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I have an issue where I don't have enough space to run an offline defragmentation of my exchange database. Can I hook up a 1 TB external HDD (like E: drive) and run the defragmentation process on it.

Sam Cogan
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  • If it were me, I'd move *other* data onto the external HDD and let the offline defrag play around with the fixed disk. Last thing you want is the drive disconnecting for some reason mid-defrag. (Unless you only have Exchange on the drive in question of course.) – Kez Mar 05 '10 at 20:07

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The eseutil /t flag specifies where to put tempfiles during defrag, so I guess you could do that. For safety's sake if you have enough space or more than one USB drive, I'd take a backup of the db beforehand.

I don't know that a USB drive will be very fast though. When I had an offline defrag to do on a server with low disk space and no access ot a USB drive, I used workstation with a gig Ethernet card and a file transfer utility (Windows networking is too slow for this IMHO) to fire the file to the workstation, run the defrag there (just needs a few DLLs and the eseutil) and then send the defragged db back. I had a handy backup on the oringal db on my workstation then, too. Sorry, can't remember what file transfer tool I used though. Could have been as simple as TFTP...

Edit: MS article for flags. USB2 HDD might be your best overall option for speed.

  • You can move databases safely and quickly by using eseutil /y "source" /d "destination". – Kez Mar 05 '10 at 20:08