Defrag MFT

[Ian]

We have an XP home machine with latest updates, 25% free
space. I have cleaned up, run chkdsk /f on reboot,
defragged several times. MFT still has 512 fragments,
which has not changed. I killed page file and then
reinstated it as fixed at recommended size and it already
has 32 fragments, after doing practically nothing except
deleting and defragging. Norton Internet security/AV is
running.
According to my reading defrag is supposed to defrag the
MFT. How do I get it to do so?

 

[david]

Let me know if you get an answer to this! I have the same
question. Is there any way at all to compress the MFT?

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Visit http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_d.htm and scroll down to
the topic titled "Defrag on boot - Enable/Disable".

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

You might wish to consider purchasing a more powerful
and thorough defragmenter program, such as PerfectDisk,
which has the capability to defrag both the MFT and pagefile
offline.

Perfeck Disk
http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/more_info.cfm

Try out PerfectDisk® free, for 30-days
http://www.raxco.com/products/downloadit/perfectdisk2000_download.cfm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Let me know if you get an answer to this! I have the same
| question. Is there any way at all to compress the MFT?
|
| (e-mail address removed)
|
| >-----Original Message-----
| >We have an XP home machine with latest updates, 25% free
| >space. I have cleaned up, run chkdsk /f on reboot,
| >defragged several times. MFT still has 512 fragments,
| >which has not changed. I killed page file and then
| >reinstated it as fixed at recommended size and it already
| >has 32 fragments, after doing practically nothing except
| >deleting and defragging. Norton Internet security/AV is
| >running.
| >According to my reading defrag is supposed to defrag the
| >MFT. How do I get it to do so?

 

[Steven K]

Visit http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_d.htm and scroll down to
the topic titled "Defrag on boot - Enable/Disable".

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

You might wish to consider purchasing a more powerful
and thorough defragmenter program, such as PerfectDisk,
which has the capability to defrag both the MFT and pagefile
offline.

.....

Nope, Carey, MS XP cost a pile of money and the user, having paid for this,
expects it in perfectly working order!

steve

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

David,

When you refer to "compress the MFT" are you referring to making it smaller
in size? If so, then that is not possible other than to backup all of the
data on the drive, reformat the drive and then restore the data. Of course,
this won't work very well if the drive is your system drive.

If you are referring to defragmenting the MFT, then ALL defragmenters should
be able to defragment all but the first 16 cluster of the MFT online -
Microsoft's defrag APIs under Windows XP fully support this. Whether a
defragmenter takes advantage of this ability is a different story.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a
commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support department.

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.