Why does Win2K format gobble up 120 MB+ ?

[Esmonde]

I installed a Maxtor 740x 80 GB today and partitioned it under Win2K Pro into approx 40 GB and 39 GB NTFS partitions. Unfortunately in real terms that translates into less disk space (I presume something to do with the 1000 K versus 1024 K measurements).

One thing that does puzzle me though is that "Properties" for both empty partitions show around 65 MB USED! This is just after formatting and without transferring any files to the partitions. Anyone able to explain this disappearing space?

 

[sch911]

Every OS has a certian amount of overhead associated with the format. This includes file allocation tables etc. Windows 2000 uses the NTFS file system who's FAT tables contain extended attributes for indexing, servers, security, etc. This makes NTFS worse than most in this regard....

 

[Esmonde]

Thanks for that.

I expected some space to be used but 65 megabytes!!! Are you saying that this is the normal amount used in NTFS formatting?

Thanks,

Roy

 

[prescot9]

Esmonde,

Bear in mind that as these new, larger drives become available, there needs to be more and more space reserved for the "table" itself. Think of it this way:

Every drive needs to have a "list" of the numerical location of every file on the drive. Since it's likely that you are using a "format" that has as an example 4kb "blocks" to store the files on, any file larger than 4kb, will occupy more than one block...

So this "list" must also be large enough to hold information about where each "piece", or "fragment" of each file is. The more the drive can hold, the more room needs to be "allocated" for this list, hence the name "FAT", or "File Allocation Table". Imagine how much space you'd lose on a 180Gb drive!

It's common practice for drive manufacturers to rate their drives at the "Full-Formatted" capacity, because of course, there would no point to rating the drive for each of the available FAT types: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, CDFS, and so on...they realize that everyone uses their drives a bit differently.

I hope this helps!

Rich
prescot9@hotmail.com
Father, Geek, and MCP

 

[Esmonde]

Much better informed than before, thanks.

Roy Esmonde

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

Also, thats realy only .00165 of the drive. Not very much.

CJB