Ian Porter wrote:

 

Minor problem.  

Now, after formatting, the drive has one large partition but there's also

8mb of 'unallocated space' on the drive.  Anyone know what the possible

ramifications of this result could be?

 

According to the good folks at PC Guide, this is a necessary evil of Windows
XP. In the old days it was called MBR and was related to the FAT system.
Since Microsoft has gotten away from DOS, we now have what is known as
Master File Table. This is the first 8mb of disk space that you will not be
able to format move or delete.

 

"Probably the most important of the key system (metadata) files that define
an NTFS volume, the Master File Table or MFT is the place where information
about every file and directory on an NTFS volume is stored. The MFT is in
essence a relational database table, containing various attributes about
different files. It acts as the "starting point" and central management
feature of an NTFS volume--sort of a "table of contents" for the volume, if
you will. It is somewhat analog to the file allocation table in a FAT
partition, but is much more than just a list of used and available
clusters."

You may read more about it here,
<http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archMFT-c.html>
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archMFT-c.html or do a Google
search for Master File Table and get the latest.

 

Sincerely,

 

Frank Suszka

netTek Computers

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