Windows 2000 disk defragmenting
As you know, Windows NT lacked a native disk defragmentation utility. From
the very beginning, users and system administrators alike wanted a disk
defragmentation utility built into the operating system. However, the official
word from Microsoft was that disk operations in Windows NT were so efficient
that there wasn't any need for such a utility. Experienced NT administrators
knew otherwise, but had to rely on third-party utilities for a disk
defragmentation solution. With the release of Windows 2000, Microsoft has
included a limited edition of Executive Software's DiskKeeper. This tool enables
you to both analyze your disk's current level of fragmentation and to defragment
the disk, if needed. And, if you have multiple volumes with different file
systems, you'll be happy to know that you can use this utility to defragment
FAT, FAT32, and NTFS volumes as well.
In this article, we'll talk about what fragmentation is and why you should
avoid it. We'll also discuss the features included with the Disk Defragmenter
utility, showing you how to first analyze a hard disk for fragmentation, and
then how to perform the actual defragmentation. Finally, we'll give you some
tips to help you better manage fragmentation on your hard disk.
What's file fragmentation?
When you create, copy, or move a file on your hard disk, the operating system
looks for blocks of contiguous free disk space where it can write the file. When
it can't find enough contiguous space, it looks for free space scattered
throughout the hard disk. As a result, the file you're working with may end up
in multiple locations scattered over the hard disk rather than in one contiguous
block. When a file can't be written to contiguous free space, it's known as a
fragmented file. When a volume contains many fragmented files and folders,
Windows takes longer to gain access to them because it requires several
additional disk drive reads to collect the various pieces. Creating new files
and folders also takes longer because the free space available on the volume is
scattered throughout the hard disk. Windows must then save new files and folders
to various locations on the volume.
How Disk Defragmenter can help
Disk Defragmenter locates fragmented files and folders on local volumes. It then
moves the pieces of each file or folder to one location on the volume, so that
each occupies a single, contiguous space on the disk drive. As a result, your
system can access your files and folders and save new ones more efficiently. By
consolidating your files and folders, Disk Defragmenter also consolidates your
free space, making it less likely that new files will be fragmented. The process
of finding and consolidating fragmented files and folders is called
defragmentation. The amount of time that defragmentation takes depends on
several factors, including the following:
- Size of the volume
- Number of files on the volume
- Amount of fragmentation
- Available local system resources
You can find all of the fragmented files and folders before defragmenting
them by first analyzing the volume. By doing so you can see how many fragmented
files and folders are saved on the volume and then decide whether or not you'd
benefit from defragmenting the volume.
The Disk Defragmenter window
You start Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start | Accessories | System Tools |
Disk Defragmenter. When you do so, you'll see the Disk Defragmenter window, as
shown in Figure A.
Figure A: For each local volume, the Disk Defragmenter window
displays the file system, disk capacity, free space, and percenage of
free space.
You'll see that the Disk Defragmenter window is divided into two main areas.
The upper portion lists the volumes on the local computer. The lower portion has
two display areas--one showing how fragmented the volume is and another showing
the result of the defragmentation. At the bottom of the Disk Defragmeter window,
you'll see a legend. Each color in the legend indicates a particular status for
a file, as described in Table A.
You can click each of the column headings to sort the volume list in
ascending or descending order.
Table A: Disk Defragmenter's color indicators
| Legend color |
Description |
| Red |
Indicates the files that are fragmented.
Indicates the contiguous (nonfragmented) files. |
| Green |
Indicates system files that Disk Defragmenter can't move. These
system files aren't part of the Windows operating system, but belong to
the NTFS file system; you'll see green areas only on NTFS-formatted
volumes. |
| White |
Indicates free space on the volume. |
Analyzing a volume
Now that we've explained how file fragmentation occurs and we've looked at the
components of the Disk Defragmenter window, we can analyze one of our volumes.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators
group in order to complete this procedure. Also, if your computer is connected
to a network, network policy settings may prevent you from completing this
procedure. First, select the volume you want to analyze, and then click Analyze.
Alternatively, you can right-click a volume and choose Analyze from the pop-up
menu. Windows 2000 examines the volume for file fragmentation, and then displays
the Analysis Complete dialog box, as shown in Figure B.
Figure B: Based on its findings, the analysis process recommends
whether a volume should be defragmented.
You can start the defragmentation process immediately by clicking Defragment
in the Analysis Complete dialog box. However, if you'd like to see details on
the degree of fragmentation, you can click View Report. As shown in Figure C,
the Analysis Report dialog box displays volume information in the upper portion
and fragment information in the lower portion. From this dialog box, you can
print the report, save it as a text file, or start the defragmentation process.
Figure C: The Analysis Report dialog box displays fragmented files in
descending order by the number of fragments.
Once you complete the disk analysis, you'll see a graphical representation of
the volume's fragmentation in the Analysis Display band, as shown in Figure D.
When you perform the actual defragmentation, you'll be able to compare the
Analysis band to the Defragmentation band to see the improvement to your volume.
Figure D:The Analysis Display band shows a graphical representation of
the volume's fragmentation.
Note: Additionally, you can defragment local file system volumes only,
and you can only execute one Disk Defragmenter console at a time.
Defragmenting a volume
Now that we've completed the analysis phase, we can proceed with the actual
defragmentation. As was the case with analyzing a volume for fragmentation, you
must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in
order to complete this procedure. Also, if your computer is connected to a
network, network policy settings may prevent you from completing this procedure.
With the volume you want to defragment still selected, click Defragment in the
Disk Defragmenter window. Once the defragmentation process concludes, you'll see
a dialog box confirming the successful completion of the process. As shown in
Figure E, all the fragmented files have been combined into contiguous space.
Since this is an NTFS volume, you'll also notice that no system files were moved
in the process.
Figure E: All fragmented files have been combined into
contiguous space.
If you've used the Disk Defragmenter in Windows 9x, you may be asking
yourself why the Windows 2000 Disk Defragmenter doesn't move files to the
beginning of volumes as it does in Windows 9x. As it turns out, on Windows NT
and Windows 2000 NTFS-formatted volumes, Windows reserves a portion of the free
space for a system file called the master file table (MFT). The MFT is where
Windows keeps all the information necessary to retrieve files from the volume.
Windows stores part of the MFT at the beginning of the volume. Because Windows
reserves the MFT for exclusive use, Disk Defragmenter doesn't move files to the
beginning of volumes.
How often should you defragment a hard disk?
You should defragment your hard disk whenever you sense your system is slowing
down when using the same files and applications regularly. You should also
consider defragging your hard disk when you notice that your hard disk drive is
working harder than normal. Because today's hard disk drives are so fast, you
may not notice much of a slowdown if you're working with many small files.
However, if you're working with very large files, you'll probably notice a
definite slowdown as the hard disk becomes increasingly fragmented. Finally,
fragmentation is also likely to occur when you delete a large number of files or
folders. Remember, you can analyze volumes before you decide whether to
defragment them. After analyzing a volume, a dialog box tells you the percentage
of fragmented files and folders on the volume and recommends a course of action.
If you analyze volumes regularly, and defragment them only when Disk
Defragmenter recommends it, you'll be able to manage your hard disk
fragmentation reasonably well.
Conclusion
File fragmentation occurs when the operating system tries to save a file to
disk, but it can't find enough contiguous space to accommodate the entire file.
As a result, parts of the file are saved at various locations scattered across
the hard disk. When you want to access the file, Windows 2000 must collect all
the fragments and reassemble the file. This decreases disk performance. The Disk
Defragmenter utility included with Windows 2000 can defragment files and
consolidate free space on your hard disk resulting in increased disk
performance.
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