Diskeeper Corporation today announced that Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer is now available to buy.
We’ve previously previewed Diskeeper, which is a great solution for keeping your home server’s hard disks defragmented and running at optimal speed - it simply runs in the background on your home server and whenever the server is idle, gets to work optimising your disk speed. When the server is accessed, Diskeeper pauses so it never slows down access to your home server. The preview we did was based on a pre-release version of Diskeeper 2007.
Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer is fully integrated into the Windows Home Server Console, so it can be managed easily from any of your home computers. It’s now also compatible with WHS’ Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
You can download Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer from Windows Marketplace, or buy direct from Diskeeper’s website. Pricing has been set at $69.95.
More Info: Press Release
November 5th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Price is a bit steep, I’ll be looking elsewhere
Dave
November 5th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Just wondering people’s thoughts on this product. It sounded like a good idea to me at first, but after reading the documentation Microsoft released on their drive extender technology, it says not to run defrag on those drives. Thoughts?
November 5th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
This is Derek De Vette from Diskeeper Corporation. Allow me to shed some light on this:
The Microsoft documentation Ryan saw specifically refers “DEFRAG utility”—aka the built in. Third party pro grade defragmentation solutions are in fact endorsed by Microsoft. Diskeeper 2008 Home Server for example was a featured bullet point just today in Microsoft’s worldwide WHS launch press release. Here is an additional quote from their Server Solutions Director, specifically on our product:
“Diskeeper has worked with Microsoft since Windows NT,” said Steven VanRoekel, director of Windows Server Solutions at Microsoft. “It is great to work with them on the Windows Home Server platform to provide the maximum system performance and reliability possible to our customers.”
The drive extender issue Ryan brought up is fully addressed with Diskeeper’s new VSS compatibility feature. This small write-up is from our Product Manager, Michael Materie:
“The in-depth Windows Home Server Drive Extender technical paper provides a helpful warning to not use the built-in defragmenter included with Windows Home Server. Microsoft support article #312067 describes the technical details of the issue with Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) from which this warning originates, as it also affects Windows Home Server. Diskeeper engineers addressed this known incompatibility with defragmentation in Diskeeper 2008’s with a specialized new VSS-Compatible Mode. Using unique file movement algorithms via the online file movement control (FSCTL_MOVE_FILE), the impact on VSS with Diskeeper 2008 is dramatically minimized allowing users to access previous versions of files that other solutions, without a VSS-Compatible defragmentation mode, would not.”
Besides being the only WHS defragmenter with VSS compatibility, Diskeeper is the only one that snaps directly into the WHS console. We worked very closely with them to make this the premiere performance offering out there for the WHS platform.
But don’t just take my word on it. DK 2008 WHS trial ware will be released imminently at http://www.diskeeper.com. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Hello!
While moving cross-country, my WHS box (which has been running WHS since Beta 1, housing my media/photos with ease) has been in hibernation. Having a fresh copy of Diskeeper to keep things running smoothly would rock!
November 8th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
My eval copy has expired, would really like a shiny new copy to replace it with
November 8th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
forgot to say HELLO
November 8th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
sorry to say , but that does not sound right if you ask me. the main whole purpose of the WHS is to serve as storage centralization and a tool to keep the disks in shape should be something the product itself should offer, and not a 3rd party by additional $70 bucks! come on, that is almost 25% of the WHS OS itself. does not sound right to me, at all.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:09 pm
If I could defrag the clients as well as the server for that $70 might consider it.
December 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I left Diskeeper for Raxco’s PerfectDisk software for all my machines a few years back. I’ve been extremely happy with the change. Raxco now has a WHS Defrag version out as well. It’s only $39.00 and that includes a license for WHS, and a license for 1 other system as well, so it’s basically a 2 for 1 license Price. That includes a year of updates, and 90 days of support, which I’ve never needed to use / call / e-mail as the programs is rock solid stable on all 5 of my machines. I’m not knocking Diskeeper at all, I just tried them both and Raxco was a better fit for me. Both companies have solid Disk Defraggers.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:03 am
I’ve been a fan of Diskeeper since the 1990s when I ran Windows NT 4.0 and think I’ve run every version of their wonderful defragmenter since then. I was on the fence on whether to buy PerfectDisk for WHS or Diskeeper for WHS because of the price difference. Maybe I should have tried PerfectDisk first but instead I downloaded and installed Diskeeper for WHS. It installed with no problem and I love the Console integration which PerfectDisk doesn’t currently offer. I am a little put off with the price as I can pick up Diskeeper 8 Pro for my regular system for $49.95 yet the WHS version is $20.00 more. I think if Diskeeper provided a copy to use on a client, or provided a discount for the client version when paying full price for the Home Server edition, there would be less resistance to the price. As for me, I’m hooked on the Console integration and the convenience it provides but will continue to run the trial version for the full 30 days just to make sure there are no hidden “got-chas” before I open my wallet for the the full version.