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DIR /G question

May
603
0
DIR /G does not appear to report accurately for small files on NTFS
drives (at least).

It seems that for small files, they do not occupy a cluster or
separate data storage area. When I delete them and look at free space
before and after the operation, there is no more free space.

I believe using NtQueryInformationFile with FILE_STANDARD_INFORMATION
and looking at .AllocationSize might be more accurate than what DIR /G
appears to be doing: rounding up to an allocation unit size.

When deleting below, the del command appears to say when bytes are
freed, but is mute when none actually become free.

I also tested on a FAT and FAT32 drives which del claimed to have
recovered 32,768 and 4,096 bytes in spite of %@diskfree not changing.

D:\>echo hi > foobar

D:\>echo %@diskfree[d:]
528251428864

D:\>*dir /g/k/m foobar
2009-11-30 15:35 4,096 foobar

D:\>del foobar
Deleting D:\foobar
1 file deleted

D:\>echo %@diskfree[d:]
528251428864

D:\>for /l %h in (1,1,100) do echo line number %h >> foobar

D:\>*dir /g/k/m foobar
2009-11-30 15:36 4,096 foobar

D:\>echo %@diskfree[d:]
528251424768

D:\>del foobar
Deleting D:\foobar
1 file deleted 4,096 bytes freed

D:\>echo %@diskfree[d:]
528251428864


--
Jim Cook
2009 Saturdays: 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12 and 5/9, 9/5, 7/11, 11/7.
Next year they're Sunday.
 
TCC 11.00.34 Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
TCC Build 34 Windows XP Build 2600 Service Pack 3

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Jim Cook <> wrote:

> DIR /G does not appear to report accurately for small files on NTFS
> drives (at least).

--
Jim Cook
2009 Saturdays: 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12 and 5/9, 9/5, 7/11, 11/7.
Next year they're Sunday.
 
> DIR /G does not appear to report accurately for small files on NTFS
> drives (at least).
>
> It seems that for small files, they do not occupy a cluster or
> separate data storage area. When I delete them and look at free space
> before and after the operation, there is no more free space.
>
> I believe using NtQueryInformationFile with FILE_STANDARD_INFORMATION
> and looking at .AllocationSize might be more accurate than what DIR /G
> appears to be doing: rounding up to an allocation unit size.

It also (dramatically) slows down DIR & PDIR. I don't think the minor
benefit outweighs the major pain.

Rex Conn
JP Software
 

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