About 5 months ago I started using PerfectDisk 2008 with my new Vista machine. The software is actually a competitor of Diskkeeper, another disk defragmenting software that I reviewed ages back. So, here is the review.

First Impression: Well, I kinda hate the office like interface. A very poor copy of the office interface cause you could not hide the ribbon - very dull that is. You can not even change the color, it's always blue. Doing a manual defrag was at first stupidly difficult, probably because I was used to using Diskkeeper. I almost hated the software when I first installed it, but I still gave it a try.

Setup: Well, installing the software and have it running was never an issue with my Vista 32bit pc.

Configuration: Difficult at first but when you have it done, it's quite rewarding. Configuration is all about setting the Autopilot. In my case, I don't want to run scheduled checks so I had Full Auto Schedule created and Screen Saver Schedule instead. What this does is it defragments my drive every 5 days as well as defragment my drive when my screen saver shows up. This works for me because I usually leave my pc turned on even when I am asleep.

Experience: Well, it's as if I am running nothing in my background. I get the performance I should get with my machine and after I am done doing my work, disk defragmentation kicks in, not interfering with my work. I almost forgot I have a disk defragmenter running in background. People at PerfectDisk got this right - a disk defragmenter not interfering with your work or game when using your pc. However, using PerfectDisk to automatically defragment my external hard drive gave me a minor problem. After having my screen saver shown, trying to eject the external hard drive was next to impossible. Probably PerfectDisk was still accessing the drive or something that's why I had the option turned off. FYI: It's turned off my default.

Conclusion:  Considering the interface and the minor glitch with my external hard drive, I give this software a rating of 8 out of 10. If you want a disk defragmenter that will work in the background without interfering with your work ,then this is the software for you.