'Rainy' wrote:
|I am usingDiskeeperPro.. a wonderful program.. but it is telling me I
need
| to increase the size of the MFT ? and I can't find a way to do that inside
| the program.. any help appreciated.. seems like since the MFT IS ONLY 28mb
| it fills up quite easily with fragments. So I need to increase the size!
| thanks Rainy ps. keep it simple techs, ok? lol
_____
How large is the volume? By default NTFS reserves 12.5% of the volume for
the MFT. NTFS will grow the size of the MFT as necessary, up to the limit
of that reserved space, UNLESS the volume is so full that the reserved space
begins to be used for file storage.
The question you SHOULD ask is if space reserved for the MFT is still
available. If it is, trust NTFS. If it is not, consider cleaning up your
volume, expanding the volume size, or adding a hard drive.
For a more apt answer, post the volume size and the unused space size.
Phil Weldon
|
|
The Master File Table (MFT) is, in a sense, a file containing records
about each file on an NTFS volume. In general terms, one file record
exists in the MFT for each file on the volume. (There are exceptions
to this. For example, a highly-fragmented file can require multiple
file records in the MFT to store the information about the many
fragments that make up the file.) When an NTFS volume is first
created, Windows reserves a portion of the volume for the MFT. As
files are added to the volume, the MFT grows as additional file
records are added to it. As the disk fills, it is possible for the MFT
to outgrow the space originally reserved for it. When this happens,
additional new space is reserved for the MFT, but this new space is
usually not adjacent to the original MFT zone. This is the cause of
MFT fragmentation.
Also, when free space becomes too low, files get written into the
space reserved for the MFT, thus causing the MFT to eventually expand
around these files in a fragmented manner. This is another common
cause of MFT fragmentation.
The MFT configuration tool (Frag Shield) in Diskeeper helps pre-
extend the MFT in a contiguous manner, so future growth of the MFT
will not result in fragmented extensions of the file. Approximately
one spare file record is needed for each file that will occupy the
volume in the future. The number of file records to add is determined
in one of two ways:
Frag Shield recommends the size increase based on the estimated number
of files that could occupy the volume. This estimate is based on the
current average file size and amount of available free space.
You can enter in how many files you estimate will potentially occupy
the volume.
Tip: Pre-extending the MFT can be beneficial in the early stages of
setting up a computer system, including cases where you are creating
"images" of the system to deploy to other computers.
Once the number of file records to add has been determined, Frag
Shield ensures it is safe to add these records. In other words, there
must be adequate free space in the volume (20% after the MFT has been
expanded) and if adding the records would fragment the MFT, or the MFT
is already too fragmented, then the MFT is defragmented and/or files
are moved to allow the MFT to extend continuously. (Windows 2000
requires MFT defragmentation be done at boot-time.)
On an ongoing basis, whenever analysis and defragmentation of the
volume is done, the percentage of free MFT space is checked and if it
is beyond a certain percentage of use, the Reliability pane shows this
information, recommends the MFT configuration tool be run again, and
provides a link to run the tool.
Note: Once the MFT is extended, it cannot be reduced in size without
reformatting the volume.
