🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 23 Nov 1996, Ernest Spenard wrote:

> On 22 Nov 1996 21:01:33 GMT, "SAN" <snag01@sprynet.com> wrote:
> 
> >I have a small problem or may be a big problem. 
> >When I go to Windows Explorer and RIGHT click on C: drive, and go to
> >PROPERTY, I get a used space value of 502 MB.
> >Now when I go back to windows explorer and LEFT click on C: drive and go to
> >EDIT and click on SELECT ALL (now all the files and dir are highlighted). I
> >next go to FILE and click on PROPERTY and I see that it starts counting the
> >size of all files in C: drive and gives me a number of 334 MB(all in C). 
> >Also I have chosen the option of "SHOW ALL FILES" in the VIEW, OPTION menu.
> >I have a 1GIG hard drive.
> >My question is why is there this difference of 166 MB?
> >I have defragmented my HD, also did a thorough check for errors and found
> >none, still I could'nt get the same value.
> >If you could do the same thing and if you get the same value or little
> >difference can you please let me know.
> >I would very much appreciate your help. Thanks
> 
> I applied the same formula to my hard drive and I got a difference of
> 29MB.  Interesting.  Why????
> 
> 

What you're seeing is the effect of large cluster sizes...Even though you 
may only have 100MB of *data*, it could take 200MB of *space*.  This is 
because Win95 uses the ancient DOS FAT relic.   Basically, if you have a 
big EIDE HD, like myself, you're going to end up with clusters of 
something like 32K.  This means your data goes into areas of your HD, 
each 32K big.  The problem is, if your file is 12 bytes long, it still 
takes up one sector, ie, 32K.  If you have many little files, the 
accumulative effect can be rather nasty.  Other modern operating systems, 
such as Linux and NT, use much smaller cluster sizes.  NT uses 4K 
clusters for any size HD, and my Linux setup currently uses 2K "inodes."  
A new version of 95, called 95B (sometimes referred to as "Windows 96"), 
is shipping with new systems only that uses a new FAT that uses 4K 
clusters, but is not NTFS, from what I understand.

Tom

Real men use command prompts.