question about PerfectDisk (7.0) and MFT zone size

F

flexy

for some reaon i could've sworn that PD 7.0 once shrunk my MFT zone
size. I had the normal 12.5% for mft zone allocated on my HD (160GB,
about 85% full).

And after some runs of PD months ago my MFT zone all of a sudden became
MUCH smaller, totalling under 1GB. My MFT was like 300MB and the MFT
zone maybe another 300MB or 400MB..which was fine because (as said) my
HD was already 85% full.

So...now i was experimenting around...and for some reason my MFT zone
is BIG again (although still under 12.5%, right now 6GB are allocated
for mft zone...still far bigger than what i had before. My MFT itself
is still a very tiny 300MB blotch and VERY unlikely ever to allocate
this).
xxx||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(xxx=mft, rest=zone, HD almost full ;)(

I ran PD a few times because i thought it might shrink it again.....but
it doesn't.

Question: Does/Did PD have the functionality that it shrinks the MFT
zone or did i do something else which might have overseen ?

thanks
 
R

Richard Urban

PerfectDisk doesn't shrink anything. It is just reporting what is on the
drive and will move it around.

I periodically have the MFT Zone change sizes. This occurs sometimes when I
run chkdsk c: /f. It has never caused me any problems. I believe that the
system is just handling the drive as it is supposed to.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
G

Greg Hayes/Raxco Software

The MFT Reserved Zone on Windows 2000/XP/2003 is dynamic in nature. By
default, it is 12.5% of the drive and goes from the first record of the $MFT
to the first non-free cluster following the last record of the $MFT - up to
a default max of 12.5% (this can be raised - not lowered via use of a
registry key). However, as soon as the file system puts a file inside of
the Reserved Zone and the drive is re-mounted, the Reserved Zone can
"shrink" to less than 12.5% of the drive. This can typically happen when
you get into a low free space condition as the file system typically avoids
putting files inside of the Reserved Zone until it "has to".

- 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.
 
T

TaurArian [MS-MVP]

Thanks for explaining that Greg. I love Perfect Disk and use it regularly.
Kaylene
 
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