Analysis and defragmentation reports

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Analysis and defragmentation reports

You can view the Analysis and Defragmentation Reports after analyzing or defragmenting a volume. The Analysis and Defragmentation Reports provide detailed information about the volume that was scanned for fragmented files, including the volume size, the amount of free space available, the number of fragmented files and folders, and the average number of fragments per file.

For instructions on how to analyze a volume and view the report, see Analyze a volume. For instructions on how to defragment a volume and view the report, see Defragment a volume.

Analysis Report

You can view or print the Analysis Report only after you analyze a volume. The Analysis Report dialog box displays detailed information about the volume that was scanned for fragmented files and folders, including the path and name of the most fragmented files on the volume, and the number of fragments those files are in, the volume size, the amount of free space available, and the average number of fragments per file. If you use these files frequently, the impact on your system performance might be greater than indicated in Average fragments per file.

The average number of fragments per file is a good indicator of how fragmented the files on the volume are. The following table describes the possible averages and what they indicate:

Average fragments per file Description

1.00

Most or all files are contiguous.

1.10

About ten percent of the files are in fragments of two or more pieces.

1.20

About twenty percent of the files are in fragments of two or more pieces.

1.30

About thirty percent of the files are in fragments of two or more pieces.

2.00

Most or all of the files are in fragments of two or more pieces.

Defragmentation Report

You can view or print the Defragmentation Report only after you defragment a volume. The Defragmentation Report dialog box displays detailed information about the volume that was defragmented. The second half of the Defragmentation Report lists any files that were not defragmented.

If the volume is formatted with the NTFS file system and a file is open and writable, the defragmentation report might show small files (for example, 1 KB in size) with a large number of fragments. This is because when a writable file is open, NTFS attempts to allocate additional space to help prevent fragmentation as the file grows. Because Disk Defragmenter does not allow the extra space to be moved and consolidated while the file is open, the extra space is shown as additional fragments in the report.