I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to write about a piece of software that’s been on my system for ages. If you’re still running the default Windows disk defragmenter, you’re missing out on a world of wonderful features that Executive Software’s Diskeeper has to offer. Usually, new releases don’t offer much to write home about - but version 10 (on the company’s 10th anniversary) is one compelling package. It finally overhauled the interface and made it quite presentable in the appallingly lackluster Windows Computer Management Console, but that’s just the icing on the proverbial cake.

You likely use your PC every single day - and in doing so, you’re forcing it to send and retrieve data from your hard drive(s). All that activity can impact performance if you’re not too careful, and the better the tools you have monitoring the situation, the better off you are. Installing Diskeeper in the past was nothing more than smart; with version 10, putting Diskeeper on your system is nothing short of mandatory. Check out this killer feature:

Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAAST) improves file access and creation on NTFS volumes by up to 80% (average 10%-20%) above and beyond the improvement provided by defragmentation alone. This is the first industry implementation of “Disk Performance Calibration,” the modern evolution of the outdated and inconclusive disk optimization strategies of the past.

When an I-FAAST Defragmentation Job is enabled, Diskeeper runs specially-engineered benchmarks on the selected NTFS volumes to learn their performance characteristics. Diskeeper then transparently monitors these volumes for file access frequency on an ongoing basis in to determine which files are requested most often. Special analysis techniques prevent Diskeeper from being “fooled” by files that have been recently accessed.

Using newly-developed technology, Diskeeper sequences the files to take best advantage of both the logical characteristics and physical characteristics of the volume. The sequencing process is integrated with background defragmentation, so it’s virtually transparent to you.

When I say that you need to get Diskeeper 10, you need to get it.

[tags]system utility,disk drive,diskeeper,defrag,disk,defragmenter,hard disk,pc optimization[/tags]