here, then over there and back again before it gets the whole thing. And then the file opens.
Diskeeper puts your files back together. It monitors your hard drive and when files get fragmented into separate chunks, it puts them back together. No more looking here and there for a file’s pieces, it’s all in one spot. Your documents will snap up on the screen like lightning again, just like when your computer was new. And best of all – Diskeeper does this all automatically. You can “Set It and Forget It”® and Diskeeper will keep your system fast and free of fragmentation.
Diskeeper 2007 also provides boot-time defragmentation so you can defragment such items as the MFT (Master File Table) and Paging file. These system files tend to produce a more dramatic effect on performance than data files and so defragmenting them is vital.
The Windows Operating System provides a default defragmenter and while this is an option, it's slow, and so users tend to defragment rarely, if ever. Also, the default defragmenter doesn't provide for boot-time defragmentation of the system files, and doesn't actively prevent fragmentation. Since fragmentation accumulates rapidly, a hard drive is rarely functioning at optimum.
Unfortunately, since a default option exists, a user may not consider that a potential performance gain exists in this area, and yet the gain is plainly there to be had. In actual fact such software should be a top priority item considering the potential improvement. Alas, the proof is in the pudding. Our suggestion is try it - just as we discovered, you may find the gains in stability and quickness irresistible.
Diskeeper is rock solid, fast and simply the best.
Also, be sure to do a boot-time defragmentation of the MFT (Master File Table) and Paging file (there's easy instructions on how to do this under "change your settings/Configure MFT/ Paging File" on the main interface). The new Frag Shield in Diskeeper, by the way, then prevents fragmentation of the MFT and the Paging File.