a bug - the MFT got hit?

[charlieb000]

i couldnt install the latest version of defraggler because i have win2000 (i dont understand why i cant use the latest version - i even forced installed all versions of .net except 4, and you can even add extra DLL files if certain XP only commands are not available!) so i stayed with v1.17.172

 

it wouldnt defrag the free space, after clicking it, it asked me about emtying the recycle bin and i could save 2 gig but i clicked no. i checked the bin and i had nothing from this drive in it (how could they stuff that up?? and how could i continue to trust these people with my data... but i did...), then nothing happened when i clicked 'no' (i expected it to continue - even asking how much i want free, what files i dont mind moving, and what files it wants to move, where i want the free space, fill the knooks and crannies with little files etc.... and go back if you clicked cancel) and so i was wondering what to do next.

 

well i installed ubuntu, and set it to the 3 gig option (total of almost 4gig). microsoft programmers couldnt draw a straight line if they tried on the disk, the drive was fragged (didnt even bother to fill the straight empty areas) even splitting small files.

 

so i started with some small linux files and was ok, then i tried root.disk

 

after a while of moving it, it said nothing was defraged because the 3gig file was still split, and i saw it overwrote the MFT (according to it) from the start of the drive to about two gigabyte in, and about a gig was left where it was, with empty space after it (this empty space part happens with other files too)... the drive might still work as root.disk should be sort of empty. i reopened the program and yes it still says its in the MFT. if i do not click the file (so no squares are highlighted) then the red squares change to purple.

 

 

 

Charlie.

[charlieb000]

i deleted the offending file and ran the 'error - checking' thing under 'tools' when you go to drive properties, and it said nothing was wrong with it... so either MFT is a load of empty space unlockable using this program or time will tell (and the simple 'check-disk' program was wrong) or i missed out on corrupting my disk by a hair... but if its supposed to do that then you will have needed to change the legend a little - but then why leave the file cut in half still - there was nothing where the 2gigs stopped, it could have put the whole file in the MFT.... the last four purple squares were filled with another file (but by windows).

 

 

charlie

[Guest]

I'm guessing you don't know what the MFT is or how NTFS works.

 

Basically the MFT is data about data and integral to your hard drive and the NTFS file system. Normally the space reserved for it is not touched but when your hard drive is nearly full it can use it to store data. Generally data is stored in the first free sector then the next one and so on until it is fully stored. This, of course, leads to fragmentation and is what defragging free space tries to solve.

 

In the scenario with your file you can see that your hard drive had insufficient and fragmented space to store the file and so went into the MFT. I'm not entirely sure why the defragmentation of your file went like that but generally defragmentation programs start to act funny when you have very limited space.

 

The 2GB in the recycling bin could have been hidden files or the like which are invisible unless you change your settings which could account for it. Also, I'm pretty sure each partition seems to have its own Recycle Bin.

 

Basic solution:

 

Delete useless stuff from your hard drive. You can use CCleaner to help by deleting useless Temp files and other rubbish.

 

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

[Rob Defraggle]

i couldnt install the latest version of defraggler because i have win2000 (i dont understand why i cant use the latest version - i even forced installed all versions of .net except 4, and you can even add extra DLL files if certain XP only commands are not available!) so i stayed with v1.17.172

On the File Hippo Download page, 1.21 is still available which is a recent release that works under Win 2000. It has bug fixes and some feature improvments.

 

It's well known that the Windows block allocation policies are rather crude, so there's nothing unusual about small files being fragmented (more modern Windows may do a bit better). You can analyse, and then click on file list entries to show the layout of fragmented files, as well as go through the blocks to find the reason why some files are fragmented (split by unmoveable system files).

 

The $MFT file is not defraggable, and having a large reserved area for it seems to be a feature of older Win versions (pre Vista).

 

You may be able to free space that's wasted after Windows updates, the free program WinDirStat can help track down where to concentrate. On an old XP machine I looked at, 30% of disk was taken up by such that the owner knew nothing about.

 

If a 3GB file is fragmented in 100 pieces, each chunk is still about 3O MB so is unlikely to be a performance issue, having it in 2 chunks really is not a real performance problem.

 

I'm guessing as you install Ubuntu onto the hard drive, you really want to free up space at end of drive to shrink the Windows partition, which is why "unmoveable" files are so bothersome rather than the actual (small level of) fragmentation which defrag algorithmns may be ignoring as not worth the bother to solve.

 

To avoid issues like that, I prefer to install Windows C: into a moderately sized prepared partition, with other partitions for data or installs of large disk hog programs like games, rather than allow it the whole disk.