Unable to Defragment Partition Smaller Than 16 MB

ID: Q199826

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

When you try to run Disk Defragmenter, you may receive the following error message

"drive letter:" has a 12-bit FAT. The defrag utility does not support 12-bit fat partitions.

where drive letter is the letter of the drive you are trying to defragment.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if you are trying to defragment a FAT 12 partition of 16 MB or less. Windows 2000 does not include a defragmenting tool for FAT 12 partitions.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, back up the volume, reformat the volume, and then restore the backup to the volume. The data should be restored contiguously.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kberrmsg kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb