Re: [Thinkpad] Re: A21e abrupt 20% increase in "System Files"

Silly question, huh?

I no longer think that malware is your problem (unless you take a
particularly negative view of your operating system!). Having never used
Win2000 myself, it never occurred to me that this could be a natural result
of its designed-in features. I now think you have problems with your MFT
(Master File Table) ballooning and the fact that the Defragmenter does not
defrag it. Telltale quotes:

"The Windows 2000 version of Disk Defragmenter displays "green" for what is
called "system files" and on an NTFS formatted volume this is simply the
combination of the MFT, pagefile.sys (if one exists on this volume) and what
is called the "MFT Zone" or reserved space for "MFT Expansion". The
defragmentation report only displays information about the pagefile and MFT;
it does not mention the MFT Zone because it does not effect in any way disk
utilization or capacity"

"As files are added to an NTFS volume, more entries are added to the MFT and
so the MFT increases in size. When files are deleted from an NTFS volume,
their MFT entries are marked as free and may be reused, but the MFT does not
shrink. Thus, space used by these entries is not reclaimed from the disk. "

The bad news is that there's no quick substitute for understanding how it
works. The good news is that you *can* learn how to manage the disk space
efficiently!

How NTFS Reserves Space for its Master File Table (MFT)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;174619

How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303079

Files Excluded by the Disk Defragmenter Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;227350

Disk Defragmenter in Windows 2000: Maintaining Peak Performance Through
Defragmentation
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/fileandprint/de
frag.asp

Deanna
dberman@4dv.net

> Is this by any chance an NTFS system?
>
> (Apologies if you've already answered this, but I have not yet received
the
> post to which Aryeh was replying, so I could be missing other parts of the
> exchange as well.)
>
> Deanna
> dberman@4dv.net
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aryeh Goretsky" <goretsky@adelphia.net>
> To: "Lawrence Silberstein" <montagefilm@mail.com>; <thinkpad@stderr.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 13:19 PM
> Subject: [Thinkpad] Re: A21e abrupt 20% increase in "System Files"
>
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > Have you tried installing a disk space analysis/visualization/management
> > program to see if it can tell you which directory or directories are
> > increasing in size?
> >
> > Also, have you tried setting the virtual memory swap file to a fixed
size,
> > say 1.5 times that of physical memory?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Aryeh Goretsky
> >
> >
> > At 01:00 PM 3/23/2004, Lawrence Silberstein wrote:
> >
> > >Aryeh,
> > >
> > >Yes. Did all that.
> > >
> > >Latest: I did the bullet and reinstalled W2K SP4; and reinstalled
> programs
> > >and drivers.
> > >
> > >Still a similar anomaly: Just dropped again from 29% "available space"
to
> > >19% available space.
> > >
> > >Puzzled. Uncertain what to try next.
> > >
> > >Larry
> > >
> > >------------------->
> > >
> > >----- Original Message -----
> > >From: Aryeh Goretsky
> > >Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 16:09:08 -0700
> > >To: montagefilm@mail.com, thinkpad@stderr.org
> > >Subject: Re: A21e abrupt 20% increase in "System Files"
> > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > Have you tried uninstalling all third-party security and utility
> software
> > > > and clearing all the temporary file folders for the operating
system,
> web
> > > > browser and so forth? I recall reading someplace that certain
utility
> and
> > > > and anti-virus type programs had problems with creating and then not
> > > removing
> > > > temporary files. This could be a symptom of that problem.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Aryeh Goretsky
> >
> > [...snip...]
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Thinkpad mailing list
> > Thinkpad@stderr.org
> > http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
>
> _______________________________________________
> Thinkpad mailing list
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Received on Tue Mar 23 17:15:32 2004