Unable to Defrag 1

[CEJJ]

Hi to all,

Could anyone know how enable/perform Defrag if you are only a power user? Only administrator could perform defrag. I don't want user to put in administrator group. I just want them only a member of power user. But I want them to gain access to disk defragmenter and perform defrag on their own HDisk.
How could I do this? Please help!!!!

thank you

 

[pbxman]

Forget MS's defrag - download Norton Speed Disk, and have them run that instead.

http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/v2/...P=10023&xid=35375&DSP=&CUR=840&CACHE_ID=40178

This link might not work, but you can download norton utilities trialware, and use the speed disk option in it. If you like it (and you will) you should buy a copy ..it's only $50.

Good luck

 

[TekKnowGeek]

Question: Is your root partition NTFS?

Windows 2000 has a command line utility called CACLS.exe that allows you to specify permissions for files/folders on NTFS partitions.

I have not used this utility on granting access to the defrag application before so you will have to bear with me. I'm pretty sure you cannot run "defrgfat.exe" or "defrgntfs.exe" from a command line , as these exe's are run from the management console.

I would recommend using the following where:
string sPowerUser = somePowerUser. //somePowerUser is the username of a power-user you want to grant access to.

Goto Start->Run->cmd.exe
Type the following at the command line:
CACLS %SystemRoot%\System32\dfrg.msc /g sPowerUser:f

I think this should grant full access to the defrag utility but as I've said I've never tried it. Can anyone who knows more about using CACLS respond to this thread and advise?

 

[pbxman]

It's not the defrag utility that needs admin permissions..it's the access level of the logged in user to perform the system-level operations.

If a user does use NT's defrag, they will need admin access to all files & folders in order to optimize it. The utility must have full control over all files & folders on the disk..hence the need for admin access.

You COULD use cacls to grant them admin access for the time being, and then revoke it later in batch, but that is a nightmare to manage. On W2K, i'd try scheduling the defrag under the system account, and see if that runs..but as I said before..W2K's defrag is grossly inferior to symantec's, and the user does not need administrative access to do it.

Try it - it's a free trial from the link i posted earlier.


TechKnowGeek - Cacls is only a way to set permissions from batch, and definitely helpful for multiple files & folders..but aside from giving them admin permissions, there's no other way to grant them full control of their entire drive..and this is something he does not want to do.

I'd use SpeedDisk, and if CEJJ HAS to use MS's defrag, i'd schedule it for an evening under a different account. There's not much use having a user defrag their machine during work hours anyway - might as well take advantage of the off-time at night to run the defrag.

Good Luck! Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful. Thanks!

Pbxman
Systems Administrator