Reserved MTF Space

[Maser]

Hi,

 

First of all, I am Dutch so if excuse me if my English isn't good.

 

Well, if I analyse a partition with Defraggler, it shows me that I have about 15% of Reserved MTF Space on every partition (exept the recovery partition).

Now, Windows says that I only have 103MB of Reserved MTF Space (XP-partition). How does this happen?

 

Some screenshots:

 

 

( The last one is out-of-date, sorry. I had HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem

-----> "NtfsMftZoneReservation" on 2, after I changed this to 1 it had reduced a bit.)

 

More info can be found here , sorry but its Dutch

[davey]

Hello Maser,

Welcome to the forums !!!

Thank you for your snapshots.

Here is snapshot of my C drive. This is a healthy defragmented drive.

I can't go into it but it must be this way. This is to show you what will happen if you actually need that MFT reserved space. You may already know that it is just an NTFS thing. That is why your recovery partition is different.

I hope you can read English better than I can read Dutch. This link may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174619

Thanks again, davey

Edited January 4, 2009 by davey

[Maser]

Hi Davey,

 

Thanks for your replay, I now know what MFT reserved space means. But on your first screenshot there are so few blocks, and on my disk like +100. How can I reduce this like you?

 

Maser

[davey]

Maser

That is what happens when you put loads of data files on the volume. About 50 GB of data.

Good luck Maser !!! davey

 

P.S. Do us a little test if you don't mind. Click on Action in the tool bar > Advanced > Defrag Freespace and see what happens.

Edited January 4, 2009 by davey

[Maser]

I see, but it is also just 196MB. Mine is 103 MB and I have so much blocks... That is what I dont understand I think there are too much purple block for 103MB...

 

Thanks for your replays so far

 

PS I want to help to translate Defraggler in dutch if you want .

[davey]

I see, but it is also just 196MB. Mine is 103 MB and I have so much blocks... That is what I dont understand I think there are too much purple block for 103MB...

Thanks for your replays so far

PS I want to help to translate Defraggler in dutch if you want .

In regards to translation, see this thread. http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=18092

 

Mine use to be that way also, with all those MFT reserved space blocks. Try my request in the edited post above and see what happens. davey

[NewHaunter]

... Mine is 103 MB and I have so much blocks... That is what I dont understand I think there are too much purple block for 103MB...

The purple blocks are only the "reserved space" for MFT (for when it grows). Not the actual MFT (103 MB).

That reserved space can and will be used for normal data once the partition becomes full. Then only the purple blocks shrink. (Normally it is 12,5% of the entire partition size).

 

 

MFT Reservation and Fragmentation

 

MFT contains frequently used system files and indexes, so performance of MFT affects a lot to the entire volume performance.

 

By default NTFS reserves zone, 12.5% of volume size for MFT and does not allow writing there any user's data, which lets MFT to grow. However, when, for example, a lot of files are placed to the drive, MFT can grow beyond the reserved zone and becomes fragmented. Another reason is when you delete file, NTFS does not always use its space in MFT to store new one, it just marks MFT entry as deleted and allocates new entry for the new file. It provides some performance and recovery benefits, however it forces MFT to be fragmented.

 

The more MFT fragmentation, the more the HDD heads movements to access the data, the less overall performance of file system.

 

Starting from Windows NT 4.0 SP4 you can define MFT Zone Reservation value through the Registry.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Value NtfsMftZoneReservation of DWORD type (1 to 4) allows you to specify MFT Zone for the newly created/formatted volumes(12.5 percent, 25 percent, 37.5 percent, 50 percent of NTFS volume accordingly)

Comes from here: NTFS.com Hard Drive Fragmentation.Define Cluster Size Properly

 

Nota: The built-in windows-defragmenter defragments the MFT. I tested it. Went from 9 fragments to 3. (To see it in the report the defragmenter must be closed and opened again). That was in XP.

[Maser]

Thanks all, I will do the defragmenting later (I don't have time right now).

 

Maser

[NewHaunter]

Nota: The built-in windows-defragmenter defragments the MFT. I tested it. Went from 9 fragments to 3. (To see it in the report the defragmenter must be closed and opened again). That was in XP.

MFT in 3 fragments is normal.

Yours is 2. (That is the minimum possible).

It comes never to 1. So there's no need to defrag the MFT.

 

PS: My MFT is 142 MB for 128.017 MFT-records and 88% in use. (A record is normaly 1 kB).

[Maser]

That is what happens when you put loads of data files on the volume. About 50 GB of data.

Good luck Maser !!! davey

 

P.S. Do us a little test if you don't mind. Click on Action in the tool bar > Advanced > Defrag Freespace and see what happens.

Ok, I did this but it didn't help... It is still the same

 

Maser00

[On edge]

My father increased his NtfsMftZoneReservation from 1 to 3 in hopes that the extra reserved space would help make defrags faster and his drive function better. He's been using defraggler exclusively, and it moved his reserve zone to the end (lots of purple blocks at the end, empty in the middle, and rest is close to center of drive).

 

Question: Is that a good place for the MFT, or should it be closer to center?

 

Question: What are the general guidelines for choosing NtfsMftZoneReservation value? [fwiw, I have 2 partitions; a 45GB primary for WinXP and programs, and a 67GB logical for documents, data, video, music, downloads, etc. (lots of coming and going)].