Select the product you need help with

How to analyze and defragment a disk volume in Windows 2000

Article ID: 300978 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q300978

SUMMARY

This step-by-step guide is intended for users who want to perform maintenance on disk volumes on Windows 2000-based servers or desktops. Analyzing and defragmenting disk volumes can help preserve the performance and general operation of the system.

Analyzing and cefragmenting cisk volumes

Because defragmenting a disk volume can take a long time. (This depends on the size of the volume, the number of files, the percentage of fragmentation, and the availability of system resources.) You should analyze volumes before defragmenting them, to decide whether or not it is worthwhile to take the time to run the defragmentation process.

How to analyze a disk volume

To check for fragmented files and folders on a volume:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click the volume that you wand to analyze.
Click Analyze to begin the analysis.
Review the results of the analysis after it is complete by clicking View Report. If the analysis tool recommends that the volume be defragmented, follow the steps in the next section.

How to defragment a disk volume

If the Disk Defragmenter tool is not already running, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click the volume that you want to defragment.
Click Defragment to begin the operation.
Review the progress of the operation in the Defragmentation Display window. Fragmented files on the disk appear in red, contiguous files are blue, and system files are green. The goal is to eliminate most of the red in this window.

Troubleshooting

Although any user can gain access to the Disk Defragmenter tool, the ability to analyze or defragment a volume requires administrator privileges. To run the defragmentation operation you must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the local Administrators group.