Creating a schedule in Diskeeper.

The “Set It and Forget It” feature allows Diskeeper to run automatically in the background while users and other processes are active on the system. The Set It and Forget It pane shows the details about any schedules you have set, and it’s where you set custom defragmentation schedules for your disk volumes.

A defragmentation schedule specifies the times or days of the week that Diskeeper will (or will not) be allowed to run. You can specify separate defragmentation schedules for individual disk volumes, or you can create a single schedule for more than one volume.

Click the Set It and Forget It option in the Command pane to pick from one of several commonly-used schedules, or to create a custom schedule of times when Set It and Forget It defragmentation jobs will be forced to run (or times they will not be allowed to run). When you click the Set It and Forget It option, the Set It and Forget It pane is displayed.
Schedules only affect Set It and Forget It defragmentation jobs. Any active defragmentation job previously started on a disk volume will complete. After it completes, the new schedule takes effect.

When you use the Set It and Forget It pane, always select one or more volumes in the disk volume pane before clicking any of the other Set It and Forget It controls. You can select more than one volume by holding the CTRL key while clicking on the volumes listed in the disk volume pane.
Setting a schedule for one or more disks is easy.

Here are the basic steps after opening the Set It and Forget It pane:

The following controls are available in the Set It and Forget It pane (details on each point are below):
Select type of schedule
Select which days to run
Select a starting time
Select an ending time
Set Schedule
Clear Schedule
Select type of schedule

Use this section of the Set It and Forget It pane to specify how often Diskeeper should run on the selected disk volumes. You can specify any of these run frequencies:

One Time
Continuously
Every 2 hours
Every 4 hours
Every 8 hours
Every 12 hours
Every 24 hours
Every 48 hours
Every 72 Hours
Smart Scheduling
Screen Saver
Smart Scheduling

With Smart Scheduling, you no longer have to decide how often to defragment your disks—Diskeeper will automatically determine the optimum defragmentation schedule for each of your disk volumes and adjust it accordingly.

The method used to determine how often Diskeeper should run is elegant in its simplicity. When Smart Scheduling is enabled, Diskeeper keeps track of the number of files moved every time it runs on each disk volume. When the number of fragmented files moved during a defragmentation run increases, Diskeeper is automatically scheduled to run more often. When the number of files moved decreases, the time between defragmentation runs is increased.

The Smart Scheduling option is available within the Select type of schedule drop-down list in the Set It and Forget It pane.
You can also set exclusion times when the Smart Scheduling option will be prevented from scheduling a defragmentation run. When Smart Scheduling is selected, the Select which days to run drop-down option list will be limited to these times:

Except Everyday
Except Weekends
Except Weekdays
Except Monday
Except Tuesday
Except Wednesday
Except Thursday
Except Friday
Except Saturday
Except Sunday

You can use the “starting” and “ending” time drop down lists to further define times when the scheduling of automatic defragmentation runs will not be allowed. For example, a schedule set like this:

Type of Schedule
Which Days
Smart Scheduling
Except Weekdays

Starting Time
Ending Time
1:00 am
3:00 am

will allow Diskeeper to automatically determine how often to run, but will also prevent it from running between 1:00 am and 3:00 am on weekdays (i.e., when your nightly backup is running).
Here’s another example, showing a Smart Schedule that will run everyday, but only between the hours of 7:00 pm and 7:00 am:

Type of Schedule
Which Days
Smart Scheduling
everyday

Starting Time
Ending Time
7:00 pm
7:00 am

Screen Saver Mode

When enabled, Screen Saver mode automatically starts defragmenting the selected disk volume(s) any time the screen saver starts on your computer. The defragmentation operation is paused whenever keyboard or mouse activity is detected on the computer. This option is available under the Select type of schedule drop-down list in the Set It and Forget It pane. Note that you must have a screen saver enabled for this option to function.

If you only have a single disk volume selected for Screen Saver mode, the defragmentation operation is re-started at the logical beginning of the volume each time the screen saver re-starts after being interrupted (by keyboard activity, for example).

When more than one disk volume is selected for Screen Saver mode, the volumes are handled in a round-robin manner. If a defragmentation pass is stopped, the operation resumes on the next volume when the screen saver starts again. For example, if you select volumes C and D for Screen Saver mode, when your screen saver starts, Diskeeper begins a defragmentation pass on volume C. If that pass is interrupted, and then the screen saver starts again, Diskeeper will begin a pass on volume D.
If the screen saver has not been interrupted after Diskeeper completes the defragmentation pass on each of the selected disk volumes, Diskeeper is automatically scheduled to re-start the defragmentation operation in one hour.

Because of the start and stop nature of the Screen Saver mode, it is not recommended on disk volumes that are heavily fragmented, unless you expect the computer's screen saver to be on for several hours. In cases where your screen saver activity is only for short periods of time, a thorough manual defragmentation or scheduled Set It and Forget It defragmentation should be performed before running Diskeeper in Screen Saver mode.

Note: Screen Saver mode is not recommended for servers. Many servers spend a good deal of time with the screen saver active, which could cause Diskeeper to run more often than necessary. This can cause unnecessary system resource use on the server at times when it is under heavy demand.

Select Which Days to Run

Use this section of the Set It and Forget It pane to specify days the Diskeeper job will (or will not) be allowed to run on the selected volumes. You can specify any of these time periods to control when Diskeeper is allowed to run:

Everyday
Weekends
Weekdays
Mondays
Tuesdays
Wednesdays
Thursdays
Fridays
Saturdays
Sundays

Except Everyday
Except Weekends
Except Weekdays
Except Mondays
Except Tuesdays
Except Wednesdays
Except Thursdays
Except Fridays
Except Saturdays
Except Sundays

Select a Starting Time
Use this section of the Set It and Forget It pane to specify the beginning of a time period the Diskeeper job will (or will not) be allowed to run on the selected volumes. You can specify any of these time periods to specify the beginning of a Diskeeper schedule period:

All Day
12:00 midnight through 11:00 P.M., in one hour increments

Select an Ending Time

Use this section of the Set It and Forget It pane to specify the end of a time period the Diskeeper job will (or will not) be allowed to run on the selected volumes. You can specify any of these time periods to specify the end of a time period Diskeeper will (or will not) be allowed to run:

12:00 midnight through 11:00 P.M., in one hour increments
Set Schedule
Click Set Schedule to accept the specified run schedule for the selected volumes. You must click Set Schedule for each schedule you specify.
Any defragmentation job previously started on a volume will complete the current run through the volume before the new schedule takes effect.
Clear Schedule
Click Clear Schedule to clear the currently active Set It and Forget It defragmentation schedule on the selected volumes. If Diskeeper is in the process of defragmenting a volume at the time the Clear Schedule button is clicked, it will run to completion.