Just downloaded & tried the defrag and optimizer features in DiskTune at http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskTune.htm . Anyone familiar with DiskTune? Seems like pretty cool freeware. 
Topic: Anybody Know About DiskTune? (Read 13,599 times)
I guess it's not very common for the author of the software to comment but
I'll do that anyway. It's less than a month old. So, I guess as long as
everybody keeps looking at each other for reviews it's going to take a
while. It's really perfectly safe, all file system transactions are handled
by the defrag API. In pre-alphas I have tried all kinds of weird stuff and
dangerous stuff simply isn't processed by this API. It just would tell
DiskTune, I'm not gonna do that, period. The worst that can happen is that
it makes your PC slower (but it's not going to). Well, in that case use your
trusted defragger to clean up the mess. Maybe it's even safer than all other
defraggers because it will prevent your disk from overheating. Others, while
moving large files make your disk temp rise but they don't notice and just
cary on. This is not really a problem for Auslogics etc. because they don't
move a lot at all.
I received a lot of email though. Most very positive even some 'WOWs', many
with suggestions for improvements. Probably I am the one who uses it the
longest but reviewing my own software is a bridge too far. I initially wrote
it for personal use only after trying I guess about 10 other defraggers,
free and commercial.
I didn't like most freewares because they weren't doing a lot. Their
displays and reports showed they defragged. They sometimes claimed enormous
system improvements but I didn't notice them (20% after processing 13 files,
rubbish of course). Auslogics? I didn't notice any difference. SMART Defrag
the same. It even felt slower. The one freeware that actually did do
something was JKDefrag but I found it a bit complex and I didn't want
command-line control only. I am a 'clicker'. Also, JK did make my disk get
really hot. But if you want perfect control over what goes where then
JKDefrag (next version MyDefrag is in beta with even more control) is the
tool of choice.
The commercial ones all installed more than one service/background task and
I don't like that. I think it's ok for a virus scanner to do that because I
want real-time protection. A defrag/optimize is typically something I want
to be able to run on-demand or schedule. Why install and constantly run yet
another scheduler while we have the Windows scheduler? The few commercials I
likes were Puran and Vopt. And PerfectDisk to some degree because it really
made my PC feel faster.
So, then after that I read up on the defrag API, and DiskTune is just the
result of a lot of tinkering in my spare time. A lot of what it does is just
common sense: Outer tracks are faster than inner so let's put stuff in those
that makes the PC feel faster (boot faster, launch faster, load files
faster). Files that fragment are also typically accessed a lot, so let's
make some room to defrag files into those outer tracks as well. So, I tried
a lot of stuff and dang, my PC really runs faster. It boots faster, loads my
game levels faster, makes IE load pages faster etc.. My guess is that
PerfectDisk does even better file placement but it's not my goal to
outperform anyone. DiskTune isn't the fastest either, especially analysis.
...Maybe the developer doesn't know a needed speed improvement in their defrag yet...
DiskTune optimizes Windows boot and files frequently used applications launching. To make sure DiskTune can optimally do so the Windows registry needs to be edited.
Important: below modifications have already been made for you if you have 'checked' the boot-optimize items during the installation of DiskTune!
1: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. Double click 'Enable' (right pane). The value should be set to N. Click OK.
Accepted values are Y and N. if the value is set to Y then the built-in Windows defragger will undo DiskTune optimizations!
2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters. Double-click EnablePrefetcher (right pane). The value should be set to 3 (hexadecimal).
Accepted values are 0 = disabled, 1 = Application launch prefetching, 2 = Boot prefetching, 3 = Both prefetching. Option 3 is recommended because Windows will now monitor/record files that are accessed during boot-time and applications that are frequently launched after the operating system has finished loading and update the layout.ini file accordingly. This layout.ini file can be used by DiskTune to optimize boot and application loading by strategically placing the files referred to.
3: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OptimalLayout where EnableAutoLayout needs to be set to 0 (hexadecimal).
So I would like to know if I should implement these registry tweaks if I use another third party defragger such as MyDefrag or Puran Defrag? Based on what I've read so far, these tweaks apply to WinXP and Vista (but not Win7?) and serve to prevent the native Windows background defragger from disrupting the third party defrag's optimization.
Original address: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17811.0