Willy2

- Well, Defraggler tells a different story. Based on what I see there is that as the amount of files grows the MFT grows as well. But when the disk becomes fuller & fuller - at some point I see the MFT actually becomes smaller. According to my info the MFT is always much larger than is required. So, if the amount of entries would occupy say 20 MB in the MFT then the MFT is say 60 MB. And that makes perfect sense. It means that Windows doesn't need to waste precious time on enlarging the MFT.

- You can reduce the size of the MFT by using "Wipe Free Space" in CCleaner. When the disk is nearly full then one of the things Windows will do is reduce the size of the MFT as much as possible. - In spite of being advised to NOT Defragment I still would advise to defragment an SSD drive. But limit it to say every 3 or 6 months. The reason is the way data is written to a SSD. https://pureinfotech.com/why-solid-state-drive-ssd-performance-slows-down/

- In a previous post in this thread I posted 2 pictures in which the RECUVA GUI showed an absurd %. Perhaps the program "miscalculated" that % as a result of scanning drives that don't use the NTFS filing system ? Because I have 3 drives that can be connected to an USB port on my laptop. Each of these 3 USB drive uses a different filing system (NTFS , FAT and ExFAT).

For those who are too lazy to go to OEC's Facebook page or hate Facebook, I have copied all the relevant info on the topic "MAPI in OEC" from Facebook and placed it below. Users of the FREE version of OEC will have to wait until the next release of the free version of OEC. The new MAPI support allows you to do several things: • You can right mouse click one or more files and choose "Send to" ➔ "Mail recipient". This will open a new window in OE Classic with those files already attached and ready to send. • It should be possible to "scan to email" where scanner software supports this feature, without saving file first and attaching it later. • You can also resize images before emailing them - if you want to send smaller version of photos by email - right click them and choose "Send to" ➔ "Mail recipient". Windows will open a new prompt and ask you the size you want to send from smaller to large. After choosing a desired size, images will be resized to temporary files (original images remain intact) and those temporary files will be sent to OE Classic as attachments again, ready to send. • A dedicated "email" button on multimedia keyboards should also work now to open OE Classic. Note that in order to use the above features you must set OE Classic as default MAPI program (email messaging program) using the Options / General (shown in the screenshot above). This cannot be done from Windows 10 - there is no such an option only options to set as default for .EML files and for mailto: protocol. So it must be done from OE Classic's Options window.

- I noticed something else: when I add files to a folder/directory then the index file grows. But when I remove one or more files from a folder then it seems the index file doesn't shrink. And from that outdated info is where RECUVA seems to pull up infomation, in an attempt to find/recover deleted files. So, when one deletes the folder itself the change of recovering anything is "very limited". - I used to know how the filing system worked but that was in the "good old" FAT days. But it's clear NTFS works in a different fashion. - I also had a MS-DOS program that was able to make the MSDOS directory files smaller. But alas, that only worked on a FAT filing system.

- April 29, 2021: New version of OEC PRO available. - From what I read on the OEC Facebook page, this version of OEC now has full support for the feature called "default email client". Read the whole story here: https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic

- The main program is started by Task Scheduler every 15 minutes. After "Cleaning" the memory it automatically closes. You can change the timing in Task Scheduler. - Run "mini_monitor.exe". In that program you make changes about how the program behaves. make a shortcut to that file and place it on the desktop.

Here the confusion has only grown. I understand some things in your explanation and some other things are still shrouded in confusion. Do you have some weblinks that provide good information about what the structure is of the MFT and how the "Index ifles" (see a previous reply of mine in this thread) fit in the overall "MFT picture" ? You have layed out a number of dots. But I fail to see how all those dots (e.g. index files) connect with each other. "Fiddling around" with those index records also has produced some interesting insights. (Remember what my signature is for each post here on this forum. (Something with "A discussion ....... "))

- The latest version of OEC PRO v3.2 now supports MAPI. MAPI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAPI Still have to find GOOD information on what MAPI is all about. Has anyone some good suggestions where to find that info ? - OEC now supports some 19 languages. But users who want to help to translate the program into additional languages are still very welcome to do so. Send an email to the developers of OEC.

- Agree. The user can't "defrag" the memory. Because memory usage is fragmented by design and memory management doesn't enable the user to manipulating the usage of the memory. Other than with a number of APIs available in Windows.

- Those "Recover Memory" programs sometimes use very odd "tricks" to "recover memory". But there's one program that's absolutely safe because it uses a feature in Windows itself. If you want to reduce memory usage (and that includes keeping the filecache small) then install PcWinTech's Cleanmem. https://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

Quote: "A directory is a record, or number of records, in the MFT. NTFS will reduce the size of the directory on file deletion, shuffling the live entries up to overwrite the deleted entry. There are no references to deleted files in an NTFS directory. The MFT is heavily protected and any writes to it with, for instance, a hex editor are backed out in seconds. There is no concept of a 'vacant' directory entry." No, when a file is deleted then NTFS doesn't reduce the size of the directory & doesn't overwrite the deleted entry & doesn't shuffle all live entries up. If that was the case then RECUVA wouldn't be able to find & recover those "deleted files", would it ? It wouldn't make sense either in another way. Imagine a (VERY) large MFT with A LOT OF entries. When I delete one file that has an entry at the very beginning of the MFT, then it would take NTFS A LOT OF / way too much time to "shuffle all live entries" to overwrite only one deleted entry. And that undermines all your 3 other replies as well. In other words: There are entries that are "vacant" (or as Microsoft puts it: "unallocated").

- Fragmented directory files shown in Defraggler: See the picture inside the red rectangle. - Options for "unrecoverable files": Agree. The program indeed still needs to analyze the entire drive. But including the "unrecoverable" and other "less recoverable" files in the file list overwhelms & confuses the user (too much).

- Disagree. The directory file(s) and the MFT are 2 different things. The directory file(s) can be defragmented whereas the MFT can't with a program called Defraggler. Didn't you notice ? Never used Defraggler ?

- I my previous post I mentioned the words "Windows System Restore". That brings me to another suggestion: Defragment the files in the folder "c;\system volume information" upon start up as well. There are the files of the System Restore Points located. These files can't be moved by DF in Win 7 and newer. But perhaps it's possible to defragment those files upon start-up (like other important system files like pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, etc.).

- And here is a bug that need to be fixed in the next version of RECUVA: - When RECUVA is busy analyzing drives then something very odd shows up. The program shows a ridiculous high % and a very high negative %. Very, very odd. See the 2 pictures attached. - Question: Do compressed files make these ridiculous high % show up in the program ? Like they do in CCleaner ?

- Add an option/ options to hide all files that are "Unrecoverable" / "Poorly recoverable" / etc. Present these options to the user before RECUVA analyzes a drive. - Add one or more options to overwrite entries in a directory file. Or include "overwrite directory file entries" program code in the "overwrite selected file(s)" subroutines that are already available/used in the current version. As far as I know it's impossible to directly write to/ erase information from the Master File Table (MFT). That's why the program must overwrite entries in the directory files itself. Perhaps it's possible to overwrite a directory entry with e.g. zeros (or another character) that would signal to the NTFS that such a directory entry is "vacant / empty" ? - The developers of Recuva could take this one step further. Perhaps it's possible to even reduce the size of a directory file itself. So, if a directory file contains say 100 entries of which say 30 refer to files that don't exist anymore or are "securely overwritten" then perhaps it's possible to reduce the size of that directory file to the remaining 70 entries. The reduction of the size of the directory file could happen under a separate option or included in the "Securely overwrite files" subroutines. - Then the "Securely overwrite files" program code could contain the following things/subroutines : 1)) Securely overwrite files 2)) Overwrite "empty" directory file entries. 3)) Reduce the size of directory files - In the past I had a program called "Clean Disk Security" ( http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html CDS) that was able to reduce the amount of directory entries in a directory file. Several times in the past I ran RECUVA before and after running CDS. As a result of running CDS I noticed that the amount of e.g. "unrecoverable files" (as reported by Recuva) shrank (very) dramatically. Unfortunately I don't have that version (v7.xx) of that program (CDS) anymore.

- It's a bit more complicated. When I turned on the Hibernation feature and the Operating System created "Hyberfil.sys" I also had A LOT OF files that were created by Windows' System Restore. But Defraggler isn't able to defragment "Hyberfil.sys". Otherwise this file wouldn't be fragmented at all of have had a (much) lower amount of fragments.

- "Disable Defragmentation of an SSD" ??? I disagree. Because when an SSD has a (very) high fragmentation rate then that on its own will/can slow down an SSD. This is the result of the special technology of how an SSD writes data to disk. See this info: https://pureinfotech.com/why-solid-state-drive-ssd-performance-slows-down/ But I would limit the / a full defragmentation of an SSD to say once in 3 or 6 months.

- Another suggestion for the next version of DF: The user is able to decrease & increase the size of the drive map in DF (between the 2 red lines in the picture below). One way to do that is to place the mouse cursor on the black line in the GUI (see the picture below) of DF and drag that line higher or lower with the computer mouse. However, the black line doesn't show up in the GUI of DF. I drew that line in the picture. That means that the user has to make a guess where the mouse cursor must be placed. The user must make a guess what the "sensitive area" is where the standard mouse cursor changes into - what I would call - 2 connected arrow heads. (I tried to make a screenshot but to no avail) Suggestion: Add that black line to the GUI of DF. Or add some other graphic line / colored area / graphic feature that makes it more clear to the user where the user must place the mouse cursor in order to increase/decrease the size of the file map.

- Another suggestion fof the next version of DF: If DF comes across a file that doesn't exist anymore then let DF remove that file from the list(s) (File list / "Search" list).

I noticed that the developers of Defraggler (DF) are planning a new version of the program. Well, then they only have to read this thread to see all the things that can be improved/fixed. And as they can see, I have come across A LOT OF things that can be fixed and improved. Some of the bugs in this thread are clear and obvious bugs that need to be fixed and can be (easily (??)) fixed. But other bugs don't show a reliable pattern of when and where these bugs are occurring. In those cases I think this "irregular" behaviour can be fixed by, what I would call, "better protecting the internal DF variables" and/or improving the memorymanagement. If I was asked to give a list of the fixes/improvements that have for me the highest priority then it would look like this: 1) Fix the multiple issues/bugs in the "Move files to end of drive" options which prevents the program from properly moving the all right files. See the 2 red arrows in the 1st picture. 2) Improve the "move to the end of drive" subroutines. In the 2nd picture I have an example. Here DF moved a number of files (blue boxes + red arrows) to the end of the drive. But after moving the files there are still (large) gaps (black line & black arrow). 3) Improve the "display blocks" routines. When I click on every empty box between 2 groups of blue boxes (above the black line) then DF reported that there were still some 4 or 5 files in that gap (above black line) but not all these files showed up in the file map between the files. 4) (Sharply) Reduce the time the program needs to stop. The user can decide to interrupt the program when the program is performing some operation (e.g. moving files to the end of a drive). But then it can take a LONG LONG time (up to 5 (10 ??) minutes !!) before the DF program code has really finished "stopping". The sign that DF is still (very) "busy" doing something mysterious, is the (very) high CPU as shown in Task Manager. And when I am really fed up, I simply use Task Manager to abort the DF process.

- A new version of OE Classic has been released. From the OEC Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic ) : At last, the latest update of OE Classic - v3.2, 2021-04-06, https://www.oeclassic.com/ - brings you long awaited features (asked by many users!): New features: • [2021-03-14] Set as default program for "mailto:" links and "Email Link" functionality in some web browsers (which browsers ???) • [2021-04-06] Set as default program for opening external .EML files (also "Open with" shell menu) The above 2 features allow you to set OE Classic as "default" mail program for opening "mailto:" links (when clicked in web browser) and for opening .EML files which you may have saved on your disk drive as files.

@kasche Turn off System Restore en then reboot. That could free up A LOT OF disk space.

Tweaking.com has released 2 new versions of their programs: 1) Windows Repair (v4.11.2). 2) Registry Backup (v4.0). Source: https://www.tweaking.com/