Time: Tue Jun 03 23:56:23 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id WAA18820 for [address in tool bar]; Tue, 3 Jun 1997 22:20:42 -0700 (MST) Delivered-To: liberty-and-justice-outgoing@majordomo.pobox.com Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 23:55:19 -0700 To: liberty-and-justice@pobox.com From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: L&J: SLF: FAT16 problem: demonstration and proof References: <3.0.1.16.19970603041137.2b5f5d34@pop.primenet.com> Grier et al., I must confess to having made an important error here. On a typical Western Digital 2 GB drive, the maximum cluster size is 32 KB, not 64 KB. I had confused the average, with the maximum. The average waste is 0.5 x 32 KB = 16 KB with Windows 3.11 and no HPFS. I failed to read the fine manual (RTFM), before writing what I did. My apologies. But, with that said, the methodology was still correct, as is yours below. Thanks for the alternate route. /s/ Paul Mitchell http://www.supremelaw.com At 11:51 PM 6/3/97 -0400, you wrote: >Paul Andrew Mitchell wrote: >> >> Dear Friends, >> >> Several people have asked me for a safe >> method of demonstrating the problem with >> FAT16 partitions. I happened to stumble >> upon the perfect test, when I was doing >> general maintenance last weekend. I was >> deleting unwanted files in the CACHE >> directory utilized by NETSCAPE to store >> web files which are downloaded from the >> Internet. I did a DOS DIR command, both >> before and after deleting all those files. >> The DIR command shows the sum of the >> individual file sizes, in bytes, and >> also the amount of space available within >> that partition. The discrepancy between >> the sum, and the difference between space >> available before the deletion, and space >> available after the deletion, tells the >> story. >> >>...<snip> >> >> Now, do the arithmetic: >> >> free bytes AFTER deletion: 244,088,832 >> free bytes BEFORE deletion: -239,140,864 >> ------------ >> difference: 4,947,968 >> bytes used BEFORE deletion: -751,202 (see DIR output) >> ------------ >> difference: 4,196,766 >> / # files: / 146 >> ------------ >> TOTAL WASTED SPACE, FAT16: 28,745 bytes per file >> ============ >> >> So, if you have 1,000 files with FAT16, >> you are wasting 1,000 x 28,745 = 28.7 MB! >> >> Your numbers may vary; the average will be >> closer to a mean waste per file of 32K >> (0.50 x 64K). > >Only if you are using 64K clusters on NT (the maximum >cluster size prior to NT v4 was 32K). > >You don't really need to do a demonstration >to prove that large clusters waste disk space. >Just realize that: > 1) disk space is allocated in chunks called clusters > 2) on average, each file will only fill up only half > of the last cluster allocated to it > 3) run the numbers on your system > a) type "chkdsk" at a DOS prompt, and it will > report the number of bytes per "allocation unit" > (cluster) > b) type "dir c:\ /s" at a DOS prompt, and it will > tell you the total number of files on your > c: drive > c) multiply the total number of files by half of > the cluster size to get an estimate of the > dead (wasted) space on your c: drive > >grier > >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >Unsub info - send e-mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com, with >"unsubscribe liberty-and-justice" in the body (not the subject) >Liberty-and-Justice list-owner is Mike Goldman <whig@pobox.com> > > ======================================================================== 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 ======================================================================== =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Unsub info - send e-mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com, with "unsubscribe liberty-and-justice" in the body (not the subject) Liberty-and-Justice list-owner is Mike Goldman <whig@pobox.com>
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