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November 21, 2006
Diskeeper x(4 score bits minus 2 bytes)
One of the frequent questions our staff are asked is whether Diskeeper for Windows x64 operating systems (AMD64/EM64T - CPUs) is native or compatible?
By compatible, that of course means it runs in 32 bit mode; native referring to it running in 64 bit mode.
Beginning with Diskeeper 10, the Professional editions (and above) have operated entirely in 64 bit mode. We recompiled the software and made the necessary edits to offer this to users running x64 operating systems. While unexpected, we did see some slight performance gains.
One of the perks of x64 architecture, as noted in wikipedia.com's x86-64 entry is: "very large files can be operated on by mapping the entire file into the process's address space (which is generally faster than working with file read/write calls), rather than having to map regions of the file into and out of the address space." If you're a avid video editor or engineer working with CAD/CAM 4GB+ files (not uncommon these days), you've likely been running Windows XP x64 for some time.
As Diskeeper 10 had a multiple component architecture, both the scheduling service (dkservice.exe) and the defragmentation engines (DfrgNTFS.exe and DfrgFAT.exe) ran in native 64 bit mode. In Diskeeper 2007 all operations are controlled directly under the Diskeeper Service (still called DKService.exe), and it too runs native x64.
When you download and extract the purchased software you'll notice right away that you receive two instances of Diskeeper. One installation program is for x86 and the other for x64. Each comes in an independently labeled folder. An autorun.exe program will properly select the install file to execute. If you have an x64 processor but a 32 bit Windows, you will need to install the 32 bit version of Diskeeper; the autorun program will handle that for you as well.
The same support in Diskeeper (Professional editions and above only) will be available for Vista x64 operating systems as well.
Posted by Michael at November 21, 2006 07:49 AM
Comments
That's great news, and I'm glad more 64 bit software is available. I recently downloaded a trial version of Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premier 32bit and it's excellent - the best out there. There's one feature that I believe is risky and should not be enabled by default.
If you plug in a USB Mass Storage Device such as a 1GB flash drive, Diskeeper automatically defrags the flash drive in the background (Automatic Defragmentation is enabled without asking). This should NOT be enabled by default because flash drives are removable and so users might remove the drive without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" while it's defragging (this function is not possible because the drive is locked so the Safely Remove Hardware doesn't work). Uninformed users might remove it during defragging and this might lead to data corruption. Defragging a small flash drive (notice that portable hard drives are different) is probably not required since it's mainly used to store files - not run programs. I found this out because my flash drive's light was blinking constantly, but I didn't have any program using it. I had a hunch it was diskeeper.
If you load up Diskeeper console while it's defragging the flash drive, you see that Automatic Defragmentation is enabled. You can then disable it, and the defragmenation stops. But once the flash drive is removed and reinserted, Diskeeper will again automatically begins to defrag. The drive letter remains the same.
Please excuse this message in the blog. I just didn't want to provide my personal info in order to send in suggestions and possible bugs report.
Posted by: Kevin Norris at November 22, 2006 06:07 AM
Hi Kevin,
I agree with you. The primary purpose for "new volume detection" was to automatically address clustered volumes (that may appear during a server fail-over).
We are addressing the attached drives considerations with a new update - available in the next few weeks. This will be part of the Vista-support update build.
Posted by: michael at November 22, 2006 09:53 PM
I am running Vista Business SP1 on a Lenovo Laptop. I am constantly getting a windows error "dkservice.exe stopped working". Any ideas?
Posted by: Dick Fegley at July 4, 2008 04:10 PM
Hi,
I recommend contacting technical support as it may be a number of things causing it. If you are running pre-installed software (that came with your laptop) you can contact Lenovo's support team. For Diskeeper 2007/2008 please email Diskeeper support directly: tech_support@diskeeper.com.
Posted by: michael at July 8, 2008 05:28 PM