Ok, not only am I posting in MPSIMS, I’m actually starting a thread. Clearly, the world is ending. 
But I didn’t think this was appropriate for GQ, so here goes:
Since I became a DOS/Windows user (1991 or so) I’ve been a big fan of MS’ Defrag utility. (God knows it’s necessary with Win98!)
But my two Windows NT workstations don’t have a defragmenter installed. Why, dammit? Is this an NTFS thing? And is there one available somewhere that I can install?
-andros-
Hmm… learn something everday. Never actually looked for the defrag utility in NT, the desktop guys don’t like it when you mess around. I copied this from NT help:
Searching for NT utility sets now…
“You CAN’T be evil. 'Cos no matter how many ‘bad’ things you do on purpose,
you MUST be doing it because you think it’s the right thing to do.”
The “Certified” admin guide says, there is no tool but Microsoft has made room for a defragmentation tool on the Tools tab of the Drive properties window. This book covers NT 4.0 and dated 1997. They suggest third party defragmentation tools.
Not sure if MS has made any available in the service packs. Up to SP 3 I don’t think so - at least did not auto-install. I’ll have to check the Resourse Kit and go through the sp 3 CD just in case.
The lack of disk defragmenter in NT is a nightmare for me. With all the animating, rendering, then deleting of frames I have to do.
The only thing you can do is buy a seperate defrag program like “Disk Keeper”. The good news is Disk keeper lite is free to download. (try C-Net central’s downloads section).
I use Diskeeper Lite by Executive Software. It lets you defrag your NTFS of FAT volumes manually, or you can config it to do an auto, scheduled defrag. This product only works on version 4.0 and does not support the HPFS file system. Here’s an overview:
n Diskeeper Lite operates on local (non-network) disk partitions.
n You must have Administrator privileges enabled before running Diskeeper Lite.
n With Diskeeper Lite, you can analyze the fragmentation on a disk (with a graphic or text display), as well as defragment the disk.
n Only one analysis or defragmentation operation can be performed at a time. You can analyze or defragment only one disk at a time.
n Unlike “off-line” defragmenters, with Diskeeper Lite you can run other tasks while defragmentation is occurring. However, since Diskeeper Lite runs at High priority, performance of other active processes will likely be impacted.
n Diskeeper Lite performs several “passes” through the files on the disk during the defragmentation process. The number of passes varies, depending on the number of files and the degree of fragmentation.
n Diskeeper Lite differs from DOS-based defragmenters in that it does not move all the files to the beginning of the disk. This is particularly true on NTFS partitions, since the beginning of the disk can usually reserved by Windows NT for the Master File Table (MFT).
n Unlike the full version of Diskeeper, Diskeeper Lite does not run as a Windows NT Service, and it does not log any events into the Windows NT Application Event Log. Click here for information about the full version of Diskeeper for Windows NT.
n Diskeeper Lite can be uninstalled in the standard manner using the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Windows NT Control Panel.
© 1996 - 1998 Executive Software International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Found this article on Microsoft’s web page Third-Party Defrag Utility for Windows NT and Windows 2000
“You CAN’T be evil. 'Cos no matter how many ‘bad’ things you do on purpose,
you MUST be doing it because you think it’s the right thing to do.”
Never mind, that article basically says to use Diskeeper for Windows NT. Go with that.
“You CAN’T be evil. 'Cos no matter how many ‘bad’ things you do on purpose,
you MUST be doing it because you think it’s the right thing to do.”
And just because I’m in a good mood here’s the link to download http://home.ntware.com/workstation/disk_utils.html
“You CAN’T be evil. 'Cos no matter how many ‘bad’ things you do on purpose,
you MUST be doing it because you think it’s the right thing to do.”
You guys are so cool! Thanks, Diskeeper Lite it is.
Next time y’all are in Washington, hit me up for a beer or six.
-andros-
I will agree with everyone that diskeeper is the way to go. I use DK Server because I run NT 4 Server SP 5. But as to the OP: Why doesn’t NT just have one already? The reason is that when NT first came out MS claimed the because of the way NT managed files you would not get fragmented files (long the bane of DOS/Win 9x systems). But as it turns out the marketing guys didn’t tell the engineering guys and it soon became evident that NT would need an occasional defraging (like, who wouldn’t?). Even MS decided to let third parties develop these, they did add that cute little button to make them easier to use.
What’s the ETA of Boot-Time Defrag?
I ran manual mode roughly 20 times last night and went for Boot-Time this morning. Its been running for a little over an hours and has not returned.
The disk is 4 gigs and still severely frag’ed. I selected all options for the Boot-time. The monitor is showing the blue boot screen and the disk light is blinking. The question is: What’s and estimated time for completion? Can this go several hours?
I’d hate to reboot if its in the middle of threading my page file.
NT 4 SP3, 64m, 333, 10ms disk
We use Norton Speed Disk at my company. It’s been integrated into the core bundle on all 30,000 NT workstations throughout the corporation. It works weally well…
-Katy