When looking to defragment drives to improve data access speeds, the vast majority of Windows XP users rely on the built-in Disk Defragmenter tool and trust that it is the optimal solution.
However, those who have used Raxco Software’s PerfectDisk defragmentation tool will recognize that Windows’ Disk Defragmenter is not up to par.
 |
Image: Soft-best |
In tests, the PerfectDisk tool operates flawlessly on all Windows 2000 and Server 2003 machines with hard drives of several thousand GBs, and it also runs exceptionally well on all currently popular Windows XP computers. The most unique feature of PerfectDisk is its ability to function in extremely “tight” environments, meaning when free disk space is only around 5%, while Windows’ Disk Defragmenter requires a minimum of approximately 15% free space.
The interface of PerfectDisk thoroughly displays all details of the defragmentation process, informing users about which file systems or hard drives PerfectDisk is currently defragmenting. Users can also schedule defragmentation tasks for PerfectDisk to perform automatically at selected intervals.
In some testing scenarios, Windows’ Disk Defragmenter reported that the current hard drive did not need defragmentation because the fragmentation was minimal. However, when PerfectDisk was run first using the “Analyze” feature, the resulting image of a fragmented hard drive resembling “loofah” prompted users to reconsider all the “recommendations” provided by Windows.
The “Analyze” stage will provide detailed information about the hard drive’s condition using different visual colors. Light blue indicates files that rarely change, yellow indicates files that change infrequently, red indicates frequently accessed files, brown indicates temporarily moved files, while white indicates free space available on the disk.
After completing the analysis process, PerfectDisk will begin the defragmentation process, with all file operations visually represented on the interface. The defragmentation process using PerfectDisk is significantly faster than that of Windows’ Disk Defragmenter. In trials, PerfectDisk completed the defragmentation task in just 1 hour and 30 minutes on a nearly full 120 GB hard drive.
Currently, Raxco Software is offering PerfectDisk 7.0 at a starting price of $40 for a single machine and $240 for a server. Interested users can visit here to download a trial version of PerfectDisk for Exchange.
HOÀNG KIM ANH
