We Got Served

The version that we are interested in this review is the HomeServer version.  The program is available for download from the Diskeeper website as 30-day trialware.  Just enter the required information in the appropriate fields, as seen below, and download the install file.

According to the company behind Diskeeper, this program includes several new and improved features that have been incorporated into the HomeServer 2009 edition of Diskeeper, as documented in the following paragraphs.  For those who already have an earlier version of Diskeeper, this might be of interest to those that are looking for a reason to upgrade.  The complete feature list of the Home/Home Office versions of Diskeeper can be found here.

InvisiTasking
Diskeeper 2009 includes the proprietary processing technology InvisiTasking.
Developed by Diskeeper Corporation, InvisiTasking empowers the system to
allocate its various resources (CPU, memory, disk, and network) separately to
suit the process needs. Instead of letting the operating system scheduler allocate
the entire system to each process, InvisiTasking allows overlapping use of
resources—not just reducing system overhead, but eliminating it altogether.

With the revolutionary functionality of InvisiTasking, Diskeeper 2009 can
automatically defragment each volume in the background, invisibly.
InvisiTasking processing technology has been reengineered in all versions of
Diskeeper 2009 to consolidate files even faster on busy systems.

Terabyte Volume Engine
The Terabyte Volume Engine has been designed to rapidly eliminate tens of
thousands, or even millions of fragments on volumes with a large amount of data.
Recognizing that modern desktops often have volumes exceeding a terabyte,
Diskeeper 2009 now includes the Terabyte Volume Engine in the Pro Premier
and Server editions. Previously, this technology was only available on enterprise
editions of Diskeeper 2008.

Free Space Defragmentation Engine
Diskeeper consolidates about 90% of the system free space into less than a
dozen large free space chunks. This improves file write performance by
minimizing the likelihood of new file writes being written in a fragmented state.

Frag Shield 2.0
Part of enhancing file system performance automatically is preventing
fragmentation in key system files. Fragmentation of the Master File Table (MFT)
on NTFS volumes and paging files can seriously impair system performance and
reliability. Since the Windows operating system relies heavily on these files, the
effect of their fragmentation on system performance is often much greater than
when a normal file is fragmented. Since special measures must be taken to
defragment these files, it is better to prevent their fragmentation in the first place.
Frag Shield 2.0 optimally configures these critical system files, helping to keep
them contiguous from the start.

Smarter Defragmentation
Diskeeper 2009‘s core logic controller has undergone major enhancements to
better analyze fragmentation conditions and select appropriate algorithms to
improve volume performance. Selecting from numerous solutions such as “free
space consolidation,” “boot optimization,” “partial defragmentation” and many
others, Diskeeper 2009 delivers faster and more effective total defragmentation.

Extreme Conditions Defrag Engine
Diskeeper 2009 includes a proprietary core defragmentation engine that ensures
complete file and free space defragmentation in the most extreme of conditions.
Even on systems with only one percent of free disk space or volumes with
millions of fragments, Diskeeper 2009 automatically restores performance and
reliability – automatically.

Volume Snapshot Service (VSS)
For Windows operating systems that support Volume Snapshot Service (VSS)
(also called Volume Shadow Copy Service) including Windows Server 2003,
Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Diskeeper 2009 includes a feature to
provide optimal defragmentation of VSS volumes without filling the space
allocated to snapshots. This option only appears if you are running a supported
operating system and have VSS enabled on one or more volumes.

HyperFast is the new optimizing technology for Solid State Drives (SSDs) providing
faster performance and longer lifespan. HyperFast is available as an add-on to
Diskeeper 2009.

Once downloaded, you can simply execute the installation program directly.  This installer will install the program so that you can open it directly from the Start menu and it will copy a console installer, so that you can access the program from the WHS console.  The complete install process is illustrated in the following screens.  Please note that I installed this program with all the default options.

It is at this point that you can install the console add-in, if so desired.  Simply open the console, open the WHS Settings dialog in the console and install the console interface from the Add-ins tab, as shown below.

It would be nice if this process could be automated, or the installer written so that the complete program could be installed from the Console, thus bypassing the need to first install the program from Windows Explorer.  Of course, one could look at this as an option to have the program available from either the Start menu or from the Console, depending upon how one wishes to access the program.

Once installed to the Console and after you open the Console, you can no longer access the program from the Start menu, as illustrated below.

Actually, one can if you use a RDC and do not open the console application.  And in some cases, this may be desirable, as there is a significant amount of program information that is quite difficult to squeeze into the Console window.

When you open the program the first time, either from the Start menu or from the Console, Diskeeper performs an on-line check to make sure you have the latest version.

The look of the program as seen from the console application is illustrated below.  Please note that the remainder of this review was based upon the Console interface.

In the above picture, you will notice 3 distinct windows inside the console window. The Quick Start window has several sections:

• Getting Started
  
  
  
  
• Volume Properties
  
  
  
• Analyze and Defragment Now
  
  
  
  Pause Option
  Stop Option
• Configure Diskeeper
  
  
  

I will let you peruse the various features further (if you download and install the program, that is!).  Needless to say, but just about any type of Diskeeper information/function/configuration can be obtained/performed from this area.

Moving over to the top right window, one can view general information on each drive you have in your WHS.  As you highlight a particular drive, the lower right window changes so that you can view detailed information on a specific drive.  This is one area where closing the console and opening the program from the Start menu provides a better view than what is possible in the console window.

From the upper window, one can perform several specific analysis/defrag/configuration options by highlighting a drive and clicking on the desired option button.  Once again, I will let you peruse these various windows here once you have installed the program.  For the most part, it is a duplication of the information that can be obtained from the Quick Start items.

In the end, if one simply accepts the default install options, Diskeeper can become a set-and-forget program.  It will defrag your drives in the background without user input.  My recommendation, however, is to install the program and perform a manual defrag for each drive.  After that, let Diskeeper perform the automated background defrag operation.  Of course, as WHS owners, we must “tweak” and explore and check the log files to reassure ourselves that Diskeeper is doing everything it is supposed to do.

There are many more pictures of the various program windows that I could document here.  In particular, I have not shown much in the way of the log data that Diskeeper can provide.  Download it, try it, and peruse this information as desired.

I am sure you are more interested in what follows:  how well does it work?

It is somewhat unfortunate that I have previously had Diskeeper installed on my WHS.  As the drives in this machine have been well optimized prior to beginning the review for this program, any performance increase changes that I may have gained as a result are unavailable for documentation.

Diskeeper runs in the background, continuously optimizing the drives.  There are several suggested tests that can be performed to provide data on any performance hits that the system takes with a program of this type that runs in the background, most of which are not applicable to a WHS.  In the end, the most pertinent tests that provided real-world tests (and one artificial) for a WHS are as follows:

Client Backup: I ran a Manual Backup of this machine.  I followed this backup immediately with Diskeeper disabled, then immediately ran a third backup with Diskeeper enabled

With Diskeeper disabled:

With Diskeeper enabled:

An eight second differential could hardly be classified as a performance hit, and could easily be explained as normal backup time variations from backup to backup.

Performance benchmark test: I ran HD Tach on my Seagate 1TB drive.

The results:

With Diskeeper disabled:

With Diskeeper enabled:

Burst speed: 96.5% enabled vs. disabled
Random Access: 72.4% enabled vs. disabled
Average Read: 98.1% enabled vs. disabled

Based on Burst Speed, my WHS took an approximate 3.5% performance hit.  I reran the tests again and the Burst Speed differential were reversed.  Average Read speed varied considerably during further testing, so I did not consider this a performance problem area, either.  Random access speed, however took quite a hit but once again, additional tests narrowed the gap to an upper 80’s percentile.  It is interesting to note, however, the Sequential Read Speed spike differentials between the two tests.  Perhaps caused by Diskeeper doing normal housekeeping?

Artificial Torture Test:

As I just indicated above, the major question one would have with a defrag program is how well does it work?  And how does one compare defragging abilities with another program?  Quite some time ago, I read a post over at the [H]ardforum on a program that could do just the opposite, fragment a file or files.  And when I mean fragment, I mean a shotgun fragmenting.  I copied a single file (~750Mbtyes in size) over to an empty, unattached, drive on my WHS.  I executed this program and over a significantly long period of time, the program shotgun blasted this file all over the drive.  The fragmentation process was serious enough to the point to where it would disconnect the drive from the system.  I would have to restart the machine to get the drive back!  This creates a virtual torture test to a defrag program.  The following 2 pictures illustrate how bad the file was fragmented.

I ran the manual Diskeeper defrag option.  As can be seen below, I ran it several times over a couple of days with no significant decrease in fragmentation level.  I was beginning to wonder if I had created an unsolvable problem.

One of the options that comes with Diskeeper is a boot-time defragmentation option.  As can be seen below, this option provides the ability to defrag problem files and defrag the MFT.

I checked the appropriate options for this drive, rebooted, and the result can be seen in the following picture.  Better, but not complete.

I ran a manual defrag  one more time.  In lieu of the 3 minute defrags that had occurred previously, this time Diskeeper took about 30 minutes to perform this function.  The result?  Success!  See below.

From the Diskeeper documentation on boot-time defragmentation, please note the following:

Master File Table (MFT) Defragmentation — defragments the Master File Table (MFT). The MFT is a critical section of Windows NTFS disk volumes. The MFT is used by the NTFS file system to locate files on a volume, so fragmentation of the MFT slows the retrieval of files on the disk—whether these files themselves are fragmented or not. Defragmenting the MFT will improve the overall performance of the volume.

The MFT must have really been hosed to the point where the only way to do a complete defrag was to perform a boot-time defragmentation.  Please note that the above scenario is a not even close to being normal for a production machine.  You will simply not see this type of a problem, unless manufactured artificially.  It is reassuring to know, however, that Diskeeper can repair a seriously fubared drive when one uses the appropriate options.

In the end, is this program worth your time and money?   When I first installed a defrag program, an analysis of my drives indicated a fragmentation level of over 50%.  Today, it is substantially better than that, to put it mildly.  Is performance better?  It is unfortunate that I cannot answer this definitively.  Actually, I cannot answer that subjectively, simply because my WHS is not a machine I do normal work on.

So again, I ask the question: Is this program worth your time and money?  To me the answer is quite simple, yes.  With the default options enabled, it truly is one of those install-and-forget programs.  It works in the background keeping your drives at optimized performance levels.  Any performance hits that you will probably never notice from the background operation of Diskeeper should be offset easily by improved general disk performance.  When one is streaming movies and music, every little bit helps.

Company: Diskeeper Corporation

Version Reviewed: Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer Edition

Release Date: 01Dec2008

Cost: $69.95 (£55.50 including VAT)

Product Support: Registered users receive 90 days of free telephone support and special upgrade
pricing. A free Technical Support website contains a searchable knowledge base.

Diskeeper links:

Web site: diskeeper
Blog: diskeeperblog
Knowledge Center: diskeeper.com/products/documentation/documentation

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