Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, and Defrag 1

[iolair]

I have three W2K8 servers, standard edition. On one of them, there is no Disk Cleanup button like there is on the other two. Scandisk and Defrag exist on all three machines. I've tried to add Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) to the third server, but it still won't run. Anyone encountered this problem? I like to do maintenance on my disks once a week, and I prefer Disk Cleanup as it cleans out all temp files.

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer

 

[technome]

google Desktop Experience windows 2008

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Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[technome]

Since desktop experience is installed with other software aside from Disk cleanup, many choose not to install due to the code bloat. Personally I leave it out and cleanup manually by cleaning out /temp directory, ocassionally searching for/deleting *.tmp files. As to defrag, I use PerfectDisk (roxio), much better than the OS defrag and it does boot time defrags (important to defrag resident programs such as AV and SQL).

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[iolair]

Thanks. I checked it out, and I'm going to see if PerfectDisk is in our budget. Thanks!!

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer

 

[58sniper]

Keep in mind that if the paging file isn't on the same volume as the OS, then other than temp files, you shouldn't need to defrag, as there should be very little written to that volume.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[technome]

Considering most servers are owned by small businesses and due to resources the pagefile is on the system partition or a data volume, and most servers have the resident programs installed to the system partition, defragging is still needed for those systems. From my benchmark testing, daily defrags produce between 4-7% (average approx 5%) greater throughput over volumes which are defragmented weekly (hardware raid arrays). Boot time defrags produce greater throughput increase to resident programs, my testing shows 5-12% (average approx 9%) depending on the resident program, with a bi-monthly boot time defrag. Iolair, personally boot time defrags still make me a bit nervous, even after hundreds, so I run them monthly or bi-monthly if production hours make it possible.


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[58sniper]

Having apps installed doesn't really do much for fragmentation if data files are written elsewhere. Even splitting an array so that the paging file has it's own volume will virtually eliminate paging file fragmentation. That leaves temp files and event log files as the source of fragmentation.

I'm not saying defragrmentation is never needed. But with proper planning, the need for it can be greatly reduced. And with many businesses operating either around the clock, or with greatly extended hours, the additional processing and reduced throughput during a defragmentation process is something to be factored in.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[iolair]

I have the OS on one partition, all the data on another partition. Using RAID 5.

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer

 

[technome]

Off the beaten path...Any future server you setup consider a separate raid 1 for the system partition, it is so much safer then having it on a raid 5. Years ago (90s), when raids were more expensive I would place everything on raid 5 arrays. Being careful and lucky I did not lose any of those arrays but I did have to rebuild system partitions due to disk corruption/partition issues. Raid 1 for the system alleviates these issues for the most part, plus adds a separate spindle set for performance. As to raid 5 safety, the arrays are getting so large on new system the chances of controllers finding multiple errors on arrays in a short period of time and thus failing an array, especially during "rebuilds" has grown tremendously; hopefully raid 5 use becomes history in the near future, at least for large arrays.


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm