Troubleshooting Disks and Volumes

Troubleshooting Disks and Volumes

Windows 2000 comes with three fairly robust, built-in tools that you can use to perform basic troubleshooting, cleanup, and repair. They are

• Disk Cleanup ” The utility that removes temporary files and other "dead wood" that may be on your computer's disks.

• Check Disk ” The utility that checks the file and folder structure of your hard disk. You can also have Check Disk check the physical structure of your hard disk. Check Disk can perform repairs as required.

• Disk Defragmenter ” The utility that defragments your hard disks by moving all pieces of each file into a continuous section on the hard disk.

We will examine each of these tools in the following sections.

Using the Disk Cleanup Utility

The Disk Cleanup utility can remove temporary files, installation logs, Recycle Bin items, and other "dead wood" that accumulates on your volumes over time. You can start the Disk Cleanup utility in three different ways depending on your needs:

• On the General tab of the volume's Properties dialog box (see Figure 6.5), click the Disk Cleanup button.

• From the Start menu, click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup.

• On the command line, enter cleanmgr /d x , where x represents the volume to be cleaned. The /d switch is not mandatory, but specifies the volume to be cleaned.

Starting Disk Cleanup from the General tab of the volume's Properties dialog box yields the Disk Cleanup dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.11, after the cleanup scan has completed.

Figure 6.11. Selecting items to be cleaned.

Select the items you want to clean and/or compress and click OK. When prompted, click Yes to confirm your selections and start the cleanup process. The Disk Cleanup utility can be configured for scheduled cleaning by using the Scheduled Tasks Wizard located in the Control Panel.

Using Check Disk

The Check Disk utility can be used to check the file and folder structure of your hard disks as well as checking the physical structure of your hard disks. Check Disk can also be configured to automatically correct errors that are located. Check disk can be launched by using one of the following methods :

• In the Tools tab of the volume's Properties dialog box, click the Check Now button.

• On a command line, enter chkdsk .

  When started from the command line, the chkdsk command has the following syntax:

   chkdsk [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R]   [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]] 

  Table 6.1 presents the available options for use with the chkdsk command.

Table 6.1. Chkdsk Options

Switch	Description
Volume	Specifies the drive letter, mount point, or volume letter.
file name	Specifies the files to check for fragmentation (FAT only).
/F	Specifies that errors are to be fixed if found on the disk.
/V	Specifies that cleanup messages are to be displayed.
/R	Locates bad sectors and recovers any readable information. Requires the /F switch.
/L:size	Specifies the log size to be created.
/X	Specifies that the selected volume is to be dismounted if required. Requires the /F switch.
/I	Specifies that less vigorous checking of index entries is to be performed.
/C	Specifies that checking of cycles within the folder structure is to be skipped .

Figure 6.12 shows the Windows 2000 Check Disk configuration options when started from the GUI. Note that the requirement for rebooting is the same for both GUI and command-line checkdisks. If you are scanning (that is, not fixing errors) the system/boot partition, then you can leave the system running, but if you want to fix errors or recover bad sectors, then you have to do it on the next reboot. If you are checking partitions other than system/boot, then you should not have to reboot.

Figure 6.12. Configuring disk scan properties.

Defragmenting Disks

It was once thought that the NTFS file system could not become fragmented . Windows NT 4.0 brought this belief to the forefront due to the fact that it did not ship with a built-in defragmentation utility. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that NTFS becomes fragmented just as FAT and FAT32 do, thus the Disk Defragmenter tool was reintroduced with Windows 2000. Windows 2000 includes a "light" version of Executive Software's Diskeeper for performing disk defragmentation.

Fragmentation occurs when the operating system saves a file to the first available space on the hard disk, instead of placing it neatly into an available space or the amount of space remaining. Over time, fragmentation can slow down or degrade disk performance. It's a good idea to analyze your drives for fragmentation once a month.

You can access the Disk Defragmenter utility from any one of the following five methods:

• On the Tools tab of the volume's Properties dialog box, click the Defragment Now button.

• From the Start menu, click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

• From within the Computer Management console, click Disk Defragmenter, as shown in Figure 6.13.

  Figure 6.13. Disk Defragmenter in the Computer Management console.

  

• On the command line, enter dfrg.msc .

• On the command line, enter MMC . In the empty console, add the Disk Defragmenter snap-in. This can be useful for creating powerful, customized MMC consoles for a variety of management tasks.

No matter which way you start Disk Defragmenter, your options are the same. To analyze a volume, click the Analyze button. You can defragment a volume, with or without first analyzing it, by clicking the Defragment button. The View Report button will show the analysis report again. You can pause or stop a running defragmentation.

The Disk Defragmenter utility can be configured for scheduled cleaning by using the Scheduled Tasks Wizard located in the Control Panel.

Check out the full version of Diskeeper at http://www.executivesoftware.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp.