A fragmented database file can affect the performance of your database server. Reducing disk fragmentation becomes more important as the size of your database increases.

The database server determines the number of file fragments in each dbspace when you start a database on Windows. The database server displays the following information in the database server messages window when the number of fragments is greater than one: Database file "mydatabase.db" consists of nnn fragments.

You can also obtain the number of database file fragments using the DBFileFragments database property. See Database properties.

To eliminate file fragmentation problems, put the database on a disk partition by itself and then periodically run one of the available Windows disk defragmentation utilities.