Introduction
One of the axioms in computerdom is that a fragmented hard drive is slower and can be less reliable that a defragmented equivalent.
True or false?
Like most versions of Windows, Windows Home Server comes with a built-in defragmentation application – sure you’ll need to dig deep to find it, but it’s there. Windows Home Server v1 owners were warned off using it, as it simply wasn’t aware of the storage differences caused by Drive Extender – a defragger that wasn’t Drive Extender aware could wreak havoc with your data. But with Windows Home Server 2011, the days of Drive Extender are behind us, so there’s less of an issue. For WHS 2011 owners, the question is whether Windows’ own defragmentation app does an adequate job of optimising your hard drive or whether there’s a need to spend additional money to purchase one of the third-party defragmentation packages that are available? Whilst these apps may improve convenience and ease of management, do the additional features of these third party apps actually improve performance?
Let’s take a look at one of those apps, PerfectDisk 12 Home Server which has just been released, and see if we can answer those questions.
Program Features
PerfectDisk 12 is the latest release of the popular disk defragmentation application. Available for a wide variety of platforms, developer Raxco has supported Windows Home Server with dedicated releases since the launch of the platform in 2007. PerfectDisk 12 Home Server adds a 64-bit application for Windows Home Server 2011 as well as a (better-integrated) update of the WHS v1 add-in together in a single release. But why should you use such an application with your home server? According to Raxco, the reasons are clear:
Maximize WHS Performance
- Maximize streaming media performance
- Reduce back-up times
- Eliminate hard drive fragmentation
- Completely consolidate free space
- Bundles include PerfectDisk Professional for connected PCs
Preconfigured to automatically optimize your digital life.
Optimize your entire Home Server environment so you can access your photos, music and videos quickly. PerfectDisk 12 Home Server speeds up processing times so your Home Server always runs like new.
Fragmentation Prevention with OptiWrite™
PerfectDisk’s new OptiWrite™ technology prevents most fragmentation on your drive before it occurs, which prevents your system from slowing down. OptiWrite™ detects when Windows is going to fragment files and intelligently redirects I/O to stop the fragmentation from occurring. System performance is maintained and the need to utilize CPU and Disk I/O resources to defragment files is greatly reduced. Because less defragmentation is needed, there is a direct benefit in the form of energy saved in both CPU usage and in the reading and writing to a disk. It saves users both in energy costs and in the time required to defragment a file system.
Intelligent Disk Optimization
For the limited fragmentation that can still occur, PerfectDisk’s patented SMARTPlacement optimization strategy optimizes disk drives according to your unique usage patterns. SMARTPlacement results in the most consolidated free space available, the elimination of most fragmentation before it occurs, and a reduced rate of fragmentation.
SSD Optimize is an optimization method for SSDs that focuses on free space consolidation without defragmentation of files. Solid State Drives are not affected by file fragmentation like traditional electromechanical disk drives. As such, it will leave files in a fragmented state while consolidating free space into large pieces.
Faster Start-Up
Experience faster system start-up times with our proprietary boot file optimization. Improve start-up time by 20% or more.
Auto-Optimization for Complete Unattended Optimization
PerfectDisk’s exclusive StealthPatrol™ tab is used to set automatic fragmentation prevention and optimize your system when it isn’t busy. Auto-optimization affords you the flexibility to optimize your system when it is idle or when the Windows screensaver is active. Auto-optimization provides the flexibility to not run during certain periods of the day or when a user-defined application is running. No other defrag or optimization utility proves this level of flexibility.
Advanced Boot Time Defrag
An important factor in faster PC performance is a thorough boot time defrag. PerfectDisk’s advanced boot time defrag capability is able to defragment files that otherwise would remain fragmented such as the Windows pagefile.sys or the file system’s MFT (Master File Table) and provides the best boot time defrag operation.
Total disk defragmentation and free space consolidation
PerfectDisk offers the most comprehensive solution for defragmentation by optimizing virtually every file on the system, including the Master File Table (MFT), all NTFS metadata files, paging files, directories, and datafiles, and completely consolidating free space. And it does it all in a single pass. There’s also a Selected Files Defrag option that is useful for defragmenting very large files such as video files, rather than defragmenting the entire drive.
S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring
New S.M.A.R.T. monitoring capabilities monitor the status of physical drives. It generates warnings and alerts for hardware performance and reliability, helping you ensure you are aware of any potential hardware problems.
CPU and I/O – control Resource Throttling
PerfectDisk provides resource throttling capabilities to manage resource usage as efficiently as possible. I/O throttling allows PerfectDisk to run on very busy disks without imposing additional load on the disk. CPU throttling allows you to raise or lower the CPU priority at which it runs. PerfectDisk uses very minimal CPU resources in its standard processing.
