BUG: File Creation Time Increases as Files Are Added to a Volume

ID: Q196071

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT, versions 3.50, 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

As more and more files are created on an NTFS volume, the amount of time it takes to create new files increases linearly with the number of files existing on the volume. This slowdown becomes more noticeable when creating many new files when there are already millions of preexisting files on the volume.

CAUSE

Each time a file is created, a file record is allocated from the MFT (Master File Table). As more files are created on a volume, the MFT grows larger and the amount of time it takes to allocate a free file record from the MFT increases.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q120363
   TITLE     : Slow Performance on NTFS with Long Filenames

   ARTICLE-ID: Q174619
   TITLE     : How NTFS Reserves Space for its Master File Table (MFT)

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbFileIO kbKernBase kbNTOS350 kbNTOS351 kbNTOS400 
Version           : winnt:3.50,3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

Last Reviewed: April 30, 1999