Windows 2003 Server would not defrag the files / disk

[Guest Liz (DBA)]

Hello,

 

I get some problems when I try to defrag the E drive of my server.

I have moved quite a lot of big files away from this drive, it has ample

space and yet I'm still having troubles defragging it.

It simply won't defrag area containing the files that I am desperate to get

defragged.

 

Any advice will be great.

Cheers

Liz

 

Volume capacity Free Space % Free FT Overhead

(C:)(System) 39.07 GB 24.49GB 62% No 0%

DataFiles (E:) 957.09 GB 554.16 GB 57% No 0%

OnBoard spare(J:) 87.89 GB 19.82GB 22% No 0%

PageFile(F:) 9.76 GB 40MB 0% No 0%

 

All of these Volumes are NTFS, of type BASIC and set up as Partitions

Layout Type File System Status

Partition Basic NTFS Healthy

 

 

Volume DataFiles (E:)

Volume size = 957 GB

Cluster size = 4 KB

Used space = 403 GB

Free space = 554 GB

Percent free space = 57 %

 

Volume fragmentation

Total fragmentation = 17 %

File fragmentation = 35 %

Free space fragmentation = 0 %

 

File fragmentation

Total files = 5,155,549

Average file size = 83 KB

Total fragmented files = 3

Total excess fragments = 45,778

Average fragments per file = 1.00

 

Pagefile fragmentation

Pagefile size = 0 bytes

Total fragments = 0

 

Folder fragmentation

Total folders = 1,393,087

Fragmented folders = 1

Excess folder fragments = 0

 

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation

Total MFT size = 15.15 GB

MFT record count = 6,549,366

Percent MFT in use = 41 %

Total MFT fragments = 2

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented

3,240 67.69 GB \prd\data\dbbackup\sunset.db

42,536 76.45 GB \prd\data\Database\sunset.db

 

 

 

Windows 2003(Enterprise Edition) Server Serv pack 1

Xeon 3.33ghz and 8 GB of ram

[DonnEdwards]

Re: Windows 2003 Server would not defrag the files / disk

 

I have had similar problems on Windows 2000 Server, and I used PerfectDisk to fix it. It turns out that the Metadata files can get fragmented and scattered over the disk. The fragments just need to occupy a single sector in a large open space to prevent the Windows defrag program from doing the defrag.

 

Try installing PerfectDisk and then do the boot time defrag at the earliest convenience to tidy up the metadata. You'll need the server version, which you can try out for 30 days.

 

Raxco has a special offer on their server product for $99, so it may be a good time to buy, but try it first in any case to make sure you like it.

 

You can find a lot more information about defrag programs at "The Great Defrag Shootout" on my blog.