Time: Thu Jun 05 11:44:26 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA05566; Thu, 5 Jun 1997 11:06:24 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997 13:04:48 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLF: FAT16 problem: demonstration and proof >Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 19:46:30 -0400 >To: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] >Subject: Re: SLF: FAT16 problem: demonstration and proof > >Paul Andrew Mitchell wrote: >> >> [This text is formatted in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.] >> >> Grier, >> >> Here are the results from your command sequence >> on the two partitions I have on a 486 tower PC. >> >> Many thanks for the great tips! > >Well, you came up with an even better way to use >the commands I suggested, getting the actual dead >space instead of just an estimation. I must admit >that I didn't think of doing that. Good thinking! > >One point remains: directories take space also. >Since you're still on windoze v3.1x (and thus do >not have long filenames), each directory entry >(files, directory entries, and the "pretend" >directories "." and "..") uses 32 bytes of a >directory, which is also allocated in clusters. >I don't know of an easy way to determine the >total amount of space used by directories. > >Actually, I just thought of another point: "dir /s" >doesn't count files with "hidden" and "system" >attributes, and it probably doesn't traverse into >any hidden or system directories (I don't think >that there are any under windoze v3.1x, though). > >Did you notice that "chkdsk" and "dir /s" disagree >on the number of files and directories? I haven't >thoroughly investigated, but I'll figure it out. > >It would be a royal PITA, but there is a way you >could recover an estimated 398 Mb of your large >disk. It would involve making a backup and >repartitioning, using something like Partition >Magic (available from Insight (www.insight.com) >for about $54). You could divide it up into 3 >partitions of just under 512 Mb (really would >be 536780800 bytes or less) each (which would >change your cluster size to 8 Kb), and just ignore >the ~12 Mb that is left over. Estimating that >your 20065 files each waste half a cluster (it >would probably be more in your case, since it >seems that you have a lot of small files), your >dead space becomes ~82 Mb. Add in the 12 Mb >that you don't partition, and you have a total >of 94 Mb wasted space. > >Like I said, a royal PITA, but if you start out >that way (like I do), it's not too bad. The only >drawback is that you fragment the free space that >you have available. My main system has 4.5 Gb, >on three drives, divided up into 9 partitions! >I can't wait for FAT32 drivers to be available >for DOS, NT, and Linux, so I can consolidate >(my first drive will still have 4 partitions >do I can completely separate the OS's I use, >but it will still help. > >grier > > ======================================================================== Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.2 on Intel 586 CPU web site: http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this ========================================================================
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