"On your most recent post could you provide a link to the documentation you refer to regarding the 5-10%? Thanks."
Here is the link to Microsoft's site where they talk about the $MFT and why it is now placed further into the partition:
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/storage/ntfs-preinstall.asp#Performance
"if the MFT is placed at the beginning of the partition, shouldn't the reserved space zone be just next to it?"
The Reserved Zone location is based on where the $MFT actually resides because it is calculated from the first cluster of the $MFT.
Under Windows XP, all but the first 16 clusters of the $MFT can be moved online. This means that the first 16 clusters of the $MFT can be located in one place on the drive and the remainder of the $MFT can be somewhere else. As the Reserved Zone is based on the START of the $MFT, you can get into a situation where the Reserved Zone free space is nowhere near the actual end of the $MFT - in which case when the $MFT grows it may not grow contiguously.
"I've got 100 gig hdd space so that meant 10gig of that was the mft"
This is incorrect. The actual size of the $MFT is very small in relation to the size of the drive. You are perhaps referring to the 10GB being the Reserved Zone? One thing that you have to remember. The file system can and will place files into the Reserved Zone as it deems necessary. Typically, it won't unless you get into a low free space condition. When you look at drive properties and look at the amount of free space, this number includes the free space that is inside of the Reserved Zone. You don't actually "lose" any free space or are prevented from using it.
- Greg/Raxco Software
- Greg/Raxco Software
Here is the link to Microsoft's site where they talk about the $MFT and why it is now placed further into the partition:
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/storage/ntfs-preinstall.asp#Performance
"if the MFT is placed at the beginning of the partition, shouldn't the reserved space zone be just next to it?"
The Reserved Zone location is based on where the $MFT actually resides because it is calculated from the first cluster of the $MFT.
Under Windows XP, all but the first 16 clusters of the $MFT can be moved online. This means that the first 16 clusters of the $MFT can be located in one place on the drive and the remainder of the $MFT can be somewhere else. As the Reserved Zone is based on the START of the $MFT, you can get into a situation where the Reserved Zone free space is nowhere near the actual end of the $MFT - in which case when the $MFT grows it may not grow contiguously.
"I've got 100 gig hdd space so that meant 10gig of that was the mft"
This is incorrect. The actual size of the $MFT is very small in relation to the size of the drive. You are perhaps referring to the 10GB being the Reserved Zone? One thing that you have to remember. The file system can and will place files into the Reserved Zone as it deems necessary. Typically, it won't unless you get into a low free space condition. When you look at drive properties and look at the amount of free space, this number includes the free space that is inside of the Reserved Zone. You don't actually "lose" any free space or are prevented from using it.
- Greg/Raxco Software
- Greg/Raxco Software