14 DAY TRIAL // Some time ago, Lenovo announced that its future IdeaPad laptops, known as Y460 and Y560, would be configured with an innovative storage solution made up of both solid state and hard disk storage. Known as the RapidDrive, the technology is capable of speeding up boot times for Windows 7 and increasing the overall performance by 66% through combining a PCI Express SSD with a regular HDD. Such hybrid drives can be seen as the hardware solution for instant boot times and, fortunately, it seems that the software solution is already available.
Diskeeper Corporation specializes in the development of technologies meant to provide storage solutions with an increased reliability, security and overall better performance. Among the software tools offered by the company are the V-Locity, which automatically and invisibly defragments files and consolidates free space on every Windows system it is installed. Another tool is the Undelete, which can recover deleted data by replacing the Windows Recycle Bin with a catch-all Recovery Bin. And, of course, there is the eponymous Diskeeper, which prevents system fragmentation.
Nevertheless, what neither of these tools accomplishes is a significant boost in system boot times. This aspect of computing has become a very important element, especially in the corporate environment, because it directly impacts the productivity by increasing the downtime in case of crashes or after system- or network-maintenance tasks. Diskeeper already has a solution, which is known as HyperBoot, which can effectively reduce the boot-up time and improve the overall performance of any system, as shown by extensive lab tests performed on hardware from a variety of manufacturers. The company even released an official video of two laptops, with the one running HyperBoot boasting a 54% decrease in boot time and an overall performance improvement of 118%.
“HyperBoot was specifically designed for OEM laptops and netbooks running Windows 7,” Derek De Vette, VP Global Alliances, notes. “But with the 20% – 50% boot time slashes we’ve been seeing in our tests—major Fortune 500 corporations have written and called in, unsolicited, requesting access to the software.”
Diskeeper recently announced that its roadmap included plans for developing technologies aimed at storage solutions such as the RapidDrive. In fact, the company revealed that its labs had already been working with such devices. When combined with pieces of software including the likes of HyperBoot, systems running hybrid storage may actually gain true instant-on capabilities. This is quite noteworthy, considering that the software is compatible with all existing and future desktops, notebooks and netbooks. Not only that, but the boot times do not degrade over time.
Diskeeper has made the HyperBoot available worldwide for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). More information on the software may be located on the company's official website.