[Jeremy]

Attention All Defraggers - Raxco PerfectDisk v8.0.30 (Previous Version v7.0.46)
(Scheduled for release on September 12th.

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What's New and Enhanced Features in Perfect Disk Version 8.0?

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PerfectDisk version 8.0 provides new and enhanced features and easier navigation for home users, SMB (Small and Medium Business), and enterprise users. There is better performance on larger drives, improved reporting and manageability, full 64-bit support, and many more exciting new capabilities. The new version of PerfectDisk version 8.0 has two interfaces: Client and Command Center, designed for single users, small user groups, and corporate users. PerfectDisk Client is designed for home users or small business users who need to manage their computers individually. PerfectDisk Client simulates most of the functionality of PerfectDisk 7.0 with new and enhanced feature additions.

The new and enhanced features and functionality of the new PerfectDisk Client and Command Center are listed below:

PerfectDisk Client's New and Enhanced Features

NEW patent-pending Resource SaverTM technology allows PerfectDisk to find all the pieces of a file without first opening the file, saving all the system resources typically required to open each file. This allows PerfectDisk to more efficiently defragment even the largest of drives with minimal system impact.

Statistics: The following NEW features have been introduced in the Statistics:

Addition of new graphing ability to visually track fragmentation and performance statistics over a period of time.

Additional File Type statistics have been added. There are several pre-defined file types based on file extension (text, program, music, graphic, video) as well as users can add additional extension to these defined file types. This allows users to quickly identify what "types" of files are on their system (number of files and size on drive) and which ones are taking up the most space.

Last Analysis or defrag bitmap statistics are available. This allows USERS to run PerfectDisk and see the result of a defrag pass that occurred (at) some time in the past when the user wasn't monitoring the result.

AutoPilot Scheduling: The entire scheduling capabilities are now under the NEW name AutoPilot Scheduling. The following NEW and ENHANCED features have been introduced in the Scheduling:

Scheduling has been ENHANCED to allow for more robust combinations. For example, you may schedule a defrag to run weekly on Mondays and Thursdays only.

NEW Screen Saver scheduling for the Professional version of Windows has been introduced. This allows users to have PerfectDisk automatically defragment their drive(s) when Windows detects that their computer is "idle" (not being used by the user) and the drive hasn't been defragmented in X days (user definable). This gives an additional method to allow you more flexibility to scheduling defragmentation.

NEW Single File Defrag: Rather than defragmenting the entire drive, this allows users to quickly and efficiently select a single file for defragmentation (e.g., graphic or video file that you may be working on, game file, etc.).

NEW Consolidate Free Space Defrag: part of PerfectDisk's Space Restoration TechnologyTM. This method creates the largest piece of contiguous free space available which can be useful prior to creating large files or in performing partition resizing operations. It is also useful prior to compressing a virtual hard drive on a virtual machine, as a large amount of contiguous space can be recaptured.

NEW I/O throttling: PerfectDisk automatically detects if the drive is "busy" and thus reduces its drive I/O usage during that time. This allows PerfectDisk to run on very busy drives without imposing any additional load.

NEW CPU throttling: PerfectDisk allows you to raise or lower the CPU priority at which it runs. While PerfectDisk actually uses very little in CPU resources, it allows customers that have CPU bound systems to feel comfortable running PerfectDisk at a lower priority and not impose a noticeable CPU load on the system.

NEW Automatic shutdown after defrag: PerfectDisk has the ability to automatically shut down the system after a defrag pass has been performed (Workstation versions of Windows only).

NEW Power Management: PerfectDisk detects if a system is running on battery (UPS) and then decides whether to stop or not start defragmentation. This is most applicable to laptop users who need to preserve battery life. This is also useful for systems running on a UPS.

NEW On Screen Help: PerfectDisk has introduced the On Screen Help functionality that gives you an overview of the actions that can be performed when a particular section of PerfectDisk is in focus. The help window is located at the right side of the PerfectDisk window and can be resized or closed.

PerfectDisk Command Center

For corporate users, the new PerfectDisk Command Center, a management console for deploying, scheduling, configuring, managing, and reporting on your enterprise defragmentation. The PerfectDisk Command Center is designed for the corporate user who manages a group of computers in large scale corporations. PerfectDisk Command Center provides the ability to deploy, manage and configure multiple computers on networks without users needing to know how to use Active Directory or 3rd party tools.

The goal of the Command Center is to provide the ability to manage a group of computers remotely and simultaneously. The PerfectDisk Command Center provides a single glance status summary showing any fragmentation "issues" found with your managed computers. "Issues" could be that a defrag pass has never been performed, a scheduled defragmentation pass didn't run as configured, file fragmentation is high, free space fragmentation is high, etc...

Alerts are color identified to visually draw attention to any problems that administrators can then quickly resolve.

Administrators can deploy and update PerfectDisk quickly and efficiently across a large number of systems. Administrators can check the status of deployment and updates at any time.

Provides the ability to custom define groups and only see those computers that you want to manage. If you only manage 10 computers, you don't want to see 100 computers in your network.

Provides email notification if an Alert or Warning threshold is reached. Administrators do not have to remember to check if there are issues. PerfectDisk notifies them automatically if there are any issues. This removes the checking from their daily/weekly checklist of things to do.

For each managed computer, a connection directly to terminal service/remote desktop is provided. If there is an issue, the administrator can directly remote into that computer without having to leave the PerfectDisk Command Center. This saves time in troubleshooting.

PerfectDisk Client statistics are accessible from the PerfectDisk Command Center, allowing administrators access to the data for reporting purposes.

Taken from this page on NeoWin.
You can now do two things which are essentially the same as the Set-It-And-Forget-It feature of Diskeeper.
- Set the fragment threshold to 0 so PD will always defragment your files when they become fragmented.
- Use the AutoPilot Scheduling system to tell PD to defrag your files when you won't be at your PC.

Note: More people have mentioned from experience how PD *really* does a *terrific* job of defragmenting files and making your PC run noticably faster after only one pass.

Looking forward to this!

[XPero]

Wow great news! PD rocks

[trickytwista]

cheers for that

[Tarun]

I've been wondering which does better. PerfectDisk or Diskeeper.

I've been using PowerDefragGUI with Contig on machines too.

[ricktendo64]

For n00bs I recomend Diskeeper
For advanced users Id say go with PerfDisk

This post has been edited by ricktendo64: 04 September 2006 - 11:16 AM

[Jeremy]

I've actually found Diskeeper far more challenging to completely setup (normal and advanced options, including a schedule) than PerfectDisk.
In all honesty, I think DK has more options, but PerfectDisk has more thoroughness/efficiency. I am referring to PD7 at the moment, not 8.

[Maleko]

Sweet! thnks for the heads up!

can you upgrade? or hav u gotta buy it again? (dumb question maybe)

[tha_demon2004]

yeah it's a bit quicker than v7, it's been leaked on the net

[Jeremy]

I went back to Diskeeper though, because PD8 still doesn't defrag in the background. I used the 0 value for fragmentation threshold and left it on for a day or so with downloads going and it didn't kick in until the scheduling told it to.

[ripken204]

jeremy-hopefully you are able to compare diskeeped and this new perfectdisk. im using diskeeper, i just like it better, but maybe if u can tell us whats better

[Zxian]

PerfectDisk doesn't make it very easy to make a "good" schedule for when to defrag your drives. With PD's scheduling methods, if you set it to defrag every tuesday, it'll run a full defrag pass every tuesday - even if no files have been changed!

Diskeeper's Set-It-and-Forget-It feature is still unmatched...

[Jeremy]

With the new PerfectDisk, you have several options that are not present in Diskeeper. There is the ability to defragment certain USB and FireWire removable storage devices if they support the ability to be defragmented.
There's also supposed to be a new feature that allows PD to defragment files without actually opening them first, which is to be beneficial to the performance of your PC while a defrag is taking place.
The Fragmentation Threshold is supposed to defragment files whenever they become fragmented if the value is set to 0, which sounds like the equivalent of the SIAFI of Diskeeper, however, it never seemed to kick into action for me.
@Zxian, I don't see what the big deal is with PD running a full pass on a drive even if no files have changed. One thing I have observed while using PD is that if you are about to reboot, run a defrag pass so that there are 0 fragments on your drive, then reboot, load Windows and analyse your drive, there will be 15-25 fragments. My point is, if very little change has occurred in the files, when PD runs a full pass, it will only take about 10 seconds. (TAH-MAY-TOE, TAH-MAH-TOE )Granted, if you are using the SmartPlacement defrag and has 1GB+ files on your drive, running a second pass may cause PD to move and optimise it once again, taking longer. That was with v7, so I'm not sure about v8.
I will eventually get around to doing an actual comparison. If anyone wants to try it before I do, here's what my plan is.
Take a harddrive that hasn't been defragmented in a while, image it, save that image somewhere. Defragment it with PerfectDisk (also set the Frag Threshold to 0) and then copy some large files to different folders and wait about 10 minutes. Copying them multiple times will have those copies fragmented so PD should step right up to the plate and defrag them in no time. Do an analysis and save it off that HD.
Then re-image the drive so you're back to it being fragmented. Do the same thing but with Diskeeper and analyze it, also with PD and compare these logs. Post your results here.

This post has been edited by Jeremy: 09 September 2006 - 02:55 PM

[Zxian]

@Jeremy - The only problem with your method is that files that would be fragmented before the imaging won't necessarily be fragmented after the image. You'd be better off taking a set of files and copying them to a "dummy partition" and then running the test from there. Once you've done your analysis with PerfectDisk, then format the drive, copy the same files over, and re-run your tests with DisKeeper.

[rotjong]

tha_demon2004, on Sep 8 2006, 09:41 AM, said:

it's been leaked on the net

Raxco intentionally released it early to some people including myself. I guess one of those people posted it to USENET. I don't consider it a leak, though, since they meant for it to be released early.

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Dear Valued Raxco Customer,

We are pleased to present a special early bird notice to you!

PerfectDisk Version 8.0 will be launched to the general public on September 12th, 2006. Because you are covered under our Support and Upgrade Protection program, we are happy to make Version 8 available to you now, ahead of the general release.

I got that email on the Sept 5th and have been using 8.0 build 30 since then. I've used PerfectDisk since version 4.

The GUI is pretty ugly, IMO.

rotjong

This post has been edited by rotjong: 09 September 2006 - 05:22 PM

[tha_demon2004]

rotjong, on Sep 9 2006, 05:16 PM, said:

tha_demon2004, on Sep 8 2006, 09:41 AM, said:

it's been leaked on the net

Raxco intentionally released it early to some people including myself. I guess one of those people posted it to USENET. I don't consider it a leak, though, since they meant for it to be released early.

Quote

Dear Valued Raxco Customer,

We are pleased to present a special early bird notice to you!

PerfectDisk Version 8.0 will be launched to the general public on September 12th, 2006. Because you are covered under our Support and Upgrade Protection program, we are happy to make Version 8 available to you now, ahead of the general release.

I got that email on the Sept 5th and have been using 8.0 build 30 since then. I've used PerfectDisk since version 4.

The GUI is pretty ugly, IMO.

rotjong

it actually made it's way on to the net on the 1st of september

[Jeremy]

rotjong, on Sep 9 2006, 08:16 PM, said:

The GUI is pretty ugly, IMO.

The GUI is fine. You're looking for performance, not pretty looks.

[ricktendo64]

OMG Return of Opera vs Firefox

[Jeremy]

ricktendo64, on Sep 9 2006, 09:33 PM, said:

OMG Return of Opera vs Firefox

Ok, well, if PerfectDisk had the worst GUI ever but was proven to be the best performing defragmenter of all, wouldn't everyone use it?
Anyway, I was simply emphasizing that the GUI is not what should be focused on. I'm not going through this crap again.

[CoffeeFiend]

Jeremy, on Sep 9 2006, 09:18 PM, said:

Ok, well, if PerfectDisk had the worst GUI ever but was proven to be the best performing defragmenter of all, wouldn't everyone use it?
Anyway, I was simply emphasizing that the GUI is not what should be focused on. I'm not going through this crap again.

You'd be surprised how much people want great looks more than a better program (with better/more features)...

I personally us PerfectDisk because it defrags better than the others. It's smarter at placing MFT properly unlike DK (and also respects MFT growth zone and such), it defrags the NTFS metadata (which other defraggers like DK won't even touch), and hibernate files, and tons of stuff like that. It's far faster too (just do a comparison if you want), and even the basic/cheap versions has network admin features that you only find in more expensive versions of DK. And it can do its job even on volumes with very low space (half of what DK needs - I know I'm pretty bad at overfilling partitions... Always out of HD space!) In short, it's doing a far better job much faster - works for me.

Hopefully it won't turn in that opera-firefox thread indeed.

[Jeremy]

Regarding the MFT, Diskeeper can resize it to a recommended value or a custom one set by the user.