Hi Experts I am running low in disk space on my drive where the *.edb file is located. I was thinking to perform offline defragmentation but it can be only done over the weekend and because it is around 40GB. It may take longer to defragment the mailbox (appx 10-12 Hrs) at rate of 3GB per Hr. I wanted to know what will be best option reclaim the space. Second, thought was to move the user mailboxes to a new store but i can only create a new store on an external USB HDD or on a Network Drive because there is no available internal HDD space available. Could someone recommend an which option should i take between USB HDD or Network Drive? Kind Regards Bhavesh Bhavesh

Bhavesh,Another option would be to move the log files of Exchange to another volume. The log files may consume a lot of free space of the volume. Besides the time it consumes to perform the offline defrag keep in mind that you need some free space to perform it (at least 110% of the db size)About the option, use the network drive. USB is very processor intensive which may slow down your Exchange server.Regards,Johan blog: www.johanveldhuis.nl

Hi Bhavesh,I agree with Johan. A good article for your reference:http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/07/08/177574.aspxThanks,Elvis

Thanks for your reply. What do you recommend, creating new store (Network Drive) and move user mailbox and finally delete the old database. OR perform the offline defragmentation on the database (40GB). I have never performed offline defragmentation on exchange server or moved user mailbox. This will be my first time doing ? Any Guidelines will be highly appreciated. Kind Regards Bhavesh Bhavesh

Hi if you have a big maintenance window offline defrag may be a good option although it will take a while when you have an avarage speed of 3gb per hour. another option may be to just move both the database and logs to another volume. Regards Johan blog: www.johanveldhuis.nl