Ed Bott's Microsoft Challenge--8/17/00

As per your first question the Microsoft-ian answer is NT doesn't require defrag software. Believe that I have a bridge to sell you. Currently I am running Executive's free defrag tool and it isn't so great. It leaves some fragmented files alone andthe full version has a scheduling feature. Which would allow me to set the program to run over night (as you stated earlier).

Either Windows NT magazine or NTsystems magazine wrote an article comparing the different defragmentation software (Symantec and Executive are not the only makers). They said that Symantec's product came out on top.

We have used Diskeeper lite, and the latest version, 5.0. Both were very poor in speed and effectiveness. In a majority of cases in our office, Diskeeper could not defrag the drives. We could run it 20 times in a row and it would scan the drive andsay that?s the best it could do, leaving some drives with over 20,000 excessive fragments. Scheduling boot up defrag was the only way to do it and that takes a LONG time, AND comes with the risk of destroying data on the drive. Diskeeper warns you about this. Not only did it not always fully defrag the drive the first time, or after multiple times, it couldn't defrag the MFT or the Pagefile without rebooting and doing it outside of NT. They use Frag Guard to prevent MFT and Pagefiles from becoming fragmented, but that feature doesn't work all that great either. Norton's speed Disk 5 is excellent! It will defrag the MFT, and the pagefile. Its much faster and it will defrag properly the FIRST time its run, not multiple times as with Diskeeper. We switched to Speed Disk and have it scheduled to run on the drives of all of our machines at midnight every night. Drivers are never fragmented anymore. You also have the option to set its priority so if you are running a study on a machine that takes a couple days to run, it won't disturb the study till its done. Get Speed Disk, you will install it, Schedule it, and forget its even there. You will never have a fragmented drive again.

The answer you look for would be MorphaSys's freeware program called AutoDeFrag. It's only drawback is that it only runs on W2k systems. You can schedule it to run at any time though and it also will defragment all the local drives you have (not including the A: Drive)... You can download it at http://www.morphasys.com/autodefrag/index.htm Give it a try.

I have run any benchmarks, but haven't encountered any problems in defragging win2000 pro or 2000 advance server.
I have encounter another unrelated problem after setup active directory with win2000 advace server it took over 5 minutes to boot to desk top. I thought I must configured something wrong so I install it on another machine same problem.

Upgrading to the full version is a definite plus. defraging the Master File Table sets up a better sort for the rest of the files and allows for a complete defrag of the Hard drive. This is important because your hard drive access time will be faster and you windows managed memory swap will be quicker.
A definite plus if you use a DVD. Remember to always use scan disk first with auto repair otherwise you may delete files during defrag. No experience with Norton's speed disk 5.0

According to Symantec version 5.0 of Speedisk is NOT suitable for Windows 2000. That handles that part of your question. I'm waiting for them (Symantec) to release their "Norton Utilities" for Windows 2000. In the meantime....

I am using the full versions of Diskeeper, both the Workstation and Server version. I am able to recommend this program without reservation. It is, in my not so humble opinion, currently best of breed for Windows 2000 and Windows NT. Although the product is also recommended by Executive Software for Windows 9x I find that the Norton Utilities Speedisk (latest version of course) is still a better choice for Win 9x.

The "free" version of Diskeeper that is included in Windows 2000 is a teaser. Deliberately designed (translation: crippled) to make you want to get the real product. Do it. The advantages of keeping your hard disk files optimized have been documented so thoroughly and completely that I find it difficult to believe anyone would still be thinking they wouldn't need it.

I don't bother wasting my time with a stop watch testing for speed improvements. In the real world the differences are dramatic enough that a stop watch is not necessary. I would think that says volumes about the need for using such a product to improve and maintain the system and in the case of servers, your network.

Full Diskeeper works better, but only if set to work on Boot Up. Even then, you need to run it several times.
My experience is much better with the latest Norton Utilities or, to save a little money, Norton Speed Disk. It is nearly as good as when Peter Norton used to own and develop this soft ware. It is easier to configure and has additional functions. Dr. O. Szpiro, oded@travelcafe.org

Full Diskeeper works better, but only if set to work on Boot Up. Even then, you need to run it several times.
My experience is much better with the latest Norton Utilities or, to save a little money, Norton Speed Disk. It is nearly as good as when Peter Norton used to own and develop this soft ware. It is easier to configure and has additional functions. Dr. O. Szpiro, oded@travelcafe.org

Other limitations of the Win2k built-in defragger:

- On FAT partitions, it cannot defrag directories.
- Can't defragment the pagefile.
- No network capabilities.

In regards to SpeedDisk 5.1 for Win2k (not yet commercially available I believe):

After looking at the Beta version for Win2k, it appears to be very similiar to the 5.0 version that runs under NT 4.0. SD is VERY service pack dependent - anything that MS does that changes the offset in the Windows Memory Manager, renders SD un-runable - that is because SD doesn't use the Microsoft defrag api's to defrag. SD is a "one pass" defragger - does a pretty good job in one pass. Downside is that you DO NOT have the option of NOT defragmenting the MFT or pagefile. Although SD is capable of defragmenting the Master File Table, it is unable to defragment the rest of the NTFS Metadata ($MFTMirr, $LogFile, $Bitmap, etc). Although SD can be scheduled, to do anything through the network requires purchase of additional software. Because SD has a component that runs as a filter driver, on heavy I/O systems, this can cause a performance drag.

In regards to Diskeeper full function version:

Although DK can defragment the Master File Table, it is unable to defragment therest of the NTFS Metadata. DK's boot time defrag also can take a LONG time - and the only way to interrupt is to hit the CPU reset button or power off your system. Why does it take so long? Because during the boot time defrag, besides defragmenting the MFT, DK also attempts to reduce all of the freespace holes that it leaves behind during it's online passes. DK is known for being a multi-pass defragger - you may have to run many times in order to get a complete defrag pass. Network capabilities are built into only the Server version of DK.

For those that are interested, there is another option for defragmenting on Win2k - PerfectDisk 2000 - www.raxco.com. If you

Having used both at one point to verify the effectiveness in a large corporate environment, I found that both seemed to work without too much when installed on clean machines. When installed on "dirty" machines (heavily used/fragmented) Diskeeper worked but required multiple runs and reboots to complete, whereas Speed disk consistantly caused BSOD's on the same system (ghosted hard drives).

Also, Diskeeper when purchase as the multiple license server setup included versions for NT, and Win9x clients, and unlike Speed Disk, is currently W2K compliant.

I can not give you a posative answer on the various different defrag porgrams avail or which one is better as the only one I use is the Diskeeper Lite. I have no problems with this product.

I am runnig a laptop with 128megs of ram and have my pagefile set for 140 Megs for both Minimum and maximum settings. this keeps the page file size a constant size which helps keep your disk from fragmenting as often. You can also move your pagefile to another partition other than your C partition which will help as well.

Disk fragmentation is necessary for 200 users. As for Disk-keeper, not only does it not defrag properly the first time it is run (U have to run it a couple of times), but u end up with more fragments than what U started with!
Norton Speed Disk is definately better than Diskkeeper. Running it once is more than enough. It really defrags your disk and you can feel the change after using it. I have tried them both and will give Nortons Speed Disk the go ahead.

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