Can I defragment an Exchange database using a network drive if I don't have enough space locally?

A. Yes, you can use the /t switch with the Eseutil utility to specify a local or remote location as the temporary folder to be used for the database to be defragmented. Using a remote location might slow down the defragmentation process, however. In the example below, I specified the Z drive, which maps to a network path (or you can use a UNC path), and a temporary file name for the database.

C:Program FilesExchsrvrbin>eseutil /d "c:program filesexchsrvrmdbdatapriv1.edb" /tz:tempdfrg.edb

Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Database UtilitiesVersion 6.5Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.Initiating DEFRAGMENTATION mode...Database: c:program filesexchsrvrmdbdatapriv1.edbStreaming File: c:program filesexchsrvrmdbdatapriv1.STMTemp. Database: z:tempdfrg.edbTemp. Streaming File: z:tempdfrg.STMDefragmentation Status (% complete)0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|...................................................Moving 'z:tempdfrg.edb' to 'c:program filesexchsrvrmdbdatapriv1.edb'...File Copy Status (% complete)0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|...................................................Moving 'z:tempdfrg.STM' to 'c:program filesexchsrvrmdbdatapriv1.stm'...File Copy Status (% complete)0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|...................................................Note:It's recommended that you immediately perform a full backupof this database. If you restore a backup made before thedefragmentation, the database will be rolled back to the stateit was in at the time of that backup.Operation completed successfully in 17.846 seconds.