Defrag MFT

[Valerie]

XP Home.

Following multiple defrags the Master File Table still seems to be fragmented as below. Is this normal or am I interpreting the information incorrectly.

Master File Table ($Mft)

$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)

$FILE_NAME (resident)

$DATA (nonresident)

logical sectors 6291456-6364703 (0x600000-0x611e1f)

logical sectors 26812776-26862119 (0x1992168-0x199e227)

$BITMAP (nonresident)

logical sectors 6291448-6291455 (0x5ffff8-0x5fffff)

logical sectors 3817960-3817967 (0x3a41e8-0x3a41ef)

Thanks.

[infiniti25]

What tool have you used to produce that list? What other information do you have for us to interpret?

Are you having a specific problem with your PC or you just going overkill on the maintenance?

[minotaur]

Indeed, what tool or command did you use to get that information?

if your defragger is not defragging the MFT even after multiple passes, then download and use the free limited-time trial version of Diskeeper from http://www.diskeeper.com

I use the full version on my XP desktop and it defrags the MFT without any problems whatsoever, and rarely is even a boot-time defrag required. The output it gives is quite different from the one you posted though...more like a conventional defrag analysis.

[Valerie]

To answer your questions:

1. I am using the M$ utility NFI.EXE to display MFT info.

2. I have no specific problems with my PC, this started out as a quest for information on the MFT as to what size of file would remain $Data (resident) i.e. be stored in the MFT instead of at another location on the hdd. I had read that the max file size was approx 1500 bytes but this has turned out, in my case, to be slightly less than 700 bytes.

3. I am not getting into overkill with maintenance.

I have run Diskeeper manually and it appears to have made no difference to the $MFT or other metadata files, but did give appreciable improvements in defragging some data files. An example is shown below, but it did not defrag all data files. Perhaps Defrag and Diskeeper are denied access to some files, I'm beginning to doubt that either are permitted access to the metadata files ($MFT etc). Again, I'm not 100% certain that I'm interpreting the displayed info correctly.

After running XP Defrag:

\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\compreg.dat

$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)

$FILE_NAME (resident)

$OBJECT_ID (resident)

$DATA (nonresident)

logical sectors 1020984-1020991 (0xf9438-0xf943f)

logical sectors 1438872-1438879 (0x15f498-0x15f49f)

logical sectors 1974312-1974327 (0x1e2028-0x1e2037)

logical sectors 5212176-5212215 (0x4f8810-0x4f8837)

logical sectors 6379056-6379111 (0x615630-0x615667)

logical sectors 3118656-3118791 (0x2f9640-0x2f96c7)

logical sectors 3154632-3154647 (0x3022c8-0x3022d7)

After running Diskeeper following the XP defrag.

\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\compreg.dat

$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)

$FILE_NAME (resident)

$OBJECT_ID (resident)

$DATA (nonresident)

logical sectors 3648368-3648647 (0x37ab70-0x37ac87)

(The latter seems to have used 6 sectors less than after the XP Defrag, I can't explain this.)