NTFS system optimizations for Windows 2000

When you install Windows 2000, does the user need to make a choice between the FAT32 file system or the NTFS file system? This is actually a very simple question, there is only one reason not to choose the NTFS file system, which is that you also need to use an operating system that cannot read NTFS partitions, such as Win9x, MS-DOS, and so on.

Introduction to NTFS

NTFS is the abbreviation for the new technology file system. Microsoft launched the NTFS file system to make up for some deficiencies in the FAT file system, the biggest improvement being fault tolerance and security performance.

Fault-tolerant nature

NTFS can automatically fix disk errors without displaying error messages. When Windows 2000 writes a file to an NTFS partition, it retains a copy of the file internally, and then checks to see if the file written to the disk is consistent with the memory. If the two are inconsistent, Windows marks the corresponding sector as a bad sector and no longer uses it (cluster remapping), and then writes the file back to disk with a copy of the file that is kept in memory. If an error occurs while reading the file, NTFS returns a read error message and tells the corresponding application data has been lost.

Security

NTFS has a number of security performance options that you can use to protect files, directories, and remote methods on your computer. NTFS also supports Encrypting File System (EFS), which prevents unauthorized users from accessing files.

File compression

Another benefit of the NTFS file system is the ability to support file compression, which allows users to choose to compress individual files or entire folders.

Disk quotas

The disk quota feature allows system administrators to manage the disk space assigned to individual users, who can only access their own files, and the disk quota feature in Windows 2000 is based on users and volumes.

Optimize the performance of NTFS

Users can determine many factors that affect the performance of NTFS volumes, which are more important in terms of the type of NTFS volume (SCSI or IDE), speed (RPM of the disk), the number of disks contained in the volume, and so on. In addition to the above factors, the following factors can also affect the performance of NTFS volumes:

• The size of the cluster and space allocation units.

• Whether the volume was created directly or converted by a FAT volume.

• Whether the volume uses the NTFS compression feature.

• Fragments and locations in files that are frequently accessed. Examples include the Master file Table (MFT), directories, files that contain data that is frequently used by NTFS, buffered files, and frequently used user files.

The size of the cluster

Select the size of the cluster based on the average size and type of files to be stored by the NTFS volume. Ideally, the size of the cluster would be divisible by the size of the file (the nearest value), and the ideal cluster size would minimize I/O time and maximize disk space. It should be noted that any use of clusters larger than 4KB under any circumstances would have the following negative effects:

• The Disk Defragmenter tool cannot defragment this volume

• Unable to use NTFS file compression features

• Wasted disk space increase

There are several ways to determine the average size of a file, one way from the Start button, select Run, type cmd in the Open box, click OK, and then execute chkdsk on the command line, using the number of files on the volume to remove the disk space that is already in use. Another approach is to use Performance Monitor. The method is to start-> set the-> Control Panel-> Management tool-> performance, and then track the average disk byte/transfer of the Logical Disk objects, using this method to get more accurate file sizes and data types stored on the volume.

NTFS converted from fat

A volume converted from FAT to NTFS loses some of the performance benefits of NTFS. The MFT may be fragmented and you cannot set NTFS file access permissions on the root volume.

To check for fragmentation on the MFT, you can start the-> program-> attachment-> System Tools-> disk defragmentation, analyze a drive, and then click "View Report" to scroll to the MFT fragment with the mouse.

After converting a FAT volume to NTFS, the cluster size is 512 bytes, increases the likelihood of fragmentation, and takes more time to defragment. For these reasons, it is best to format the hard disk as an NTFS file system when the initial format is made.

NTFS file compression feature

The NTFS compression feature compresses an entire directory tree on a single file, an entire folder, or an NTFS volume. Using the compression feature will cause the performance of the NTFS volume to drop because each time you access the compressed file, it needs to be decompressed. If you want to copy a compressed file, the process is: decompression, copy, copy of the file to compress, greatly increasing the processing time of the CPU. It is necessary to note that the NTFS compression feature is more efficient on the Windows 2000 Professional Edition than on the Windows 2000 Server Edition.

You can compress files, folders, and NTFS volumes in the browser window's Properties dialog box.

Defragment

When fragmentation occurs on a disk, it requires more movement of the head when accessing a file, which has a significant adverse effect on performance. Keeping the fragmentation on the disk at a lower level is the most important factor in improving the performance of NTFS volumes. You can run the defragmentation tool frequently to complete this work.

The Disk Defragmenter tool for Windows 2000 allows you to quickly analyze a volume and ask you for suggestions on whether you want to organize the volume.

Disable NTFS features that are not required

Prevents the creation of short file names. NTFS also supports file names in the 8.3 format in order to maintain compatibility with MS-DOS and Windows 3.x. If you don't want to support these systems, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem in the registry, Change the value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation from 0 to 1.

• Prohibit recent access to updates. When switching back and forth between directories, NTFS updates the date/time label of the most recently accessed directory, and it reduces the performance of NTFS volumes on NTFS volumes with larger volumes. To change the Ntfsdisablelastaccessupdate value from 0 to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem, You can disable the Automatic Updates feature, and if you don't have this entry, add it to your registry.

Reserve the appropriate space for the Master File Table (MFT). The MFT plays an important role in NTFS volumes, has a significant impact on its performance, and frequently accesses the MFT during system space allocation and reading and writing to disk, so the MFT has a critical impact on the performance of NTFS volumes. The developer of the NTFS file system reserves a specific area near the MFT to reduce fragmentation in the MFT, which, by default, accounts for 12.5% of the entire volume, although the area is the least fragmented in the MFT, but it is not always appropriate. To manage the MFT space, you can add a type of reg_ to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \filesystem DWORD Ntfsmftzonereservation, its default value is 1, and its range is 1-4 (1 indicates that the MFT accounts for the entire volume 12.5%,2 represents 25%,3 37.5%,4 represents 50%).

You must change the registry before you create an NTFS volume. Modifications to the registry affect only the NTFS volumes that are subsequently established and have no effect on the existing volumes, which maintain the original MFT settings. Allocating more space for the MFT does not affect the normal storage space, because NTFS uses the MFT zone once the normal file storage space is full, which is sometimes the cause of the MFT zone being more fragmented. Therefore, we must pay attention to the storage space that the user's files have occupied, and reserve some free space on the volume, so that the MFT can have enough space to reserve.