Clearing unused MFT

[Luiz Borges]

Hi,
I would like to know which are the third-party utilities capable of
consolidating unused MFT records, and so, shrinking MFT without
re-formating...
This article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q303079/ states that:
"Currently, only third-party defrag utilities consolidate unused MFT FRS
records and reclaim unused MFT allocated space.", so there must be some
tools that does that...

Thanks in advance,
Luiz Borges

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Not sure, but I beleive Perfect Disk can do what you want.

Jeff

 

[Tasslehoff]

The newer version 9 of diskeeper defrag can also resize your mft to whatever
size you want.

 

[gerryf]

Yes, I know the perfectdisk does it.

http://www.raxco.com/products/perfectdisk2k/

 

[Luiz Borges]

I tried Perfect Disk already, but with no luck, it there is an option to
remove unused MFT it is very hidden, also, i didn't find anything about that
on their docs...
Still looking for an app that does that.

Luiz Borges

 

[gerryf]

I think I misunderstood you.

PerfectDisk defragments the MFT and by doing so also removes gaps,
increasing speed of access. That is, it consolidates the metadata records
(it also moves the MFT to a more optimal location on the disk). It does not
shrink the amount of space allocated to the MFT (12 percent of the drive, I
think).

Is that what you are after--to shrink the space allocated to MFT (used and
reserve space)?

Why? Nah, scratch that--guess I don't need to know that.

First, be aware that Windows will use that reserved space if it needs it. It
just won't write data there until all other space is used....so what you
want to do isn't really necessary unless there is some reason that escapes
me (which is wholly possible).

There was a windows nt hack where you would add a registry setting, but I am
not certain it still works.

As always, use great caution editing the registry, and as noted, I am not
certain this still works--or that it will not mess up your machine.

You need to add a dword value to the following key, called
NtfsMftZoneReservation

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem

The default value for this key is 1.

You can also make the value 2,3,4--the larger the number the less space is
allocated for the MFT reserve.

Takes effect on reboot

I would be extremely hesitant to do this on a full drive...EXTREMELY. My gut
feeling is you could end up causing yourself a heap of trouble if you had
more files records then would fit in the MFT--at the very least, your MFT
would be created in a very fragmented state.

As noted, this is really unneeded, since windows will give you that space as
needed.

The other way to reduce the size of the MFT and its reserve is to use
smaller partitions. Various Partition Managers/resizers, need to rewrite the
the MFT when doing their work.

Does that help?

 

[Luiz Borges]

Thanks again for your anwser, I already know about the reservation of space,
but it isn't yet what I seek...
Let me try to explain, if you have a NTFS drive, with LOTS of files, then
you delete those files, those file records are then marked as unused in the
MFT and may be reused, the problem is that, if you have a drive for temps
and testing (like i do) with time if can have lots of unused MFT records
that serves for no purpose besides suckings space untill it is used again...
if you never use them again, you lost that space to unused records... so
what i want to do is erase those records and consolidate MFT without them,
that way I would save space. Understood?
An example:
if you have an MFT with space allocated (not reserved but already allocated)
of 500mb and you are using only a bit of the records, say 1%.. then you are
losing 99% of 500 mb until it is used again... got my point?

Luiz Borges

 

[gerryf]

Well, I think so, but I think I mentioned that already....If you check
"system files" under the drive preferences for Perfect Disk, it does indeed
defragment the MFT---essentially, removing the spaces within the used
portion--and consolidates that used portion into a smaller, more efficient
MFT.

uzzled


Unless, of course, I am misreading what PerfectDisk does as it defragments
the MFT....

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Perfect Disk will defrag the MFT, you just select the pre-boot defrag. It
will not resize the MFT or delete unused records from the MFT. I believe
you will need to use some other third party tool to resize and delete items
from the MFT.

Jeff

 

[Luiz Borges]

Unfortunely that's true, it just defragments the mft, is doesn't remove
unused records, you can check that by looking at the Total MFT Size, and
Percent of Use, on the analysis report of windows defrag...

Luiz Borges

 

[Luiz Borges]

I know that Jeff, that third-party tool is exactly what I'm searching.. ;-)

Luiz Borges