Product Reviews

Windows splits your hard disk into little blocks called clusters; your files are then divided and written to the disk. This makes efficient use of your hard disk's free space, but over time, individual files can get spread across the disk's entire surface, which slows down your PC. Diskeeper 2007 Home aims to reassemble your files into one piece to improve performance.

A defragmentation package will never be the most exciting bit of software you buy. Diskeeper seems to have recognised this and has added several new features that mean you never have to interact with it. The new InvisiTasking feature runs the application

This should work for most people, but you can also tell the software when you don't want it to run - during work hours, say - so that your PC will always be free when you want to use it. If the automatic tools don't sound as if they'll suit you, there's always the option to run a job manually. If you're a notebook user you can also turn Diskeeper off when you're running on battery power to save energy.

Windows' integrated defragmentation utility lacks Diskeeper's sophistication and is hard to schedule. It also runs only within Windows, whereas you can launch Diskeeper at boot time to move files that can't be relocated safely while Windows is running.

The new features aren't worth the upgrade if you've got the previous version, but if you're looking for an easy way to keep your hard disk in optimum condition, Diskeeper 2007 is the best defragmentation application you can buy and far better than the built-in Windows tool.