0% available for disk defragmenter

[Dr Zoidberg]

One of the servers at work has a 5gb OS partition which has 1.1 GB free that
is very heavily fragmented.
Disk defragmenter shows 22% free space but when you run it you get a warning
saying that only 0% is available for use and as a result defragging has no
effect.
Any suggestions?

There isn't anything that can easily be removed as this is a live server and
I wouldn't want to risk resizing partitions.


--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

Dr Zoidberg fumbled, fiddled and fingered:

One of the servers at work has a 5gb OS partition which has 1.1 GB
free that is very heavily fragmented.
Disk defragmenter shows 22% free space but when you run it you get a
warning saying that only 0% is available for use and as a result
defragging has no effect.
Any suggestions?

There isn't anything that can easily be removed as this is a live
server and I wouldn't want to risk resizing partitions.

Hi fellow UKRM'r ;o)

Is the pagefile on that drive? If so would it be poss to temporarily
transfer it to another drive?

or

assuming you have a data drive could you not copy say the Program Files
folder to a data drive then delete the folder from the original drive,
do the defrag then copy the folder back (or even restore it from a
backup tape?)

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Dr Zoidberg fumbled, fiddled and fingered:


Hi fellow UKRM'r ;o)

Hey hey.

Is the pagefile on that drive? If so would it be poss to temporarily
transfer it to another drive?

Nope , already done that.

The annoying thing is I took off 800mb of backup exec logs and the space
available to defrag went from 3% to 0% despite the total free space
increasing!?!?!?!?

or

assuming you have a data drive could you not copy say the Program
Files folder to a data drive then delete the folder from the original
drive, do the defrag then copy the folder back (or even restore it
from a backup tape?)

It's a live exchange server , so I wouldn't like to risk that unnecessarily.
I think we may just pay for a 3rd party defragger that will run outside the
OS , but if there is a free solution.........
--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

[Kevin D. Quitt]

Have you emptied the trash?

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Have you emptied the trash?

Yes, and anyway the recycler only uses the D: partition and not the C:

I've removed everything I can get away with and now have 3% available out of
23% free space.
Defrag does nothing for 10 minutes then ends.

--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

Dr Zoidberg fumbled, fiddled and fingered:

Yes, and anyway the recycler only uses the D: partition and not the C:

I've removed everything I can get away with and now have 3% available
out of 23% free space.
Defrag does nothing for 10 minutes then ends.

Ohh ... another thought

Move the "My Documents" & the IE cache? , also temporarily move the
hidden "$NtUninstallKBxxxxxxx" folders in C:\WINNT

I just checked on my PC and the uninstall ones were using 150mb

 

[Rick]

Yes, and anyway the recycler only uses the D: partition and not the C:

I've removed everything I can get away with and now have 3% available out of
23% free space.
Defrag does nothing for 10 minutes then ends.

Alex, what you can do is run Group Policy (gpedit.msc), and
set your Windows File Protection cache to a small number
(a few MB). Then clear out your cache folder (normally
\winnt\system32\dllcache). This will free up several hundred
MB. Run defrag, then disable the policy you set earlier (or
set it to default, the size of which depends on which flavor
of Windows you're running). Windows will repopulate the
cache on the next reboot.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Dr Zoidberg fumbled, fiddled and fingered:


Ohh ... another thought

Move the "My Documents" & the IE cache? , also temporarily move the
hidden "$NtUninstallKBxxxxxxx" folders in C:\WINNT

I just checked on my PC and the uninstall ones were using 150mb

Way ahead of you on that one.
--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Alex, what you can do is run Group Policy (gpedit.msc), and
set your Windows File Protection cache to a small number
(a few MB). Then clear out your cache folder (normally
\winnt\system32\dllcache). This will free up several hundred
MB. Run defrag, then disable the policy you set earlier (or
set it to default, the size of which depends on which flavor
of Windows you're running). Windows will repopulate the
cache on the next reboot.

That's something I've not done , thanks.
I'll have a nose at that tomorrow.
--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

[Rick]

That's something I've not done , thanks.
I'll have a nose at that tomorrow.

One correction.. Set your WFP cache size to 0 before
clearing out \dllcache.

 

[Michael D. Ober]

One of the problems that the Windows Defragger (and Executive Software's
Diskeeper) have is that they can't defrag the Metadata on the drive. The
build in windows defragger doesn't show it either. Diskeeper (full version)
shows it as green bars all over your disk. Raxco's Perfect Disk can defrag
the Metadata during a boot time off-line defrag (plan on your system being
down over Memorial Day weekend). If your Metadata gets too fragmented, you
will get the same symptoms of showing space available but the defragger
being unable to use it.

Mike Ober.

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

Free space on NTFS drives is actually located in 2 different locations -
INSIDE of the MFT Reserved Zone and OUTSIDE of the MFT Reserved Zone.
Explorer tells you the total from both locations. Microsoft's defrag APIs
do not let defragmenters use the free space INSIDE of the MRZ - which by
default is 12.5% of the drive.

What this is telling us is that of the 30% total free space on the drive,
majority of that free space is located inside of the MRZ and us unusable to
defragmenters.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a
commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support department.

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Free space on NTFS drives is actually located in 2 different
locations - INSIDE of the MFT Reserved Zone and OUTSIDE of the MFT
Reserved Zone. Explorer tells you the total from both locations.
Microsoft's defrag APIs do not let defragmenters use the free space
INSIDE of the MRZ - which by default is 12.5% of the drive.

What this is telling us is that of the 30% total free space on the
drive, majority of that free space is located inside of the MRZ and
us unusable to defragmenters.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a
commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support
department.

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.

I've seen your website , and will probably be getting a copy of PerfectDisk
once I can persuade the higher authorities to pay for it.
Thanks
--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.sffh.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk