Spool Directory

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In addition to the Spooler service in Windows NT, there is also a spool directory, which is the location on the hard disk where print jobs are stored while spooling. By default this directory is found under the Windows NT Root\system32\spool\printers directory.




This one directory is used for spooling all printers defined on the print server.

If you notice the hard disk thrashing or documents not printing or not reaching the print server, check to make sure that available space exists on the partition where the spool directory is located. If there is not sufficient disk space (minimally about 5 MB free, more if there are complex print jobs) available, you must free up some disk space. If that is not possible, you must move the spool directory to another location. You can do this by going into the Server Properties within the Printers folder (see Figure 3.22).

To change the spool directory, complete the following steps:

1.	Open the Printers folder by going to the Start button, Settings, Printers.
2.	From the File menu, choose Server Properties.
3.	On the Advanced tab, type in the new location for the spool directory.

In Windows NT 3.51, there was no graphical interface for changing the spool directory. It could only be changed in the Registry. Because this is something different in Windows NT 4.0, watch for it on the exam.