What's the #1 criteria for buying defragmentation software?

[sagelady2007]

We are a 100 networked computers local office of a larger company with
no IT manager at the moment.

The CEO has asked me to research outside software (vs. the individual
PC system defrag)
for defragmentation.

I didn't realize how large the market is... it seems quite a few
softwares have good ratings (depending on the magazine or web site).

So how do you IT pros choose which to use - what's the most important
reason?

They all seem the same (Greek) to me.
Thank you.

P.S. Also, how often should we expect to update this type of software?
As I recall, our virus
software seemed to have contstant updates.

 

[TaurArian [MS-MVP]]

http://www.raxco.com/ - Perfect Disk
http://www.diskeeper.com/defrag.asp - Diskeeper 2007

These are the two I would recommend looking at. I'm not an IT Pro so can only offer
personal opinion.
Choose a product that does what you want, has good support and well known in the
industry.
I have tried both on a personal level and have found both products excellent.
As for updates, they are released every so often and you just check/or set to check
for updates and they will be downloaded and installed.
Not as frequently as a virus definition update.

--

==================================
TaurArian [MS-MVP] 2005-2007 - Australia
==================================
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
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| We are a 100 networked computers local office of a larger company with
| no IT manager at the moment.
|
| The CEO has asked me to research outside software (vs. the individual
| PC system defrag)
| for defragmentation.
|
| I didn't realize how large the market is... it seems quite a few
| softwares have good ratings (depending on the magazine or web site).
|
| So how do you IT pros choose which to use - what's the most important
| reason?
|
| They all seem the same (Greek) to me.
| Thank you.
|
| P.S. Also, how often should we expect to update this type of software?
| As I recall, our virus
| software seemed to have contstant updates.
|

 

[Shenan Stanley]

We are a 100 networked computers local office of a larger company
with no IT manager at the moment.

The CEO has asked me to research outside software (vs. the
individual PC system defrag)
for defragmentation.

I didn't realize how large the market is... it seems quite a few
softwares have good ratings (depending on the magazine or web site).

So how do you IT pros choose which to use - what's the most
important reason?

They all seem the same (Greek) to me.
Thank you.

P.S. Also, how often should we expect to update this type of
software? As I recall, our virus
software seemed to have contstant updates.

I wouldn't expect to use it, actually.

I'd personally push a script that sets a scheduled task to use the built in
defragmentation tool to defragment workstations once a month - maybe.

 

[Ron Martell]

We are a 100 networked computers local office of a larger company with
no IT manager at the moment.

The CEO has asked me to research outside software (vs. the individual
PC system defrag)
for defragmentation.

I didn't realize how large the market is... it seems quite a few
softwares have good ratings (depending on the magazine or web site).

So how do you IT pros choose which to use - what's the most important
reason?

They all seem the same (Greek) to me.
Thank you.

P.S. Also, how often should we expect to update this type of software?
As I recall, our virus
software seemed to have contstant updates.

The first thing you need to do is to determine just what it is that is
considered unsatisfactory or unacceptable with the Defrag utility that
comes with Windows.

Then you can assess the various commercial products based on their
ability to overcome these issues. There is no point in choosing a
commercial product based on a set of criteria that does not include
the issues that the CEO has identified as being important.

You also need to ensure that the business value of overcoming these
issues will be sufficient to justify the costs involved in acquiring
and deploying the defrag utility that you choose.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[sagelady2007]

Thanks all.

The CEO wants to save money and productivity
(i.e. less work on IT, better employee performance, less
stress in the workplace (!) and potentially less $$ spent
on hardware expenditures).

Any IT Pros who use defrag for any other benefit?
(We will have to make an internal co. pitch.)

Went to the library and checked out some issues of "Smart
Computing" (didn't see any Trade pubs). Interesting article
on hybrid hard discs (Flash)...

Continue to search web. Came across a product
that says it 'defrags in real time' (my words as
thus far I've just book marked the site to read tomorrow).

Sage

 

[Leythos]

The CEO wants to save money and productivity
(i.e. less work on IT, better employee performance, less
stress in the workplace (!) and potentially less $$ spent
on hardware expenditures).

Any IT Pros who use defrag for any other benefit?
(We will have to make an internal co. pitch.)

The real-time defrag should be disabled unless you have a LOT of unused
performance on your server. I normally use the schedule function of
Diskeeper to defrag continuously between 4am and 6am on weekends, when
few people are using the servers. This normally does the job and keeps
the fragmentation to a minimum.

 

[Rock]

Thanks all.

The CEO wants to save money and productivity
(i.e. less work on IT, better employee performance, less
stress in the workplace (!) and potentially less $$ spent
on hardware expenditures).

Any IT Pros who use defrag for any other benefit?
(We will have to make an internal co. pitch.)

Went to the library and checked out some issues of "Smart
Computing" (didn't see any Trade pubs). Interesting article
on hybrid hard discs (Flash)...

Continue to search web. Came across a product
that says it 'defrags in real time' (my words as
thus far I've just book marked the site to read tomorrow).

I don't see how a 3rd party defrag utility on your workstations in lieu of
the inbuilt one is likely to save money, increase productively, put less
work on IT staff, improve employee performance, create less stress in the
workplace and reduce hardware expenditures. But then without knowing how
the workstations are used it's hard to say. Are these used in development
work? Large databases on the workstations?

Normally when deciding to make a change like this the IT folks would run it
to see if it meets the needs and do a cost/benefit analysis.

 

[Kristi]

Raxco PerfectDisk

We are a 100 networked computers local office of a larger company with
no IT manager at the moment.

The CEO has asked me to research outside software (vs. the individual
PC system defrag)
for defragmentation.

I didn't realize how large the market is... it seems quite a few
softwares have good ratings (depending on the magazine or web site).

So how do you IT pros choose which to use - what's the most important
reason?

They all seem the same (Greek) to me.
Thank you.

P.S. Also, how often should we expect to update this type of software?
As I recall, our virus
software seemed to have contstant updates.

 

[jsnapper2]

I have 500 workstations and 25 server. The ones we looked at were
Diskeeper and PerfectDisk (Raxco Software). My criteria (from my CEO)
was to improve productivity (response time), reduce help desk calls,
speed up backups, technical support and responsiveness, among some
lesser ones. We did a thorough analysis of what was actually being done
by the utilities, and we ultimately went with PerfectDisk because it
seemed to do a clean, complete job. But I know some like Diskeeper. I
would check them both out and take a hard look.