The Top 10 Points to Know about Fragmentation
IT professionals are heroes of the workplace. Whether with cunning wit or a Phillip’s head screwdriver, they solve most any computer emergency. However, keeping a computer running at top speed is usually preventative maintenance instead of last minute, adrenaline-surging, virus-vaccinating heroics.
Here are 10 key points to maintain peak performance across any network:
1. The hard disk is the slowest part of any system.
Say you are operating a 2.5 GHz processor. That’s 2.5 billion operations every second. A large number of hard disks only spin at 7200 rotations per minute, or 120 cycles per second, or 120 Hz. This means your CPU is more than 20 million times faster than the hard disk. The hard disk still has mechanical components. Think Terminator 2®, when a mechanized Schwarzenegger is outclassed by the faster, smarter T-1000. When the slowest part of your computer is making unnecessary reads, the entire system is dragged down.
2. Fragmentation has severe effects.
It’s more than sluggish and crawling computer speeds; fragmentation leads to crashes, hangs, data errors, file corruption and boot-time failures. Files that suffer fragmentation are more difficult and take longer to back up. When systems are thoroughly defragmented, they run faster and more reliably—period.
3. Real-time defragmentation is necessary.
Many companies rely on 24/7, mission critical servers. Taking these systems offline for maintenance is not an option. But, having a server with I/O bottlenecks is also not an option. Only real-time, invisible defragmentation fixes this catch-22 situation.
4. Give your systems faster than new speeds.
NTFS best-fit attempts for file placement on hard drives are limited. Diskeeper® 2008 comes with a new technology called I-FAAST™ (Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology)1 that re-sequences your files. So, in addition to consolidating free space, defragmenting with Diskeeper boosts access to your most frequently used files by as much as 80%. I-FAAST gives systems faster-than new speeds.
5. Servers are especially susceptible.
While disk striping improves physical I/O capacity and performance, RAID and SAN systems simply do not fix fragmentation where it begins— at the file system. Enormous volumes with heavy read/write activity lead to astronomical fragmentation rates, making RAID and SAN work harder than they should. The efficiency of RAID and SAN may lessen some of the physical effects of fragmentation, but fragmentation is never eliminated. You’ll need to buy more and more equipment to compensate. Sooner or later, the tortoise catches the hare, and your system suffers I/O bottlenecks and slow server speeds.
6. Operate without interrupting productivity.
The new InvisiTasking™ technology makes software transparent. Diskeeper 2008 with InvisiTasking will work invisibly in the background; only using untapped resources. Systems are continually improved without any management or impact on a system’s usability.
7. Defragment despite minimal free space.
The purpose of defragmentation is to restore lost speed and performance. A defrag engine must be able to operate in limited free space, because drives with extremely limited free space are the ones in need of the most help. Diskeeper 2008 handles millions of fragments and can function with as little as 1% free space.
8. Stop fragmentation before it happens.
Diskeeper 2008 comes with Frag Shield™ 2.0, a technology that automatically defends against fragmentation of critical system files. Frag Shield 2.0 prevents crash inducing fragmentation. It’s like Superman® saving the day—two days before there’s problem.
9. Auto-defrag breathes life into systems.
It keeps systems at optimum speeds and eliminates fragmentation-related performance issues. Thoroughly defragging systems adds 2–3 years onto the hardware’s useful life.
10. Analyze your network’s performance.
Poor performance on a remote system can easily be mistaken for a slow network. Get Disk Performance Analyzer for Networks™. This free utility scans networked systems for fragmentation. See for yourself how fragmentation is affecting your systems. This groundbreaking program will provide comprehensive reports on how system speeds will improve with thorough defragmentation. Visit www.diskeeper.com/pcm1 and get this free, must-have utility. Diskeeper 2008 is the only fully-automated defragmentation program. It operates invisibly in the background and it dynamically adapts defragmentation strategies to fit the needs of individual volumes. With new defrag engines, Diskeeper 2008 restores performance on volumes with as little as 1% free space. Get rid of slows, bottlenecks, and fragmentation-induced crashes. Visit www.diskeeper.com/pcm9
*.* Source of Information : March 2008 PC Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment