Speedup Hard Drives - 10 NTFS Performance Hacks
Posted on February 18th, 2007 by Jason
I’ve featured some of these tweaks previously, in my PC optimisation guides, but some of these are new to me, particularly the tweaks to improve page file performance. The 10 tweaks are:
1. Disable Short Filenames
2. Name Your Files Appropriately
3. Use More Folders
4. Use More Partitions
5. Plan Your Cluster Size
6. Defragment Regularly
7. Reserve Space for the MFT
8. Disable Last Access Time
9. Turn Off (or On) the Indexing Service
10. Use FAT32 for the Paging File
For instructions on how to implement each tweak click here
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Tags: access, appropriately, cluster_size, defragment, fat32, folders, Hardware, indexing_service, mft, paging_file, partitions, pc_optimisation, reserve_space, tweak, Windows
Kesh on 20 Feb 2007 at 2:43 am #
Your tweaks on enhance the NTFS performance seems will ‘lag’ more then make it more ‘quicker’. Such as, create more folder and partitions and use FAT32 for paging files. I just thought, so if I’m wrong correct me with thorough explanation
Thank You.
Elliott on 04 Aug 2007 at 4:09 am #
Yeah,
1) Disable short Filenames. (Unless you haven’t cleaned your system in 10 years, you will see no results whatsoever.)
2) Name your files appropriately (Don’t fuck with the File Names or Extensions, you’ll just screw up the XP’s delicate registry.)
3) Use more folders. (Sit and ask yourself, honestly, how would making more folders increase performance?, Honestly)
4) Partition the hard drive. ( This almost plausible, Partitioning the Hard Drive splits it up into easier to read categories, or sections, of the hard drive, but is really only useful in very very large Hard drives, and I recommended A Defragmentation of the Hard drive instead.)
5) Plan the cluster size. (Again, Insignificant.)
6) Defragment regularly. ( The best, and most accurate tip in the list.)
The rest are insignificant, and I’m tired of typing.
You won’t really see any results from any of these, except Number 6.
If your performance is really really really bad, look at a better guide.
Chris on 18 Sep 2007 at 11:33 pm #
You wont see any improvements fro,,,,!
Are you KIDDING dude?!?!
7. Reserve Space for the MFT
As you continue to put more and more info on your drive, the MFT will grow; if you did not reserve adequate space for it, it will fragment. As you access a directory, more and more you will notice your computer lags, as windows attempts to get all the fregmented pieces read!
8. Disable Last Access Time
WHAT! This wont show any improvement! Are you high???
If you loaded a game. It would take forever if this was not disabled as windows keeps stamping the time on the folder everytime you loaded a darn file there. This thing kills copying and especially DVD copying, because you get less buffer and underruns as windows keeps stopping the copying to update the timestamp every damn file!
9. Turn Off (or On) the Indexing Service
OH GOD YES! This is notorious! Like time stamping, XP keeps updating its tracking info of ur file as u use your computer. This can really improve searching, if u search ur drive a lot. But if u download a lot in the back ground, turn it off. It uses CPU and Memory to boot.
10. Use FAT32 for the Paging File
Yep! Accessing the Page file does cause lag! Putting it on another disk which is fat 32 makes SENSE! Which is why I tend to partition most of the disk as NTFS and leave like 1.5 GB for FAT32 for my swap file. Like the only reason I use NTFS is so i can store large ISO files which are over 4gb! No other reason, because there is just too much XP crap happening with NTFS behind the scene. 1 other plus is like if you are using large drives, for every 70GB or so, you lose 3GB to waste with fat32.
Those 4 advices will help reduce lag far more than defragment will! If your machine lags a lot, increase ur memory dude…like double it, then u can increase your buffers and rely LESS on your swap file.
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