Customer Reviews

Diskeeper 2008 Professional Edition - Complete Package (N66972) Category: Utility Software

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I tried using the Vista built-in defrag utility, but it can't compare to Diskeeper. This utility runs in the background and defrags while the system is idle, so I don't have to leave the computer on at night to run the defragmenting program. Unlike the built-in utility, the program will tell you everything that is going on and allows you to configure the process. I tried the product out from the Diskeeper trial download site, but ended up purchasing it from Amazon for less $$$.

I have a ThinkPad T61, which comes included with a demo version of DiskKeeper. I upgraded to the full version because the idea of having a fully defragmented disk gave me warm feelings. I had it for a couple months running in standard mode with no problems, then I decided to use it's "defrag boot files" feature before heading off to bed. Next morning, I get up to find that my screen has that nasty message: "Boot Manager not found." I tried many different tools and techniques (I'm a software developer with extensive experience in administering Windows), but the inevitable conclusion was: Diskeeper had completely trashed the entire partition definition. Most tools couldn't even recognize it as a partition! This was a system that had been previously quite stable, so there's no excuse for Diskeeper to have destroyed my partition so thoroughly. Avoid this product, lest you be one of the unlucky ones!!!

I started using Diskeeper 2008 around March 25, 2008. At first, I was very pleased that it defragmented my hard drive MUCH better and MUCH faster than Windows' Disk Defragmenter.

After about 3-4 weeks of use, my computer suffered one of its occasional lockups. So I manually shut down, rebooted, and scheduled a Boot-Time Defrag with Diskeeper 2008 to clean out the cobwebs. To make a long story short, my computer (a Dell Optiplex GX620) never recovered from Diskeeper's Boot-Time Defrag. I could not use the computer in anything but Safe Mode. Diskeeper tech support attempted to help me, but nothing worked.

I eventually had to off-load all my files (a huge task), reformat my hard drive, then re-load WinXP and all my files, drivers, and programs (except Diskeeper). Due to several glitches with the reload process, I ended up spending about 40 hours on the reformat/reload and had to buy about $500 worth of new software.

Ten days ago, I emailed Diskeeper and asked them to tell me any reason why their product was not to blame for my meltdown. They have apparently chosen not to respond. I'm not 100% sure that Diskeeper caused the meltdown, but all signs certainly point in that direction.

This is the best defrag software that I have found so far. The reason I am writing this review is below:

Diskeeper released an update that disables the Boot Time Defrag in Vista SP1 & Windows 2008 in build 12.0.781 of Diskeeper 2008 Professional. Information from the update page is below:




Changes in Diskeeper 2008 (build 12.0.781):
Fixed a flaw that caused a minor error message when the Diskeeper Service was shutdown (e.g. when shutting down the system). This error did not stop Diskeeper from functioning. (introduced in build 770)
Improvement to I-FAAST to better process files in the same folder, that are frequently deleted and recreated under the same file name.
Included support for correctly processing wildcards in the Diskeeper file exclusion list. Also fixed a couple of minor bugs related to file exclusion list.
Made enhancements to the News and Information feature to send info more appropriate to the user's location and the product edition used.
Removed displaying an error message when News and Information feature is unable to connect to a Diskeeper News Server. A message is now logged in the Event Log when this occurs. (introduced in build 770). This error did not stop Diskeeper from functioning.
Boot-time defragmentation is disabled in Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 2008, due to a feature incompatibility on those operating systems / service packs. A correction in a future update (coming soon) will re-enable the feature.

Diskeeper Pro works nicely. I have 1.75 Terrabytes of DASD, and I keep it clean automatically using DK Pro. GUI displays are nice - easy to see - easy to understand. DK works quietly in the background and does not interrupt your normal work. Other products (Symantec virus scan, for one) clobber your machine when they are running in the background. Diskeeper really does stay out of your way. Works on Win Pro X64, which is a big plus 64-bit users like me. Only complaint: like many other vendors, they have 3 or 4 "grades" of the Diskeeper program. They should just have one, with all of the fancy features. I hate the way software vendors package a product with tiered pricing/features. Why not have one product with all features - and a good price?

Bought the product after using free demo download for 30 days. Definitely speeds up system. Would highly recommend it.

Pros:
1/ Faster than the built-in defragmenter
2/ Automatic defragmentation
3/ Some cool features like MFT defragmentation, folder consolidation and the like
4/ Check for available resource(s) before initiating task

Cons:
1/ Conflicts with my firewall. Fixed by allowing the service on the firewall exluclusions.

Some things need to be considered:
*Do not perform boot defragmentation. There are certain risk a user need to take if they deemed to do this; for instance, if there is a surge or power went down during this operation, there is a 99.9% chance of data failure. Boot defragmentation won't be of any much help anyway to speed-up the system.
*Perform chkdsk first before doing boot defragmentation (if still desired).
*Schedule defragmentation (even automatic defragmentation) on the hours that the computer is not in use. Less stress for the drive.

THis software automaticaly defrags your hard drive while you are doing other things on the computer. Let's face it, no none enjoys the many hours we have to take to defrag our HD's. This takes the annoyance factor out of it. And it's only about 40 $.

I started having I/O errors on my WD external drive during bootup. I'm running Windows XP with SP2. I thought that the hard drive was failing. I decided to uninstall diskkepper, low and behold, the problem is fixed. So I trashed the program.

Have implemented Diskeeper on all my PC's but am currently running MS Windows Vista Home Premium; Diskeeper is maintaining my 4 hard drives with no problems. Great Defrag software.