Defraging problem in W2k server

[benjithegreat98]

We have server that will almost completely lockup occationally and will refuse any connections to it. In my research it seems that the problem could be because of a lot of disk fragmentation. So I try to defrag, of course, but there is a problem.

When I open the defragger and analyse the C: disk it says that there is about 22% free. But to look at the display below it you would think we had less than 5% free. It is almost all red (heavily fragmented) and running the defragger does next to nothing.

I've run a check disk and that does nothing. I copied a huge file over that would have consumed the free space and then deleted it in hopes that the space would appear free to the fragmenter. That did nothing.

The drive is about 4 GB w/ about 900 MB free. It is a domain controller w/ a few hundred shares and a few dozen printers. The swap file is on a different drive. Re-installing is a last option.

Has anybody seen this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[porkchopexpress]

I've seen this before and found that running the defragmentor a few times cleared it, it seems to struggle clearing out the large files that seem to build up in the System volume information folder. Running it in safe mode might help as well.

 

[Davetoo]

Have you rebooted and then got straight in to defrag? I had server last week that has a 15GB C:\ drive suddenly fall below 10%. I could only account for about 3.5GB of info when I discovered the analysis for a defrag showed almost all the space consumed.

I had so little reported free space that it wouldn't even run the defrag, so I moved the swap file and when I rebooted to make the change go into effect, the C:\ drive was reporting properly.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[benjithegreat98]

I have run the defragger several times. Hasn't made a dent. The swap file already is on another partition. The computer was rebooted this morning before I arrived (really the power button was pushed because they couldn't get it to reboot). I looked at it about 45 minutes after this happened. I may have to reboot into safe mode to see what happens. Unfortunately, this means I have to schedule the down time.