Why the huge mft space on Piriform defraggler?

Hi all.
Couple weeks ago I defragged [which I do most days] and noticed that the purple space, which is the mft file on this defrag program, had almost tripled in
size within a day or two, and I think is taking a lot of my space. I hadn't deleted anything big. I ran a check disk and fix errors thing on xp's defragger as well as thru piriform. On the xp defraggler the check disk program stated it had moved some files to file no.104 and then it had 3 more numbers to it that I don't remember. The mft file blocks on defraggler said $badclus:$ indicating bad clusters. After defrag. those purple blocks said they were empty, but yet they still appear for two rows in the data section of piriform defraggler. Why as I assume the bad clusters had been moved by check disk.
As well, why did the number of mft files triple almost overnight?
I appreciate any input and would appreciate if they could be as simple as possible as I am not very computer literate
Many thanks.
alterintel

 

Not trying to send you away, but I think the best way to get answers to your specific questions is to ask in the Defraggler forum http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=19

 

pwillener, I am already in more groups than I can handle. I thought this group helped with software problems, and piriform defraggler is a program I got because MG recommended it. I must say I am disappointed that more help isn't here as I am a big fan of MG and recommend them to others. Meanwhile, the purple mft space has increased overnight for some reason.

 

allterintel...

Just a complete guess, but could Defraggler be reading MS assigned bad clusters as mft clusters? Freeware programs have their quirks, sometimes.

Maybe you could run another chkdsk and see how many bad clusters there are on the drive this time. This brings me to a question of whether chkdsk checks known bads or if it skips them.

Hope your drive isn't failing...:-o

 

Hi alterintel,

Have you seen this page at Piriform's website which explains the colors? Scroll down just a tad.

Also, just found this short thread, might also help cast some light on the issue.

 

I haven't actively defragged a hard disk in 5 years. Of course, the last two years I've been on SSDs.

The benefit increase of defragging mechanical HDDs just isn't there for the time invested.

 

I was a big fan of perfect disk. But, since I switched to SSD for my main OS, I found there was no need.

 

Atlbo, One day all of the mft files had badclus$.bad$ [something like that, all the same], in them. When I did a disk check/auto correct it moved files to some other file. After that all of the mft files show up as being empty. What do you make of that?
I uninstalled piriform defraggler and did a new install of it but it didn't fully defrag, leaving fragments, which it had never done. So I uninstalled it. Don't understand any of this, would be grateful for an explanation.

 

alterintel...

I definitely wouldn't make much of this. chkdsk is one of the things that really works in XP. I doubt you have a problem, but it is possible something is going on, possibly as indicated by the mention of bad clusters. However, if you have bad clusters, there is a way to check, since you have run a chkdsk.

Start->right click on My Computer->Manage->Select Event Viewer->Application

Sort by Source name by clicking on the header of the column where it says Source and then scroll to find chkdsk. Look in each chkdsk listing you have run to see how much data was in bad cluters. To see, you double click on the event in event viewer and scroll down to the bottom of the report. You will see xx KB in bad sectors. I believe a sector is 4 KB, so that will tell you if you have bad cluster and how many.

Just checked on XP with AUSLogics defrag, and I notice that, when the program is opened, it reports a very large number of purple sectors (indicating mft) just like Defraggler does on your PC. Also, when the operation is finished, the program reports almost the exact same number of the purple sectors. This definitely does not concern me at all.

I checked Windows 7, and only a small number of purples are reported, so I am guessing that the large number of them in XP is a quirk of writing a defragmentation program for that OS.

Only thing that would concern me would be the chkdsk report and what it has to say about bad sectors. If there were a large number of them, you would be wise to purchase a new hard drive for the PC before the drive actually fails to load Windows.

 

atlbo, I'll try this when I get a chance. Haven't done anything with event viewer so good practice, if I can do it. Not very computer literate. I may need to get new hard drive for this one, which I like better than the one that is a year and a half old. The screen has been going black and quivering from time to time the past couple days. Don't know if its the electricity, which goes off quite a bit, or the computer dying. Yikes.
alterintel

 

allterintel...

You may be losing the power supply unit in the PC, or the graphics chip/card may be failing. Could you list the brand/model of the PC? It would also help if you could include the processor type and how much RAM you have in the PC. Also, it would help to know if you have a graphics card in the PC or if it uses strictly an onboard graphics chip.

I gather you probably have one of the mid 2000s pentium 4s, so the timing could be right for potential troubles with the power supply and/or hard drive(s).

Do you have a backup drive handy or can you get one? It would be a good idea to capture a backup image of the drive to a secondary drive if you are able to do so (if you can come up with the extra drive). This would save you an immense amount of time restoring the PC should you ever need to replace the drive.