Chuck,

I remembered that you use Diskkeeper to keep your computer(s)' hard drives defragmented automatically. There seems to be a lot of various settings in that program though. Because I imagine a fragmented hard drive could possibly impair the performance of DNS, would you share some suggested settings you find useful?

As always, many thanks for your support.

Alan

PS I bought the Toshiba laptop you mentioned in an earlier post and it does indeed zip. Thanks for that suggestion as well!

DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

Click KB 2012 REV D to Download a 30 Day Evaluation of KnowBrainer 2012 

Alan,

In principle, I agree with Lunis. Dragon performs all of its active operations in RAM. However, Dragon is constantly performing read/write operations in terms of updating its own files. The frequency with which Dragon does this can easily increase the fragmentation relative to these files. This can slow down your read/write operations. It's here that Diskeeper is a significant advantage, particularly with its proactive approach to fragmentation.

As regards to settings, you don't need to tweak these. The default settings are perfectly adequate. You don't want to tweak the settings unless you understand what they mean and what they can or can't do. Most of them are irrelevant as far as the actual defragmentation process is concerned. You can study the online help if you want to understand configuration a little better. However, I think you will find that the default settings are all you really need. There are some concerns with regard to external storage media and SSD drives, which require Hyperfast to prevent wearing out your SSD drives or thumb drives (USB). For example, if you want to insert and safely remove USB thumb drives, you need to disable automatic defragmentation on these. Otherwise, Windows won't let go of them when you want to remove them. This is basically a simple process that you can accomplish on-the-fly. SSD drives and USB thumb drives do require special handling and Hyperfast handles these issues. Otherwise, there are no special settings that are required. Diskeeper handles these out-of-the-box.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make Dragon NaturallySpeaking, we make it easier!

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for the additional response. As always, deeply appreciated.

While we are talking about utilities and just keeping your computer running in good shape, what else do you recommend that we do? I was using the Fix-It 2012 program to find and fix any Registery problems, in addition to using the Diskkeeper program. You had mentioned elsewhere running the checkdsk utility from time to time as well.

The reason I'm asking is because I just bought the Toshiba laptop you recommended (because in my situation I have to be moble) and while it really zips when using DNS 11.5 Pro as you said, I want to make sure I do everything I can to make sure it continues to perform as well as it did when I opened the box.

Your additional suggestions will be deeply appreciated!

Alan

DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

Alan,

Click on the Start menu, click on Computer, right-click on your C drive and select Properties, in the properties dialog select or click on the Tools tab, and then click on Check now. You'll have two Check disk options, (a) Automatically fix file system errors, and (b) Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

The only thing that you need to run is the Automatically fix file system errors, which is checked by default. Note that because C drive is your boot drive, you will very likely be prompted that the operation cannot be done at that time and that it will be done (if you elect to continue) the next time that you reboot. Don't worry about it, it will be done on reboot.

That's how you engage CHKDSK /f (fix). Just do that periodically once or twice a month, or if you start having persistent problems with an application failing to run after installing another application, being prompted persistently to wait while Windows configures…, And similar errors. Generally speaking, if you run CHKDSK /f once or twice a month, you won't have these types of problems. In addition, if CHKDSK finds lost clusters, it may notify you that it has save these in a folder called found.000. If you should see any such folders on your C drive, you can delete them because they don't contain any useful user accessible information.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make Dragon NaturallySpeaking, we make it better!

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -- Mark Twain

What about keeping various drivers up to date? Would you please recommend an “easy” to use, safe program that would accomplish that task?

As always, I deeply appreciate you sharing your time and expertise. It really makes a difference.

Best,

DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

"Any other suggestions as far as a Registry utility"

please excuse the quote in the text body as the as the "insert a quote" function does not seem to be working for me at present.