INFO: SourceSafe Database Use of Disk Space on FAT Partition

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows, versions 4.0, 5.0
• Microsoft SourceSafe for Windows, version 3.1

SUMMARY

The SourceSafe databases use very small files because they only store the differences between versions of a file. A large amount of disk space is used due to the blocking factor, the size of the space which the operating system allocates for each file, of the disk drive. On a FAT drive, space is allocated by clusters. If a file is smaller than the drive's cluster size, the file will be allocated one full cluster, wasting the additional space in the cluster. If a file is 100k in size, the operating system may actually commit 500K to this file if the size of a block or cluster is 500k. Using a smaller, partitioned drive will lessen the effect, but may not be practical. The cluster size for a FAT drive is determined when the drive is formatted and varies depending on the size of the drive. Therefore, using a bigger drive may not remedy the situation.

MORE INFORMATION

The workarounds to this issue are to store the SourceSafe database on an NTFS partition or to change the cluster size of the drive to smaller FAT partitions.

You can change the cluster size of a drive by creating smaller partitions when you format the drive or by using drive compression schemes such as Windows 95 Drive Space 3.