G lendale, CA. -- January 9, 1998: A new world record in disk storage capacity was announced last week at IBM -- an astounding 11.6 billion bits or gigabits per square inch. However, two other events in the evolution of computer technology make this a mixed blessing. CPU speeds have increased a hundredfold over the last decade, from approximately 3 MHz to over 300MHz, while disk access speeds have only quadrupled during this same period. Therefore, a CPU capable of 300 million operations per second is being teamed up with a disk drive able to perform a mere 125 operations per second. This sets the stage for a precariously weak link in the computing chain -- the disk drive -- to become yet weaker.

W hile file fragmentation continues to be a vital feature of modern operating systems by speeding the storage of files onto the disk, it then takes extra time for the disk read/write head to locate the pieces of fragmented files for use, and fragmentation progressively worsens if left unchecked. A blistering-fast CPU wastes time while the disk head locates potentially hundreds of fragments for a single file, and record-breaking disk storage capacities make room for orders of magnitude more file fragments.

I nto the spotlight steps Executive Software International, provider of the defragmentation technology in Windows NT 5.0., which has announced the availability of its full-featured "Set It and Forget It" Diskeeper 3.0 defragmenter in a free 30-day trialware version. The new Diskeeper 3.0 trialware consolidates file and free space fragments together to increase system performance, and gives Windows NT users the flavor of the richly-featured full version of Diskeeper before they buy the product.

E d Young, Network Manager at Utah State University said: "Our Windows NT based machines were slowing down. It took 15 minutes to load a single graphical design drawing. Later we found that the performance degradation was caused by our 70% disk fragmentation....Once we installed Diskeeper, we were able to launch applications, access data, and download our graphics in a fraction of the time -- three minutes instead of fifteen."

T he automatic Diskeeper transparently eliminates fragmentation in the background, boosting system performance to new heights. Use of Diskeeper can slash software loading times and database search times in half and can speed up web servers, graphics, video, multimedia and financial applications. The new Diskeeper for Windows NT trialware is available for both Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server on the Intel platform and is downloadable from here .

P erformance benefits resulting from Diskeeper defragmentation can be remarkable, particularly on systems utilizing multiple CPUs, large amounts of system memory, and multi-gigabyte disks.

D iskeeper Product Manager George Goodrich said: "In light of recent computing technology advances, Diskeeper Trialware is a great opportunity for Windows NT users to sample the robustness of this full-featured, automatic defragmenter. It has fully selectable scheduling and priority settings, and will boost the speed of every application they run."

I n an exclusive new feature which advances the technology of defragmentation itself, the new Diskeeper 3.0 can now defragment the previously unmoveable Windows NT directory files. This cleans up the disk free space like never before and provides a greater magnitude of defragmentation and system speed.

T he full-featured server version of Diskeeper for Windows NT provides network controls that allow administrators to schedule, monitor and launch defragmentation across networks of any size or location. These features save network administrators from having to run around to each desktop to defragment disks or grant users the administrative privileges needed to run a defragmenter.

E xecutive Software has safely eliminated file fragmentation and increased performance for dynamic enterprise-class systems for the last eleven years, beginning with the release of Diskeeper for Digital Equipment Corp's VMS operating system -- an enterprise system with which Windows NT has shared development roots.

D iskeeper is certified as Microsoft BackOffice compatible, which indicates that it integrates to speed performance for the entire family of Microsoft BackOffice server products. Diskeeper is featured on the Windows Magazine Recommended List and is winner of the "Best of LAN Times" magazine award. Suggested retail prices are $75.00 for Diskeeper for Windows NT Workstation and $399.00 for Diskeeper for Windows NT Server. Available platforms include Intel and Alpha.