Optimising NTFS for Speed?

[Zero1]

Hey all, I'm just about to format and install XP on a pair of new drives.

I've found that NTFS REALLY lags sometimes, I don't know the exact reason. I've had a FAT32 partition on my current western digital 120gb when I had Win ME. When I went to XP for the first time, I simply formatted and kept the current file system (FAT32, can't remember the cluster size, I think it was 8kb)

So later on I found myself reinstalling, so I went to NTFS because it was "all singing, all dancing" I noticed straight away a huge performance drop.

So my question is, what can I do to get NTFS near to FAT32 speeds (I realise its probably impossible for NTFS to surpass FAT32 for speed, but oh well)

What about the cluster size, I've only ever had NTFS at 4kb, because thats how it decided it wanted to go.

Would using a larger cluster size improve performance, and what is a good size to use without wasting a huge amount of space.

Also isnt there indexing services that can be turned on or off, and how do they improve/decrease performance.



As for my RAID, I read that a stripe size of around 128KB gives middle of the road performance as regards to large and small file access/transfer.

I'm still undecided, all I want is for windows to load quick, and programs to load a bit faster, I guess this involves loading lots of small files rather than single large files. In that case, wouldn't a smaller stripe be better for me?

If Ice Czar is reading, I read the links you posted, very informative, thanks. But to be honest with you, I'm still undecided.

Well I hope you people can help me. I've never really thought about stripe sizes, cluster sizes and file systems before. It's relatively new to me with how they affect performance.

 

[stub]

Actually I read NTFS is supposed to be QUICKER than FAT32 at bigger volumes, but apparently I was wrong.

I think Partition Magic will let you change the cluster size.

I used NTFS on a 12 GB drive in my laptop, and performance has gone down the drain-- I am probably going to flatten and reinstall, as the laptop is a 500 MHz P3 with 256 MB of RAM, and I need all the performance I can get out of it.

So far both my drives on my desktop (2x 20GB) are FAT32, and the performance is tolerable...

So in other words, I really don't have any reason for even going to NTFS until I get my new box, and even then I'll have to learn how to tune it for best performance.

 

[Ice Czar]

FAT32 vs NTFS @ AnandTech

NTFS vs FAT

So why use FAT?..... It can be the best choice for small volumes because its simple nature and low overhead make it fast on these volumes

NTFS Performance
"NTFS is also built for speed. NTFS provides impressive disk I/O performance on large volumes such as those on file servers or advanced workstations and is the best file system for such machines. This performance gain applies only to volumes larger than 400MB because of NTFS's overhead from its security and reliability features.

NTFS uses a binary tree structure for all disk directories, which reduces the number of times the system has to access the disk to locate files. This system is best for large directories, and NT easily outperforms FAT in these situations. In addition, NTFS automatically sorts files in a folder on the fly.

Another performance-related feature is NTFS's resistance to file fragmentation. NTFS uses a special process of writing files to disk. This process minimizes file fragmentation by making intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. In contrast to FAT's first-available method, NTFS's method of writing files reduces, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes.

NT also gains an edge over FAT by using relatively small disk allocation units (cluster sizes) for NTFS volumes. Smaller clusters prevent wasted disk space on volumes, especially those with numerous small files. Table 2 lists the default cluster sizes for various NTFS volumes sizes.

As Table 2 shows, the largest NTFS cluster size is 4KB, even on volumes larger than 2GB. Because NTFS uses small clusters better and has a more efficient design, its performance doesn't degrade with large volumes, in contrast to FAT's.

When you format an NT volume, NT chooses a cluster size to fit the volume size. With NTFS, you can select the cluster size for the volume when you use the FORMAT command from the NT command prompt (this solution is not possible from Disk Administrator). To set the cluster size, use the /A switch with the FORMAT command as follows: FORMAT <drive>/FS:<filesystem /A: <unitsize>

Despite the flexibility this feature provides, you generally won't need to specify manual NTFS cluster sizes. NT can automatically configure them for you. NT works best with volumes at the settings it specifies, and changing these settings can adversely affect your system's performance.

Indexing can seriously impact performance

while there is a performance decrease in some volumes
that is offset by the security and reliability of NTFS in many cases

Reliability
In addition to its extensive memory and application protection features, NTFS is a reliable file system. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NT can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume and makes NTFS especially solid for data storage on standalone systems and network file servers.

NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem.

few more links
(not sure where you found the other links, you may have read these)
Converting FAT32 to NTFS in XP Must read

NTFS Advanced Studies
NTFS Volume Management and HKLM\System\DiskKey
NTFS Boot INI Options Reference
NTFS Defragmenting
Inside W2K NTFS Part 1
Inside W2K NTFS Part 2
Exploring NTFS On-Disk Structures
Inside Storage Management, Part 1
Inside storage Management Part 2 Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Inside Encrypting File System Part 1
Inside Encrypting File System Part 2
Inside Memory Management Paging Files