Hello.
Is there any relation to access speed and $MFT size?
I am wondering because when you have one big partition only (C drive) the $MFT can grow pretty huge.
I have seen $MFT sizes ranging from 600 to 1000MB in size. Is the $MFT loaded all the time in memory?
Does its size affects speed? If so, is there any way to shrink it (GPT Partition style)?
What command do I have to run to find it?
Where is it?
All I know for sure is that my search tool can scan it and spit out results as quick as I can type.
I don't think so. Here's what I use.
More info here:
(Outdated guide)
PrivaZer PC cleaner - Windows 7 Help Forums
The shellbags issue is fixed.
For anyone reading this post:
Do not run this software in auto cleanup mode and do not run it without saving backups unless you know what you are doing, can understand all the options (click through all of them to view) and understand the consequences of selecting various checkboxes.
I've been using it for ages - no problem.
So many users run it for the first time without understanding the options then complain that it screwed up their system.
EDIT: I did once find a free MFT parser/ viewer (required email request to developer to get the download and license) and contents of the MFT just reflected contents of the drive.
Last edited by Callender; 18 Jun 2020 at 17:19. Reason: spelling
The size of the MFT would have minimal impact on performacne. The sizes given seem very reasonable. It is not fully loaded into RAM but I assume frequently accessed portions would be.
The $MFT file is one of the NTFS metadata files. They are not visible in Windows Explorer or similar utilities. They can only be seen with special software. Prior to Windows 2000 these files could be seen with the dir command but that is no more.
Just for info - here's what I used. It appears to be no longer available.
Looking inside MFT - Windows 7 Help Forums
So looking back through the posts someone posted this link:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...file-table-mft
So I find:
It's above my head and I'm not entirely sure what it does but quoted from the article:
Note This is a run-time parameter and does not affect the actual format of a volume. Rather, it affects the way NTFS allocates space on all volumes on a given system. Therefore, to be completely effective, the parameter must be in effect from the time that a volume is formatted and throughout the life of the volume. If the registry parameter is adjusted downward or removed, the MFT zone will be reduced accordingly, but this will not have any affect on MFT space already allocated and used.
Thanks. I will leave $MFT alone because system seems to be more responsive after several reboots. Knowing also that not all $MFT is loaded into memory is reassuring.
To check your $MFT size and usage, open an administrative cmd window and run defrag in ANALYZE mode. E.g. defrag -a -u -v c:
PS - I forgot to add that things improved after splitting C partition into C and D.
@eLPuSHeR everything you want to know about $MFT: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ter-file-table
By the way if you use file search software like Everything or Ultrasearch that use MFT instead of the index it is 100's of times faste, and gets a lot more hits.
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