We blog therefore we are ...
|
| DiskTune is an easy to use, on-demand, no frills disk optimizer and defragmentation utility for FAT, FAT32 and NTFS formatted drives. Through a simple to use mechanism to create 'jobs' it enables you to launch one-click jobs and schedule jobs. DiskTune is freeware. DiskTune will reorganize your disk and will make it faster and more responsive. |
| Features: | |
Despite the fact that we price our software fair, it still can be a lot of money to spent on a tool that you hope to use only once.
So, this may be your chance then. We offer 30% off of regular prices this weekend!
See previous entry for details.
DiskTune now monitors the hard disk temperature during analysis and all defragmentation processes. If the hard disk temperature exceeds the safe threshold, DiskTune will show a warning message. You then have 4 options:
- Do nothing and wait. DiskTune will continue when it's safe to do so
- Stop current operation
- Continue (good chance the warning will pop up again in a few seconds)
- Disable HDD temp monitoring
But basically you can leave the PC unattended.
Download: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/downloads/DiskTune_Setup.exe
Was just reading an article on the great defrag shootout on the risk of disks getting pretty hot during defragmentation. And for those who don't know: hot disk is not good.
Edit: I introduced a bug in 1.0.26, it is fixed in v1.0.27. If you already downloaded 1.0.26 please download again. Sorry about that!
Edit: I have uploaded build 1.0.46. DiskTune now displays the temperature of the host on which the selected logical volume is located. DiskTune 1.0.46 should be able to access more files, and I've added some indicators that show if DiskTune is running, stopped, moving files etc..
I will soon finish documentation and bring a DiskTune page online on our website at http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskTune.htm.
DiskTune is a freeware disk defragmenter and optimizer. This release should be considered beta. Although it has been running here for a while now on production machines, it is virtually impossible to test every possible scenario. That being said, DiskTune is 100% safe to use! By declaring DiskTune beta however we want to communicate that the documentation is not yet up to par, and that a few desired options are still missing (an exclude option being one). Also see previous entries on DiskTune here.
A setup is included, the uninstall will remove all traces of DiskTune if desired. It’s safe to try and safe to get rid of.
Why freeware? Although I spent a lot of free time on this project, I was also allowed to spent DIY DataRecovery.nl time on it. The idea is this: Rather than spending hundreds of dollars on Google ads we choose to invest some time in this project that we see as advertising. MBRtool builds up on that same idea. It’s free and hundreds of thousands of users have now heard of DIY DataRecovery.nl in return. So, we want nothing back in return, we just hope that if the need for a data recovery program arises that you will think of us. So, we just hope you will enjoy DiskTune, and if you do, do not hesitate to share it with friends and family.
You can get DiskTune here. You can report bugs, place comments etc. using the comment option of this web log, or feel free to email me at joep@diydatarecovery.nl. We would really appreciate your feedback!
Edit: version 1.0.26 adds a disk temperature monitor that will pause operations if a disk gets too hot. See: http://www.diydatarecovery.bravejournal.com/entry/29544
It has come to my attention that many people are under the impression that all software included with 'Hirens Boot CD' can be freely used. Our tool DiskPatch is included on that CD and it is a pirated version.
Please be aware of the fact that due to the inclusion of pirated copyrighted works, Hiren's Boot CD is legally considered "warez" and pirated intellectual property; downloading and/or possessing the CD has various legal implications according to the persons global location such as violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the USA.
There are risks involved in downloading and using pirated software (numbers are from 2006, I don't expect it to be any better today):
- 25 percent of the Web sites we accessed offering counterfeit product keys, pirated software, key generators or crack tools attempted to install either malicious software or potentially unwanted software. A significant number of these Web sites attempted to install malicious or unwanted code.
- 11 percent of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from Web sites contained either malicious or potentially unwanted software.
- 59 percent of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from peer-to-peer networks contained either malicious software or potentially unwanted software. A significant amount of malicious or unwanted code was present in the key generators and crack tools.
Apart from the official figures consider this: For a person reasonably familiar with decompiling software and assembly code, it is relatively easy to alter a command to *read* LBA sector contained in the DiskPatch code to a *write* command, effectively wiping your hard disk MBR. Ask yourself to what degree you trust people who crack software to handle in your best interest.
Are you one of those people that thinks, 'well what the heck, those software companies make huge amounts of money anyway'. Well, then you are wrong. Not all software companies are million Dollar operations, housed in large offices and all that. We certainly are not one of those. Speaking for myself: I live in a modest house, I drive a modest car, I do not live up on the hill, I could be the guy living next to you. I spent a good part of the day writing code, doing research and supporting clients. It is not uncommon that I spent several hours on a complicated case. I spent a lot of 'free' time on customer support because many of our clients are US based (I am in the Netherlands). But anyway even when considering bigger companies, big companies employ ordinary people like you and me to write their software and answer their support phones. Bottom line is that by stealing software you are hurting ordinary people.
__
Joep
It’s easily overlooked because iRecover is a commercial product (marketed on a try-before-you-buy basis): iRecover is however partly freeware!
The iRecover trial includes a completely free and fully functional image recovery module. The image recovery-mode built in to iRecover is specifically tailored to recover photos from a digital camera memory card. Using the image recovery mode iRecover scans the memory card for specific structures that can be used to identify digital image files (RAW recovery). This article lists supported file types and supported digital cameras.
- note 1: Theoretically each camera is supported as long as a logical drive-letter is assigned to the memory card. If no drive-letter is assigned to the digital camera itself a card reader is required.
- note 2: If your camera stores images using a file type that is not supported by iRecover (using RAW image recovery) then run the iRecover trial in ‘simple volume’ recovery mode. Cameras typically store images in a single folder no the memory card. The iRecover trial allows to recover the data from a single folder using the unregistered version!
- note 3: If the card exhibits read errors then you may first want to create an image file of the memory card. This image file can then be used to recover data from. Again, all this can be done with the free iRecover trial version.
A while ago I wrote about my plan to create a simple to use, on demand disk optimization and defragmentation tool. I am pleased to announce that we are making good progress. Let me describe what we have now:
Features:
- DiskTune relies on the Windows defragmentation API and is therefore completely safe. To further enhance safety DiskTune checks the state (dirty/clean) of all volume at start-up time.
- DiskTune supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS volumes.
- DiskTune is an on-demand defragmenter. It does not run in the background and it does not use it’s own scheduler. If you close DiskTune, absolutely no processes and services remain running in the back ground.
- DiskTune accepts command-line arguments and includes a module to easily create tasks that can be started with one mouse click. It is also possible to start tasks using the Windows scheduler. Command line options include the ability to shut down the PC after a task finished.
- DiskTune features 3 modes of operation: defrag, optimize and compact.
- DiskTune can perform tasks in the background using low priority.
- DiskTune features a VSS safe-mode. This means it follows Microsoft guidelines to reduce interaction between defragmentation and shadow copies.
- Supports Layout.ini file.
- Context menu integration.
- DiskTune supports 64 bit Windows versions and is not affected by the file system redirector that normally prevents access to certain system folders by 32 bit applications.
Philosophy:
As all defragmentation software I am aware of ‘uses’ the Windows defrag API you may wonder about the differences between defragmentation tools: If they all do the same why pick one over the other. Well, that is actually easily answered. The defrag API allows software to move clusters. It is up to the program to decide which clusters are moved and to decide where they are moved. And that’s where the different programs are different, apart from secondary features and options (scheduling, interface, continuous background defragging, VSS support etc.). So, in essence each defragmentation program differs due to different philosophies on where to put files etc..
The philosophy behind DiskTune is this:
- Seeks are the major cause of slowdowns when accessing files. Fragmented files result in more seeks. Especially smaller files suffer from increased seek times: For a large file split into two fragments, the seeks are relatively of less influence on the total time required to access and read a file. Therefore fragmented files should be defragged. Where they ‘go’ is less important, however it is preferred the file is moved towards the start of the disk.
- Start of the disk is fastest. Shorter seeks, faster access times. It therefore pays off to put frequently accessed files towards the start of the disk.
In practice, with regards to the above, DiskTune will always try defragment each fragmented file and move it as close towards the start of the disk as possible. If lack of free space prevents a large file to be moved to a single gap (block of adjacent free clusters) then DiskTune will try to reduce the number of fragments if the file is severely fragmented only.
In optimization mode DiskTune will first create free space at the start of the disk. The next step is boot optimization in which DiskTune will move files listed in the layout.ini file into the free space at the start of the disk. DiskTune will also move directories into this free space as they are probably the most accessed ‘files’ on a disk. The remaining free space can be used by Windows but more importantly the defragmentation algorithm: Once you have run optimization the result is that almost by definition files that you frequently ‘process’, modify and alter and therefore fragment, will be moved automatically towards the start of the disk by the defragmentation procedure.
Summarizing the idea is this: After you have run an optimization your PC will ‘feel’ faster: It boots faster, Explorer will feel more responsive while listing files and folders, virus scanners will run faster etc.. Also, because of the way optimization organizes files and free space, fragmentation is less likely to occur and if it occurs it will be recent and recently modified files that fragment. And those will then be automatically placed in the free space created during optimization (the fastest area on the disk) by running a quick defragmentation. In general, optimize every month to every few months, defrag once a week and your hard disk will be in top condition.
And doing that is very easy with DiskTune. For example, it takes just a few mous clicks to create a task that defrags the c: drive and then shuts down the PC, and put a shortcut to the task on the desktop. Just click that rather than shutting down Windows using the start button and the disk will be defragged and when done the PC shuts down automatically. There you have it, defragmentation when you want it made easy, without the need for background services and tasks.
--
Joep
P.S. Some screens:
DiskTune starts ...
Create a 'job'
Simple fragmentation report
In my previous article I wrote that to maximize the chances for successful data recovery you need to defrag your drives.
Now, please bear in mind that I wrote the articles some time ago, just didn’t post them yet. Since I wrote the previous article I have been reading up on disk defragmentation and have been trying at least a dozen defrag tools. A good place to find virtually every defragmentation program available today is ‘the great defrag shootout’. I say virtually because it isn’t hard to find a few more. Donn Edwards, the maintainer of the blog, does a decent job of describing the features of the different defrag tools. One nit, he seems to have a dislike for Diskeeper and it makes his reviews less reliable IMO. Well, doesn’t matter, it’s a blog so …
I tried many of the tools that are reviewed on this blog and these are my impressions:
- I personally hate set-and-forget type of tools because they tend to run always (as background task). Many installed always-running services and/or add systray icons. My systray gets stuffed enough as it is with necessary tools like my virus scanner. I virus scanner I want to run all the time, a defragger not.
- Another disadvantage of the set-and-forget type tools is that they go do stuff when I don’t want them to.
- Many of the tools were too much into details: I want a defrag tool defrags and optimizes my drives. I do not care if it didn’t succeed with 2 or 3 files. On many forums you’ll find plenty of posts of people who go through lists of fragmented/skipped files and have sleepless nights over 2 or 3 files that weren’t defragged or weren’t moved where they expected them to move.
- I do not care about the exact location of a specific file, you must be really bored to go hovering a disk map to see which file sits where. It appears many of the tools are designed for disk map fetishists. Due to lack of real features to add, adding gimmicks to the interface becomes an item where a defrag tool can separate itself from the rest it seems.
- I want to be able to quickly do a defrag while I am at lunch without going to have to start the program.
- I do not particularly care if a defrag tool is blazingly fast. I will not run it while I am working anyway. I want my PC to feel fast AFTER I have used the tool.
I did not find a tool that meets all those demands. So then why don’t you do it yourself huh?
Indeed. I decided to do a little research since I am aware if the fact that Windows offers what is commonly referred to as a ‘defrag API’ and all of the tools I was able to find claim to ‘use’ the defrag API I looked into this API. It turns out that getting the file system bitmap, a file bitmap and moving a file is in fact quite straight forward. So the first step was to write a simple tool that did just that. Since I do want to defrag one file, I added code to find all files and folders using the FindFirstFile and FindNext API. To learn if a file is fragmented or not, each file and folder is examine by getting the file bitmap for that file/folder. Putting this together took 10 – 20 hours (and I am a slow coder).
So, now I could examine a drive, gather up all fragmented files and defrag those. I did this in my spare time and decided to launch the idea of a free DIY DataRecovery.nl defragger at the office and got the go-ahead. Design goals: a simple to use run-on-demand disk defragger and optimizer. So I can now announce that DiskTune, the free disk defragger is in the pipeline. Stay tuned!
Note: I am aware of the fact that DiskTune was once the name for the McAffee defrag tool. However it appears they have abandoned it. Also, I can not find any online evidence for anyone claiming DiskTune as a trademark.
This question is often discussed in relation to hard drive performance and hard drive wear and tear. A well organized drive is faster because pieces that make up a file are stored in consecutive clusters in fast areas of the drive, and there’s less wear and tear because the drive heads have to do less ‘travelling’ to retrieve a file. There’s however one more consideration:
Under circumstances successful data recovery is only possible with unfragmented files. It’s the type of data recovery often referred to as ‘RAW data recovery’.
Data recovery software like iRescue or iRecover scans a drive for file system structures such as directory structures and file records. As long as it can retrieve administrative information about the location of a file and the clusters making up the file have not yet been overwritten it can recover the file, fragmented or not. Well that is, as long as the file system was NTFS.
A FAT based file system is a different matter. Almost by definition non-fragmented files can be recovered intact. And also by definition, fragmented files can not. First thought to leave this out of the equation, but FAT32 is commonly used on USB keys and memory cards so it is important to mention this.
Also, when NTFS file system structures are largely destroyed the remaining option is RAW data recovery. Using a disk editor or a specialized RAW recovery tool the drive is scanned for ‘file signatures’. For example, a JPG file starts with a specific sequence of bytes ‘FFD8FFE0’ (ÿØÿà). Many if the digital image recovery tools that can be found on the internet work like this. The idea is to scan the drive for this byte sequence, if possible at cluster starts, and as soon as the byte sequence is encountered, to open a file and dump the next few megabytes in that file, close it and assign it a JPG file extension. If lucky you will now have recovered a JPG image file. Now if the original JPG file was fragmented part of the file is not directly following the signature and you will only have recovered part of the file.
So, to maximize your chances of recovery, you do not only have recent backups, but you defrag your drives as well. Unlike with performance considerations it does not matter where your file is, as long as it is not fragmented you’re ok.
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog