NTFS file system optimization method

Windows XP supports multiple file systems, such as FAT, FAT32, and enhanced NTFS. When installing windows XP, you can choose to use the FAT32 file system and NTFS file system, there is only one reason not to select NTFS: that is, the user also needs an operating system that cannot read NTFS partition, such as Win9x, MS-DOS, etc.

If you want to deeply understand the comprehensive functions of Windows XP, we strongly recommend that you use the NTFS file system, while windows XP uses the NTFS 5 file system, the enhanced NTFS file system provides users with the update function. After the NTFS file system is selected, You can optimize NTFS to improve system performance.

I. cluster size

Select the size of the cluster based on the average size and type of the files to be stored in the NTFS Volume. Ideally, the size of the cluster should be able to remove the file size (the closest value ), the ideal cluster size can minimize I/O time and maximize disk space. Note that no matter under any circumstances, the use of clusters larger than 4 kb may have some negative effects, such as the failure to use the NTFS file compression function and the increase of wasted disk space.

There are several ways to determine the average file size. One way is to select the "run" command from the "Start" menu, Enter cmd, and press enter to enter the command prompt status, enter the command chkdsk at the command prompt to obtain the number of files on the volume and the used disk space. divide the number of files by the used disk space, the ideal cluster size can be obtained.

Another method is to use performance monitor. The method is as follows: choose "Settings"> "Control Panel"> "Management Tools"> "performance" from the "Start" menu, then, based on the average disk Bytes/transmission of the Logical Disk object, this method can be used to obtain the more precise total size of the file and the Data Type stored on the volume.

Ii. NTFS converted from FAT

The volume converted from FAT to NTFS will lose some of the performance advantages of NTFS. The primary file table MFT may be fragmented and NTFS file access permissions cannot be set on the root volume. To check whether there are fragments in the master file table MFT, use the following method:

From the "Start" menu, choose "program"> "accessories"> "System Tools"> "disk fragmentation" to analyze a drive, click View Report to drag the report information to the MFT fragment section of the master file to view the total MFT fragment.

After a FAT is converted to NTFS, the cluster size is kb, which increases the possibility of fragmentation and takes more time to organize fragments, therefore, it is best to select the NTFS file system during initial formatting.

Iii. Fragment

Even if the above-mentioned Master File Table MFT does not contain fragments, fragment is essential. When fragments occur on the disk, the head needs to perform more operations when accessing a file, the disk reading time is extended, which greatly affects the system performance. Therefore, maintaining fragments on the disk to a lower limit is the most important factor to improve the NTFS Volume, it is necessary to run the defragmentation program frequently.

Iv. Compression

The NTFS compression function can compress the entire directory tree of a single file, entire folder, or NTFS Volume, which can help us save some hard disk space, however, using the compression function will lead to a reduction in NTFS Volume performance, because each time you access a compressed file, you need to decompress it, such as copying a compressed file, the process is: first extract, then copy, and then compress, greatly increasing the CPU running time. Therefore, we recommend that you do not use the compression function when the disk space is large enough.