[Contest] UltimateDefrag 4

TipRadar Staff | Oct 28, 2012 | Comments 123

Fragmentation is a common issue for all PC users. Knowingly or unknowingly we face this problem every now and then, and ignore the consequences.

I would like to thank DiskTrix for this review opportunity of UltimateDefrag version 4. This version brings us following new features:

1. Mode selection- Switch between Simple and Expert modes

2. Accelerate specific Programs- just select any application or game and let UltimateDefrag re-place it on your hard drive for High Performance

3. Multiple selection criteria for High Performance and Archive

Homepage:

http://www.disktrix.com

The installation completed within 5 seconds. Up on first run it presented me system settings window. I let it be as-it-is.

Then I went ahead and analyzed the disk. Below is the result.

As you can see from above the GUI is very neat, soothing to eyes, beautiful, colorful and informative. The right side is self-explanatory, while the left side of GUI consists of four options: Information, Defragmentation mode, Defragmentation control and Tools and Settings.

You can view the status information from the Information Tab. Call my habit I went ahead and looked for further information on volume from View>Volume Info.

As you can see from above I could get detailed information on Fragmented & Locked files, and complete Statistics.

To my surprise, when I clicked the cluster block within the “Circular View”, I was presented with the files that occupy that cluster. So now I was actually able to drill down to the files within a cluster. This was Amazing!!

From the Defragmentation control section, I went ahead to simulate the defragmentation. This a super cool tool provided only by UltimateDefrag. Before running simulation it asks to perform a speed test of the drive, which I allowed. Thereafter, it gave me a post-defrag view of the hard disk, as shown below. Please note that during simulation mode no files are actually moved. (You have to press SIMULATE, and then click on START button).

The next thing was to prepare the disk for defragmentation. From the Defragmentation mode section I went and checked out the following provided modes:

• Fragmented Files Only

• Consolidate

• Folder/Filename

• Recency

• Auto

When a particular mode is selected, pressing the Options button to the right presents settings for that particular mode. The top 2 modes, Fragmented Files Only and Consolidate are the most commonly used and fastest methods. The other 3 modes are for those users who want finer control over sorting and are much slower modes.

Let me quickly take you through all the modes:

(Refer below image for the options for different modes)

A. Auto – Auto is a very clever and efficient mode to choose. It uses a proprietary OptiSeek technology to automatically tune the performance of the hard disk to achieve absolute optimum performance for most file accesses and data transfer rates. From the options you can see the current hard drive overall performance and also how it compares with industry standard. It allows you to change it to Fast / Faster / Optimum. Additionally, you can further optimize your drive performance with other settings provided.

B. Recency - This mode provides you options with flexibility in ordering files based upon last access date, modify date or file creation date; and therefore provide an extensive flexibility in placement of these files. Per the developer, this mode is suited perfectly for drives that may consist exclusively of data files as in a file server situation. This method is also perfect for situations where a hard drive is getting full and you want and need performance for particular files with room to grow and with fast subsequent defrags. A new option called “Consolidated Days” is introduced to sort the files based on how old they are.

C. Folder/Filename – This mode sorts the files/folders in alphabetical order. Per developer this mode is useful in case of dll and other data files as they are called upon by programs in alphabetical order. This mode can take a very long time to complete.

D. Fragmented Files Only – This mode provides you quickest defragmentation of all the options. This mode uses an intelligent decision making process on fragmented files that result in very fast defrag pass.

E. Consolidate – This mode also gives you faster defragmentation. Per developer, the results are about the same as Windows native defragger. However, when combined with High Performance (HP) and Archive file selection with No Sorting this mode gives you fastest defrag for all of your files – HP, Archive and regular.

Further I went ahead and selected AUTO defrag mode. For close to 14% defragmentation it took 18 minutes of time for defragmentation. Below is the final view of my hard disk. You can see how clearly the files are placed now, thereby reducing the seek time and resulting an increased performance.

Moving further I would like to write a few words about the different setting terms used so far.

FragProtect

It is a very innovative technique from DiskTrix to significantly reduce the defrag passes time for 2^nd, 3^rd and subsequent passes.

Respect High Performance

It means to “respect” (=conform) to the High Performance of files. When selected the files are placed on the outer tracks of hard disk to achieve high performance or faster seek time.

Respect Archive

It means to move the less used files to archive area. The Archive option vastly improves performance since about 80% of your least used files are archived. This then leaves your drive to work through the rest 20% of your data when loading files. So you experience a significant improvement in seek time.

Move directories close to MFT

When selected this option puts directories close to MFT. Since there is often a lot of dialog happening between MFT (Master File Table) and Directories regarding information on the files, including location on your drive; having these adjacent to each other vastly reduces seek times for these transactions. Hence, giving a significant improvement in hard drive performance.

Pros:

1. Extensive settings provided to control defragmentation of your disk.

2. Ability to accelerate performance of specific application, program or file.

3. Requires as less as 1% free hard disk space for defrag.

4. Ability to select files for High Performance and Archive

5. Simple and Expert mode to fit users need.

6. File Use Tracking to track the behavior of your files, frequency of use, frequency of fragmentation, degree of fragmentation

7. FragProtect™ algorithm to significantly reduce defrag time

8. Proprietary OptiSeek Technology to automatically optimize your drive and layout your files so that most accesses equal the track-to-track seek performance of your hard drive using Auto Mode

9. Ability to defrag Individual Files and Folders

10. Extremely well documented Manual which not only provides you Application settings/details, but also educates you on hard disk use/file placement so that you could make use of numerous settings available to get Best Performance from your hard disk

Savings:

When you head over to the trial download page (http://www.disktrix.com/free-trial.php) it offers you a $10 coupon towards your purchase of UltimateDefrag.

Conclusion:

UltimateDefrag is not just another defragger. More specifically it’s a file placement optimizer. It gives you 5 defrag modes with multiple options within each for you to select the best combination for positioning of files on your hard drive to achieve optimum performance. It provides you numerous ways and criteria by which you can select and place files based on your need and use. No other defragger gives you this control.

From the defrag results on my laptop I only have words of praise for UltimateDefrag. I started testing with a mindset as yet another false claimed software, but it proved me TOTALLY WRONG. It did everything what it promises. JUST AMAZING & SUPERB software with EXCELLENT RESULTS!!!!

Reviewed by grr

GIVEAWAY:

In cooperation with DiskTrix (sponsor of this giveaway), we can offer 10 licenses of UltimateDefrag 4

To get the chance to win:

1 – subscribe to our email Feeds (remember to check your inbox for the activation link)

2 – submit a comment to this post with a valid email address (will be used to send the license)

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[Contest] UltimateDefrag 4

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