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MY EXPERIENCES WITH DISK OPTIMIZER (tm)
P. L. Olympia, Sysop Darwin I and II, 301-251-9206
11/29/85
Disk Optimizer is a commercial product from Softlogic Solutions that
is intended to solve the problem of badly fragmented files on the hard
disk. It reorganizes both disk directories and file clusters. Badly
fragmented files cause delays in program loading or execution, and
worse (in my opinion) unnecessary punishment on the disk drive.
Those of us who run very active bulletin boards know the problem quite
well. It doesn't take long for an upload subdirectory or a disk
subdirectory containing the BBS callers and messages files to be so
badly fragmented that it takes quite a wait for the BBS to locate the
file you are trying to download. Next time you're on a large and
active BBS, pull out your stopwatch and do some timing tests.
My first experience with Disk Optimizer was nothing to write home
about. I first tried it on one of my BBS's small hard disk (10 Meg)
and had to abort after 1.5 hours as there was absolutely no indication
that it was ever going to finish. The lack of a program report as to
what it is really doing at a given time didn't help things any. After
the abort I called up Mr. Norton and Mr. Chkdsk and found that most of
the disk were indeed reorganized and "defragmentized". But heck, 1.5
hours for a 10M is no joke - I could just as well backup with one of
the fast backup programs like DSBACKUP, delete and restore within that
time. I decided to try again. This time I tried it on the other 10M
disk. The result was worse. Not only did it take more than an hour (I
had to abort again), I ended up with a lot of cross-linked clusters
and two of my subdirectories became damaged. It turned out that the
cross-linked clusters and the resulting damage might have been my own
doing as I had several hidden subdirectories on that disk. No matter.
I decided to return the package. Even if the program works, I wait for
no one.
In the meantime, my main BBS with a 33M hard disk was taking an awful
lot of punishment - callers who could not read and who tried to
download files that were not even listed would inevitably throw my
poor Tulin into a tizzy. I sat there for two weeks listening to the
agonizing disk head as it hopped from sector to sector. And all
because I did not have the patience to go thru a backup/delete/restore
of a 33M disk.
Then my friendly dealer called to say that Softlogic has issued a new
version (1.2). I decided to give it another shot. I tried it on the
damaged 10M (wiser now, I unhid all the subdirectories first) and
couldn't believe that I was done in 19 minutes. Mr. Norton and Mr.
Chkdsk bore out the results of the ANALYZE program that came with the
package - all files were 100% contiguous. DBASE III took no time at
all to load and PCBoard (already a speed demon of a BBS software)
started acting like a bat out of hell. Now, this was on a 10M disk
with only 550K free space. Still unconvinced, I tried it on an AT
with a 32M and 5M free that has never been reorganized for 8 months.
The program did its job in 32 minutes. So far so good.
I decided to push my luck. I tried the program on the poor 33M Tulin
with 2.3M left - an XT clone whose hard disk is as fragmented as one
can ever get with 2500+ files. Before I did that, I decided to play
it safe and backup the disk with FASTBACK. Mr. FASTBACK produced a
"fatal error" after 23 minutes on the 37th diskette. No amount of
coercing will make it continue. To heck with it - another software
will get returned tomorrow. I crossed my fingers and ran DISK
OPTIMIZER anyway - I had a few hours to kill while I work on the
Thanksgiving turkey. You'd think I was an expectant father while the
optimizer was running. For a long time, the machine seemed dead - the
disk light might flash every 5 minutes or so - and this was just in
Part One - disk directory reorganization. Many times, I came close to
reaching for the Big Red switch but somehow resisted. I was determined
to wait till Christmas for this one as I had absolutely no disk backup
to speak of. After 93 minutes, the program said it was done. Indeed
all the usual checks said I had a perfectly organized disk - no files
lost and no fragmented files.
And, that, is how I spent Thanksgiving '85.
Next time you're on my BBS (before it gets fragmented again) and you
notice that it is fast - remember these: (1) I am running two jobs at
the same time via DoubleDos (I have thrown away MultiLink after two
years and 4 versions, each one slower than the previous one), (2) I am
running those on a "lowly" XT clone with absolutely nothing produced
by Big Blue. If the board seems fast it is because of (1) PCBoard
which is the greatest BBS software in the whole wide world today
(thank you Fred Clark, Dave Staehlin, et. al) and (2) Disk Optimizer.
TIPS ON USING DISK OPTIMIZER
----------------------------
1. Unhide all files (other than IBMDOS and IBMBIO) and
subdirectories before you begin
2. Do NOT run any memory-resident programs or multitasking or disk
cache programs (Lightning is good but not now). Never, never have
DPATH or similar data and overlay finder active.
3. In short, run Disk Optimizer on a "Virgin" system with only PC-
DOS working.
4. I ran the program on the AT and XT clones under DOS 2.0, 2.1 and
3.1 successfully but obviously cannot guarantee that it will work
for all cheapie disks like mine. That's Softlogic's work after all.
MY BEEF (or Turkey?)
--------------------
You all know that I seldom endorse a product 100% (only Borland
products are near perfection in my opinion). Alas, I have a few
suggestions to Softlogic. Forget about your copy-protection. A program
should never be copy-protected, least of all a disk utility program.
Also, why don't you tell the Turkey holding his breath while watching
a machine that seems dead what's going on? A few dots on the screen
once in a while should be mighty reassuring. Let me also say that I
love the price. Thank you for that.
CONCLUSION
----------
Should you buy it? I did, didn't I? You could do worse for
$49.95. BUY IT. This program works. It ain't turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!