Why files are not moved to some regions of NTFS-formatted volumes

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Why files are not moved to some regions of NTFS-formatted volumes

On volumes formatted with the NTFS file system, Windows reserves a portion of the free space called the master file table (MFT) Zone, as a space where the MFT can grow. Windows stores all the information necessary to retrieve files from the volume in the MFT.

Disk Defragmenter does not move files to the MFT Zone because it is reserved by Windows. However, Windows allows other files to be saved in the space reserved for the MFT Zone when no other disk space is available.