On Saturday 5th July I was contacted by
Puran Software and asked to test the beta version of
Puran Defrag 5.0. Today they announced the release of version
Puran Defrag 5.0 for US$24.95 for new customers, and a free upgrade to all existing customers.
Is it worth it? You bet! It has an intuitive and easy to use interface, and can be set up to handle defrag tasks automatically. At present it is the only defrag product to offer a complete boot-time defrag of the hard drive, including metadata files and other "untouchable" files that can't be accesses when
Windows is running normally.
There is a "low priority" defrag option for doing a defrag while you work. I tried it on my 500GB USB (slow) hard drive and I was able to carry on working on my main drive without interference.
There is an "automatic" option to specify how often to check for fragmented files while the machine is running. There is also an automatic boot time defrag. I set mine to run once every Friday. So when I boot up my machine in the morning, it tidies up my hard drive, ready for the weekend. Sweet.
I plan on running some benchmarks this weekend, and will publish a full review shortly. This program is going to give ALL the major players a run for their money, especially in the workstation space. Check it out.
On Saturday 5th July I was contacted by Puran Software and asked to test the beta version of Puran Defrag 5.0. Today they announced the release of version Puran Defrag 5.0 for US$24.95 for new customers, and a free upgrade to all existing customers.
20 comments:
Is it necessary to have NTFS Last Access Update option enabled in order for Purans PIOZR technology to work or not? This option is normally disabled on my computer but I think it is necessary to have it enabled sp that Puran "knows" which are recent accessed files and which not. Alas, nothing would said about it in Help file...
It is not needed to enable "NTFS Last Access Update option" Puran Defrag uses information from Layout.ini for optimization purposes, accrding to Puran Tech Support
When are you going to to review it?
Well Donn you are totally correct when you say "This will give ALL the major players a run for their money". After trying out the different options my boot up time is now 20 secs and the PC seems a fair bit more responsive than normal.
A boot time defrag does take a while though as chkdsk is run first.
In all a very nice defrag app. In fact I may even buy myself a copy.
Well, according to the developers, they plan on adding an option that'll allow the user to have it not run (or run) chkdsk during a boot time defrag.
Hi Donn.............I was wondering how your making out with the new Puran Defrag 5.0? It looks like a great release and seems to be very well thought out. They are running a special anniversary price right now of $19.95 and I'm thinking of investing. I've always been more than satisfied with PerfectDisk on my Windows XP desktop, but the trail version of Puran 4.5 seemed better suited for my Windows Vista laptop than PerfectDisk. Any words of wisdom?
As I posted earlier I like this app very much.
I like it even more after realising you get the option to defrag a single file or directory from the right click context menu.
Again thanks for the heads up on this Donn.
It's well worth buying. I recommend it for personal use: I don't think its right for a big network (too many serial numbers) but for personal use its the best value for money. The review is coming real soon now!
Damn this is one helluva defrag program ! The price is good aswell, seriously thinking of buying it, hope the review will be posted soon.
Thanks to Donn for his great reviews, i must say i really enjoy reading them ...
Keep up the good work Donn !
I just registered my copy :)
This looks like a pretty good deal. Most of the major defraggers have suffered such feature creep (and clutter) in the last few years that you'd think simple disk maintenance had risen to the level of productivity app.
Puran seems to include all the must-have features of any good defragger, and for a realistic price. Plus, it didn't corrupt my encrypted hard drive like another top-name defragger once did. If I didn't already have one of those *other* defraggers, this would probably be my new top choice, assuming your evaluation of the optimization algorithms doesn't uncover anything untoward. Cheers.
There's version 5.1 available now + price decreased to $20.
This is one great program which I had to buy. The only thing missing is that it can't perform in-place defragmentation, so you need pretty much free disk.
Version 5.1 has been released, with some bug fixes and new features (such as "don't defrag when on battery").
Ven,
What do you mean by in place defraging and needing a free disk?
Do you have to have two drives on the computer to run it?
Thanks for the help
PS When will be review be completed?
My apologies for the delay in publishing the review. Last month my main laptop stopped working and had to be replaced. Then I got slapped with a lawsuit.
Puran Defrag does not need an extra disk drive. It works just fine on a single drive. It has defragmented a nearly full drive too.
I have been using it on my Windows Vista laptop and its brilliant!
I just tried Puran Defrag Free (Version 7.0, released January 7, 2010) on an "old" Windows XP SP3 box that has a 35gb drive. It seemed to do a reasonably good job. However, the boot time defrag would not eliminate the fragmentation of my MFT... and the outcome appears to be no better (or worse) than the native Windows Disk Defragmenter. After running Puran Defrag, the MFT remains with "Total MFT Fragments" of three (3). I performed the "Boot Time Defrag" option multiple times... with and without ChkDsk. I also tried the "Boot Time Defrag" option before and after performing a normal "online" defrag. It never eliminated the MFT fragmentation. (For reference, Windows reports MFT percent in use is 73%, 95mb, record count of 71,841 with 3 fragments). I was hoping that Puran would consolidate the MFT into a single (1) fragment. Also, I'm not sure if the 73 percent MFT "in use" would benefit from enlarging the MFT region, or if it is sufficient to leave "as is". I mistakenly thought that Puran would increase the region, or make a recommendation, if a RegEdit was necessary.
Is it normal that Puran leaves the MFT in 3 fragments? Puran indicates that the "FREE" version (for non-commercial use) is identical to their v7.0 product. Has anyone successfully eliminated MFT fragmentation, entirely, using Puran Defrag? Is there a better prduct that will entirely eliminate MFT defrag (and suggest an appropriate MFT region size).
Apologies in advance. I realize this thread is OLD... but, the site navigation doesn't make it clear where the latest Puran Defrag review is located. (GREAT WORK on the reviews! Thanks for the help!)
i have been searching for the same information f or some time now. I installed Puran Defrag v7.1
The Puran boot time defrag program INCREASED the MFT fragments from 2 to 3 and when I analyze it using Microsoft Defragmenter, the Puran boot time defragmenter increased the MFT fragments from 3 to 4.
Puran Defrag reports I have 3 MFT fragments and Microsoft Defragmetner now reports I have 4 MFT fragments.
I do not understand why Puran is reporting a different MFT fragment count than Microsoft.
I do not undrstand why Puran INCREASED my MFT fragments.
The equipment is HP Desktop Inter P4 1.7Ghtz, 2GB Ram, 80GB hard drive partitioned with the C drive having 35GB.
It seems someone could cash in if they really crafted an MFT drfragmenter. I wish I knew more about programming.
anyway....please help, is there a response to the above post or my post???
I have contacted the author for a response. Can I assume you did the boot time defrag?
Hello,
It is unlikely that Puran Defrag would increase the MFT fragments but anyhow some have reported such behavior including Donn, who then re-ran Boot Defrag to get MFT fragments to normal. To be very frank, the exact reason is still unknown.
I would recommend you to run chkdsk on your disk. You can do it this way -
- Open Command Prompt
- type "chkdsk /r C:" where C is the drive you want to check.
- allow it to restart if asked for.
Once chkdsk is over, run the boot time defrag again.
Please let me know the results.
Thank you
Regards,
Vishal Gupta
Puran Software
I have PerfectDisk 7 installed.
It has no trouble defragmenting
the MFT, metadata, or pagefile
(during the boot-time defrag).
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