Howdy rainman999-ga,
The Reserved System Space is space set aside for the Master File Table (MFT)
and it would be a bad thing to eliminate it, and there is no need to do that.
It might be possible to reduce the size of the MFT, but again, there should be
no need to do that either.
The Diskeeper defragmentation program, which you might be using, has a help
file entry on just this topic.
http://downloads.diskeeper.com/pdf/Diskeeper2007-Home-Manual.pdf
"Green/White striped areas show space on the volume reserved for expansion of
the MFT. This space is reserved when a volume is formatted, and cannot be used
by applications, including Diskeeper. However, the operating system will write
files to this area when the volume becomes extremely full and no other free
space is available. Windows provides the capability for Diskeeper to move files
out of this reserved area, but does not allow Diskeeper to move files into it.
These areas appear only on NTFS volumes."
In other words, just because the space is "reserved," it doesn't mean it is not
going to be usable or used, or that it is going to waste.
The above said, you might be able to reduce the size of the MFT, but there are
some steps that should be followed, and cautiously at that. You should read
the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles carefully and in detail
for more information.
"Adjusting the MFT"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/227350/
"How NTFS Reserves Space for its Master File Table (MFT)"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174619/
Please note that the latter article states the following: "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."
The bottom line is that adding or modifying the registry entry mention in the
latter KB aarticle might not succeed in reducing the size of the MFT.
If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.
Search strategy:
Google search on: "Reserved System Space" reduce
://www.google.com/search?q=%22Reserved+System+Space%22+reduce
Search on Microsoft site for: NtfsMftZoneReservation
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&q=NtfsMftZoneReservation
I also examined the Diskeeper manual as noted above.
Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher |
