Increase NTFS MFT Reserved Zone

This feature allows you to increase reserved space for the Master File Table (MFT) of the NTFS file system, thereby reducing the risk of MFT fragmentation, which leads to reduced file system performance.

Enabling this feature sets the MFT reserved space size to 2 on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 (default) reserves 12.5% of a NTFS volume, 2 - 25%, 3 - 37.5%, 4 - 50%. However, keep in mind that the exact relationships corresponding to each value are undocumented and not standardized, and may change in future releases.

Allocating more space for the MFT won't limit the amount of free disk space available for regular file storage, because NTFS will use the MFT zone if the normal user file area becomes full.

This setting does not change the current distribution of data in the volume. It affects how data will be distributed after it is changed. However, its influence can be limited by the current distribution of data in the volume, so it gives the greatest effect when enabled from the moment the volume is formatted (created).

You can read more about how NTFS reserves space for its Master File Table in the Microsoft documentation, in the corresponding article: “How NTFS reserves space for its Master File Table (MFT).”

If a check mark is set, the NTFS MFT reserved zone is increased. If a check mark is removed, the NTFS MFT reserved zone is not increased.

By default, the NTFS MFT reserved zone is not increased.

Benefit:

• Improves overall performance

Risk Level: YELLOW

System reboot: required

OS: 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP