The Server Standard Edition is intended for most servers, a Server Enterprise Edition was developed for very large servers and the Diskeeper Server Datacenter Edition adds 24/7 technical support to the Server Enterprise Edition. The interface has been completely redesigned for clarity, speed, and ease of use.

The Diskeeper Server Enterprise Edition includes an awesome new Terabyte Volume Engine, specially designed to defragment huge volumes in less time, plus the ability to defragment up to sixteen disk volumes (logical drives) simultaneously. This Diskeeper automatically launches the correct engine based on the volume being defragmented. Enterprise Edition is recommended for any Windows server running large disk volumes (100 GB to 4 Terabytes). The Datacenter Edition defragments disk volumes of unlimited size, so it will grow with your server.

What is disk fragmentation? Disk fragmentation is where many of the individual files on a disk are not contiguous (i.e. - all in one hunk), but have been broken up into smaller pieces that are scattered around the disk. It also usually means the available (free) space on a disk volume consists of many little pieces of space here and there, rather than a few large spaces.

Why do you care about it? Fragmentation occurs on every computer, no matter how sophisticated your system is. Fragmentation affects the overall performance of your system. The speed you can surf the web, open/read/write a file, or even start-up your computer. Accessing a fragmented file is a little like trying to read a ‘shredded document’. In other words, the more ‘pieces’ of a file there are, the more physical reads are required to access it, and the slower your machine runs. For a more complete discussion of fragmentation check out the DisKeeper web site or read my Diskeeper 7.0 article in the September 2003 issue of PC Alamode.

Last time (with version 7), I primarily tested the desktop version; this time I loaded the Server Standard Edition on my main machine (XP Pro) and then tried to load the Professional Edition on my laptop (XP Home), because I wanted to test the Diskeeper Administrator as well.

The Diskeeper Administrator (DA) does not actually do any of the defragmenting work, but can greatly ease disk administration of a larger network. It is used to centrally install and/or remotely control DisKeeper on the various machines throughout a network. It provides a fast, powerful, and simple site-wide PushInstallTM deployment, which is totally transparent to the end user. DA provides 3 different views of the systems being managed. You can: 1. Manage by domains and machines, 2. Create and manage logical groups, or 3. Manage by Active Directory objects. Every Diskeeper 8.0 defragmenter version will integrate with the new Diskeeper Administrator Edition for full network control. Your local network administrator can then get detailed reports by system as well as automatic alerts on dangerously low free space situations or any disk corruption problems anywhere in his network. All that sounded really great to me; however, I discovered (with the help of the technical folks at Executive Software) that DisKeeper Administrator requires Remote Procedure Call (RPC) functions on both the host and remote systems. As it turns out, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows XP Home do not have native RPC functions. So, while DA would let me see my network and all the other machines on it, it could not install or run the defragmentation software on my Windows XP Home machines. Since, I was not ready to upgrade to Windows XP professional on the rest of my home network, further evaluation of the Diskeeper Administrator proved impractical. But my experience with the attempt convinced me that I would definitely want something like it if I had to administer a larger network. And, my experience with the technical support at Executive Software was outstanding. I called in my problem late in the day, and they tried to walk me through a few possibilities. I had thought it was a password or domain problem. When we ran out of time, they promised to do some additional research and call me back. They did the very next day with the answer from their software engineer. Note - Microsoft says that RPC provides an inter-process communication mechanism that allows a program running on one computer to seamlessly execute code on a remote system.

OK, so the ‘Big Network’ guys, might really want this thing, but what does the average PC Alamode reader care. Actually, our Alamo PC Users Group has all sorts of folks, and many of them are involved with the administration and/or management of larger networks. But for the single machine, home user, the stand-alone Diskeeper Professional is still a very useful package. Not only does it do an outstanding job of defragmenting your normal files, but it also has a mode where you can schedule to have your disk directories defragmented. Most defragmentation tools cannot work on your disk directories. So even if you are ‘religious’ about defragmenting your system with another product, your computer may still run slow because of long fragmented directory chains. This ability alone, to “defragment and consolidate” your disk directories and other system files, might easily justify the purchase of DisKeeper. There are a lot of other schedule related controls that can also be set in the “Set It and Forget It” mode. For instance, having it automatically run after 10PM daily or weekly or at a some specific time and day or days of your choice can be very convenient.

All versions have the same graphical displays.

One of the displays shows a color-coded representation of your disk file arrangement. Red is used to indicate fragmented files, as the defragmentation proceeds, you can actually see the changes being made. On very large drives, for efficiency reasons, you just get a text display of the pertinent fragmentation information. I should note here that DisKeeper is equally comfortable with either FAT or NTFS partitions. In addition, while I was stumbling around, looking for why I couldn’t get the DisKeeper Administrator to work, I found some excellent guidelines for determining which type of partition to use. According to one of the help FAQs on the Executive Software web site, when choosing between NTFS and FAT on a Windows based system:

• If the partition is to be less than 500MB, FAT is more efficient.
• If your partition is to be accessed by any operating system, other than Windows NT, you must use FAT.
• If you have a RISC-based system, the system partition must be FAT.
• If you will have more than 65,518 files, you must use NTFS.
• If data recoverability is important, you should use NTFS.
• If data security is important, you should use NTFS.
• If the partition is greater than 500MB, NTFS is more efficient.

All that said and done, when you are ready to buy defragmentation software, I would recommend that home users spend the few extra bucks and get the DisKeeper 8.0 Professional version, because it will defragment your disk directories and some of your other system files. I would recommend any network administrator seriously evaluate possible the benefits of the Server Edition in combination with the DisKeeper Administrator on his network.

Availability:

Executive Software currently markets versions of DisKeeper 8.0, SiteKeeper 3.0, and Undelete 4.0. I found the DisKeeper Home Edition at CompUSA for $29.99 and from $21 to $35 on the Internet, the Professional version from $40 to $53 dollars on the Internet. The Server Version was $217 to $274 on the Internet, while the Server Enterprise version was $930 to $1000, but if you have any volume requirements I would suggest you contact Executive software direct for pricing. The DisKeeper Administrator costs about a $100.

Minimum Requirements:

Windows 95 or later for the Home or Professional versions, For the Server versions you will need Windows NT 40, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2003 For DisKeeper Administrator, you need Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Tablet PC, Windows XP Media Center, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 Server

Vendor Information:

Executive Software International 75 N. Glenoaks Blvd. Burbank, California 91504 USA 800-829-6468

Reviewer System Specifications:

Desktop Server: AMD Athlon 1.6 GHz running Windows XP Pro, 1.25 GB Ram, 120 GB hard drive, 120 GB SATA Raid Array, 64 MB ATI Radeon 7000, Lite-On DVD reader, Lite-On DVD Burner, Sound Blaster Live card, HP PhotoSmart S20 film Scanner, , SOHO 100/10 Ethernet, Firewire (IEEE 1394), USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, DirectX 9.0b, LogiTech Trackball, keyboard, etc.

Local Net: SMC Barricade router, Ethernet and 802.11b w/128encryption

Laptop: Intel 800 MHz Pentium III running Windows XP Home, 512 MB Ram, 30 GB HD, DirectX 9.0b, 100/10 Ethernet, Firewire (IEEE 1394), USB 1.1, DVD/CD Burner Combo, ORiNOCO Gold 802.11b Wi-Fi PCMCIA card

2nd Desktop: AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz running Windows XP Home, 512 MB Ram, 120 GB hard drive, 64 MB NVIDIA Geforce2 MX, NEC CD Rom, Optorite CD-RW, SOHO 100/10 Ethernet, USB 1.1, etc.