Configuring Your File System

The NTFS file system is the recommended file system because of its advantages in terms of reliability and security and because it is required for large drive sizes. However, these advantages come with some overhead. You can disable some functionality to improve NTFS performance as follows:

• Disable creation of short names. By default, NTFS generates the style of file name that consists of eight characters, followed by a period and a three-character extension for compatibility with MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows 3.x clients. If you are not supporting these types of clients, you can turn off this setting by changing the default value of the \NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem)
  to 1.
• Disable last access update. By default NTFS updates the date and time stamp of the last access on directories whenever it traverses the directory. For a large NTFS volume, this update process can slow performance. To disable
  automatic updating, change the value of the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContolSet\Control
  \Filesystem) to 1.
• Reserve appropriate space for the master file table. Add the NtfsMftZoneReservation entry to the registry as a REG_DWORD in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
  \CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem. When you add this entry to the registry, the system reserves space on the volume for the master file table. Reserving space in this manner allows the master file table to grow optimally. If your NTFS volumes generally contain relatively few files that are typically large, set value of this registry entry to 1 (the default). Typically you can use a value of 2 or 3 for moderate numbers of files, and 4 (the maximum) if your volumes tend to contain a relatively large number of files. However, make sure to test any settings greater than 2 because these higher values cause the system to reserve a much larger portion of the disk for the master file table.

Caution

Do not use a registry editor to edit the registry directly unless you have no alternative. The registry editors bypass the standard safeguards provided by administrative tools. These safeguards prevent you from entering conflicting settings or settings that are likely to degrade performance or damage your system. Editing the registry directly can have serious, unexpected consequences that can prevent the system from starting and require that you reinstall Windows 2000. To configure or customize Windows 2000, use the programs in Control Panel or Microsoft Management Console (MMC) whenever possible.

For information about changing the registry, see Windows 2000 Help.

Bypassing I/O Counts

By default, Task Manager continuously measures data for process I/O operations that you can select and display under the Processes tab in Task Manager. In a multiprocessor environment, this data is shared by the processors on which the process runs. When a process that generates considerable disk and network I/O, such as a database service, runs on several processors, updating the shared measurements of process I/O and global I/O operations can slow the system. You can improve the performance of I/O-intensive operations on SMP systems if you configure the system to bypass the global I/O counters and Task Manager process I/O counters. To do so, add the CountOperations entry to the registry as a REG_DWORD in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Control\Session Manager\I/O System\. Set the entry value to 0. When so configured, Task Manager no longer provides per-process I/O measurements. For more information about Task Manager, see "Overview of Performance Monitoring" earlier in this book.

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