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Hello dear subscribers,

A question for NTFS 1.2 (NT 4.0) experts:

Assume I have a large file, which has to be copied to the NTFS
partition. On the partition there are 10 scattered areas with free
space, which make up the size of the file. There is also one area with
free space that is enough to hold the file. If I then copy the file onto
the NTFS partition, will it be placed on the contiguous area or the
scattered one?

Many thanks!

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Yours respectfully,
Oscar

rob stow

NTFS makes a half hearted effort to avoid unnecessary
fragmentation of files, but it does not do a very good job.
The only way to be sure your files stay unfragmented is to
use a good defragger.

Since it sounds like the target partition might not have much free
space on it, I suggest you defrag it first and then copy the
file. (Defraggers go faster when there is more free space for
them to work with.) Ideally this will consolidate your free space
in addition to defragmenting the existing files on that partition.

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invisible

So much for "NTFS doesn't need to be defragged"... I never really did
believe that line!

rob stow

I've had a few bosses that believed that load of bull, but
nobody I know who ever has to actually take care of the
computers has ever been dumb enough to believe it.

For the bosses, it has always been easy to disabuse them of
that idiotic notion. Just run some benchmarks on a workstation
that hasn't been defragged since it was set up. Defrag it
with something you downloaded from the web. Run benchmarks
again. Show boss the before and after numbers - and then tell
him to think about what fragmentation has done to his servers'
performance. This scheme works particularly well if the
computer on the boss's desk is badly fragged and you use that
for a test machine. Usual result is a purchase order for
defragging software.


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