Diskeeper or PerfectDisk

[Martyn]

I have tried both Diskeeper and PerfectDisk and I must say they both took over 24 hours to defragmentate my 130gb partition and I never really noticed much of a speed difference.

Now however I have formatted my computer and I am looking to try either Diskeeper of PerfectDisk again. So which one do you think I should go for?

Feedback would be appreciated.

P.S. This is an independant thread from the "best defrager" as I only want feedback on the above mentioned two products. So dont be giving me stick about how this question is asked at least 10 times a week.

Thanks

Martyn

Edited February 13, 2005 by Martyn

[iller]

I have tried them all and every program puts an extra active process...

For a while now I have only been using the windows defragmenter and it does enough for me.

have this little bat file that I run from time to time.

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Defrag C:

Defrag D:

Defrag E:

Defrag F:

And why not use the functions that exist...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/s..._october08.mspx

[amrinders87]

Diskeeper

[soldier1st]

i have a 120 gb drive and it takes less than 3 hours to defrag it with perfect disk,i once was a diskeeper guy but switched to perfect disk.

here are the pros and cons of both.

Perfect disk:

Pros:does not require 30% space that diskeeper does to defrag properly(it can work with as little as 5% disk space),you don't need to defrag as often with perfect disk,does not need to be running in background to defrag thus saving resources

Cons:the defrag takes a very long time the first time but it gets faster with every defrag.you cannot resize the MFT.

Diskeeper:

Pros:the scan does not take forever.you can resize the MFT but with perfect disk you cannot.it replaces the windows defrag

Cons:on windows 2000 or earlier if you tried to reinstall it it would be unable to,it requires a min of 20% space to work but 30% is minimum for it to defrag properly,you cannot repair it like with perfect disk you can without having to remove it then reinstall it.it runs everytime you boot up windows and in the background thus taking up resources.

[Ar3s]

diskeeper made the one that comes with xp so if you like that one i guess you can't go wrong with diskeeper. its fast and has frag shield. it shows performance improvements as well as adjusting the amount of space for mtl files.

perfectdisk is however different in most areas. now being not as fast doesn't necessary mean you are slower in doing defraging, it could well mean it defrags better and does a better job. i feel that way but thats my opinion. i doesn't allow me to defrag my small hdd mp3 player which i guess isn't much point to defrag to perfectdisk but diskeeper does it. boot defrags for both work great. i find with perfectdisk management of boot files on its own does a really good arrangement for a faster smoother bootup. the settings are there for almost ever type of anal defragger there is. the really fussy to the speed is everything people. smart defrag + extension space management works really well. i also think that offline defrag that allows me to defrag my sata hdd offline is great.

[Bearded Kirklander]

Glad it worked out for you :)

Thanks. Me too. I like to learn things.

I do wish it had the advanced settings enabled by default in order to make the process more effective right from the start. It would be great if the Agressive setting was checked and they indicated to the user that the best results can likely be found after an offline defrag has been completed.

Why not go hardcore right out of the box? It might just blow away the others in the comparisons of defraggers in their default config.

One thing I'd like to have the option of in all apps is to have NOTHING loaded into memory until I specifically activate the program. I would prefer not to have anything waiting in the background, monitoring and scheduling and the like. I don't mind doing it manually. In fact, I prefer it. I like having the OPTION of doing it auto if desired, but I also would like the option not to. Doesn't seem too much to ask. :)

i also think that offline defrag that allows me to defrag my sata hdd offline is great.

So far that is the feature that seems to put Perfect Disk in a nice light for me. Norton Speed Disk, Windows Defrag and Diskeeper all seem less effective in their offline / boot time defrags than Perfect Disk, at least in my tests.

I really wish that we could have a bootable command-line environment for Windows XP that would support fully the FAT / FAT32 / NTFS file systems natively.(so when you do DIR you get a real list, and when you copy / move, etc. you did not have to worry about the 8.3 equivalent getting things goofed - maybe even a Norton Commander type app to help with file management. Heck, Linux has Midnight Commander and it works flawlessly with long file names)

We could run things like Ghost, Defrag, Diskfix and other command-line or character driven menu / UI systems for things when needed. Norton Commander even had that Serial or LPT1 port connection where you could copy files between machines and the like, plus built in ZIP support.

I honestly think that would be a very cool option to have. It could be done fairly easily if Microsoft chose to, I think.

Just my continued wish for such an item that sadly may never quite come in that config. If I understand it, the scripting command drop-in would only work inside of a full-on Longhorn boot, is that right?

Edited August 7, 2005 by Bearded Kirklander

[Rahul]

perfectdisk

[Martyn]

i have a 120 gb drive and it takes less than 3 hours to defrag it with perfect disk,i once was a diskeeper guy but switched to perfect disk.

My 160gb hardrive only takes about 15 minutes at the most to defrag, and I defrag it once every week. I think the trick to get a drive to defrag fast is as soon as you have installed windows then defrag it.

[devyant]

^No, the trick is to defrag consistently, causing fragmentation to stay at low lvls before it goes beyond that and cause high file access times and also take a long time to defrag. Defragging after an OS Installation should be a good practise of anyone.

[soldier1st]

now it takes maybe 30 mins for mine or less but thats pretty good,it also depends on the settings you have applied like if you do the smart placement and or use the agressive free space consolidation then that adds up,i defrag maybe 1nce every few weeks depending on what perfect disk recommends.i always use the smart placement and agressive free space colsolidation settings.

[RottGutt]

I know it isn't one of the options, but I think O&O Defrag Professional is the best one, after using all of them at one time or another.

[illicit]

I have used both of these and I prefer to use Diskeeper when defragging. The set it and forget it features of Diskeeper won me over. I don't have the time to do manual defragging.

[ring0]

o&o > perfectdisk > *

and that's all you really need to know. diskeeper may be alright for people who want regular, 'tolerable' defrags, but for anyone who really wants things cleaned up and packed tightly, you've gotta look at o&o or pd. their 'modified' defrag options blow diskeeper out of the water.

[soldier1st]

o&o and perfect disk are pretty close to each other,they do both own diskeeper.

[Bearded Kirklander]

o&o > perfectdisk > *

and that's all you really need to know.  diskeeper may be alright for people who want regular, 'tolerable' defrags, but for anyone who really wants things cleaned up and packed tightly, you've gotta look at o&o or pd.  their 'modified' defrag options blow diskeeper out of the water.

I wish that Perfect Disk had all of the high powered options enabled by DEFAULT And also recommended / ran an OFFLINE defrag with all the options checked by DEFAULT as well, to ensure that the user got the best initial defrag foundation possible.

Should not have to poke around in the options and set a variety of things in order to get the most effective defrag, I think.

At the very least, have a Wizard that had an option for a "Maximum Performance" defrag that does all that when asked. :)

[iOsiris]

Perfect Disk is the best :D Defrags absolutely everything

[Bearded Kirklander]

Perfect Disk is the best :D Defrags absolutely everything

Well, not quite everything.

I wish it would not leave a gap between the pagefile and the data, for example.

[Kr0z]

Diskeeper 9 is perfect for me. (Y)

[amrinders87]

Diskeeper also allows you to increase the MFT if its getting full.

[CrisCr0ss]

iv used both and i actually noticed a difference between diskkeeper and pdisk, after one month of fragmentation the slow down with perfect disk was clearly fixed, a month later tried with diskeeper and it remained. I later used perfect disk and it was gone, all in all its prefrence but thats just my 0.02

[Bearded Kirklander]

Never even heard of Perfect Disk before this thread, I think.

None of these main ones seem to be crap. Not fair to say that. Some may be a bit more capable if you configure them right, but to each his/her own. No reason to bash the competition like video fanboys are known for doing! :p

Edited August 8, 2005 by Bearded Kirklander

[Denis W. Veteran]

o&o > perfectdisk > *

and that's all you really need to know.  diskeeper may be alright for people who want regular, 'tolerable' defrags, but for anyone who really wants things cleaned up and packed tightly, you've gotta look at o&o or pd.  their 'modified' defrag options blow diskeeper out of the water.

586340448[/snapback]

I like O&O for its nice, clean interface, its 5 different defrag methods, and a set-and-forget feature similar to Diskeeper's. But for some reason it created numerous disk errors on my hard drive. Could've been plain old bad luck, but I've stayed with Perfectdisk. The thing's very effective in defragmenting. Thus, it gets my vote.

Now for Diskeeper... ugh. Last time I tried it (version 7 or 8) it barely made a difference, and it had a God-awful interface. :x

[skase]

wow, hehe. I just installed diskeeper and did a defrag a hour ago. I'm a long time perfect disk user and my opinion. I'm uninstalling diskeeper.

[senzo]

lol wow, my 250GB (about half full) defrags with diskeeper in about 5-10 minutes. Even the first time I ever did it, wasn't much if at all longer.

between the two, I doubt there's much if anything between the two performance wise so, choose depending on the features and settings you'll use.

[ozgeek]

I have had a look over at the Diskeeper's website and it's a big download, and then went over to PerfectDisk's site and have found that it's a small download. I downloaded PerfectDisk and to my amazement it did what it was advertised to do. I have the demo installed with 8 more days. PerfectDisk intergrates nicely into the Computer Management app (right-click My Computer, click Manage...). It can defrag my 80GB drive, even when I am doing other computer stuff, quickly.

[HungryHom3r]

I have also tried both Diskeeper and PerfectDisk. Diskeeper was a fine tool, but first time with it I ran an offline defrag to clean up folders and the page-file. Afterwards, Windows began to complain about corrupt files, but this problem strangely just 'disappeared' later that day. I also didn't like the fact that Diskeeper completely took over Windows XP's Defragmenter.

PerfectDisk on the otherhand, I am quite impressed with. The Smart Placement feature is great. I also like the boot files management settings which does shave a couple seconds booting. I usually schedule PerfectDisk to run every night on my main 80gig HD. Only thing I think is missing in PerfectDisk is the ability to resize the MFT. Maybe they will include this in a new version...