Microsoft KB Archive/297268

= Data Fragmentation Occurs When You Use Ntbackup.exe to Restore Data to a Clean Volume =

Article ID: 297268

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition

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This article was previously published under Q297268



SYMPTOMS
After you restore data from a tape to a clean NTFS file system volume, many of the restored files may be fragmented on the disk.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because Ntbackup.exe does not give NTFS any information about how big the file that is being restored is. Because of this, NTFS must pre-allocate standard size runs of clusters to hold the file. This means that it typically allocates too much space that is later returned to the free cluster pool when the file is fully restored. These small runs are then used again for restoring later files, and this caused file fragmentation to occur.



STATUS
Microsoft does not plan to resolve this problem in Windows NT 4.0. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack



MORE INFORMATION
To reduce fragmentation, defragment your disks at regular intervals.

Additional query words: kbBaseOS

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kboswin2000fix kbwin2000sp3fix kbhotfixserver KB297268

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