Re: [freenet-support] Re: [freenet-chat] slightly off topic: fat32 methods of keeping my store folder size

2002-10-28 Thread Dave Hooper
> this was my orginal plan, and i was posting to find out if anyone knew
> how to enable a compressed directory in win2k :)  but now i think i'll
> probably go with a separate 2 gig fat32 partition... that is if i can
> figure out how to tweak a fat32 to have smaller blocks.

To specify cluster size for a fat32 partition use
format x: /FS:FAT32 /A:clustersize
where x: is the driveletter.
Naturally, the clustersize applies to the entire partition.

To compress a directory tree in win2k you *must* either use an NTFS
partition or use compression software such as DriveSpace, zipmagic, etc.
that is compatible with FAT32.

Just noticed, on the help for the format command, there is a /C option which
states "Files created on the new volume will be compressed by default" - I
guess this only applies to NTFS but it might be worth giving it a go on a
FAT32 drive to see what happens!

d


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Re: [freenet-support] Re: [freenet-chat] slightly off topic: fat32 methods of keeping my store folder size

2002-10-28 Thread Dave Hooper
> The negative effects are when you need to store large files,
> essentially the file needs to be broken up into smaller chunks, and so
takes
> longer to store/retrieve. I don't think the size of your FAT table matters
> anymore, way back when it was limited and so you were limited by disk size
> vs cluster size vs FAT table size.
>
> Or something like that.

Something like that.  The three FAT addressing schemes I know of in wide use
are FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 which provide for 2^12, 2^16 and 2^32 clusters
(actually I think it's 2^12-64, 2^16-64 or 2^32-256, or something crazy
anyway).  FAT32 is only 'marginally' slower than FAT16 in practice, and
FAT32 is measurably *faster* than NTFS.
Generally you wouuld not want to use anything less than FAT32 for a freenet
datastore, and if you want a freenet datastore > 2GB you will need to use
FAT32, because the largest cluster size allowed by FAT12 and FAT16 is 32768
bytes.  The clincher is obviously that not all operating systems support
FAT32 (e.g. Windows NT does not "out of the can", but www.sysinternals.com
have a FAT32 driver for NT)

Not that this should make a big difference - if you're planning to use your
datastore in both linux and windows then any old FAT partition should do -
you may run into problems with an NTFS partition (I don't know how reliable
the NTFS support is in linux).

If you were planning to use Windows 2000 or XP exclusively, I might suggest
using a compressed directory as your freenet datastore - not because of the
disk space this saves (it would save very little, probably - see end of
message), but because the compressed clusters are shared within the
directory tree so only the last cluster allocated to the directory tree has
'wasted' space at the end.  Ideal if you care about space but don't care so
much about extra processing time.  Although obviously an NTFSv5 feature only
(and so not applicable to the original fat32 posting)

"OS-level" compressing of directory trees in pre-NTFSv5 operating systems
(i.e. before Windows 2000) can be achieved by using commercial software like
www.zipmagic.com/zipmagic, which (among other things) makes zip files appear
to the operating system as regular 'explorable' folders, or by using the
built-in DriveSpace / DoubleSpace utilities to set up a virtual compressed
drive.  Actually I would make a personal recommendation for zipmagic, it
really is rather good, and I'm sure there must be a less expensive
alternative available


On my NTFS partition, my store currently has about 3% wasted space from
cluster allocation.  Setting the NTFS Compress flag shrinks it so that my
store uses only .5% more space 'on disk' .  (Yes - the compressed datastore
still uses more than the 'on paper' amount of disk space, mainly due to the
encrypted nature of the datastore and its inherent incompressibility coupled
with the still necessary cluster allocation)
I would therefore expect similar results under FAT32 - that is, a .zip
datastore with zipmagic or similar using only about .5% more space than the
datastore size on paper.  However that is on likely to be true if you can
keep the .zip file fragments together...  I don't know what zipmagic's
fragmentation guarantees are, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were no
guarantees whatsoever.

It is possible to preallocate files under NTFS using tools such as Contig
(www.sysinternals.com) to ensure that they do not fragment - however this
only really works in practice for files which do not grow and shrink
unpredictably, such as files which are written to rarely but read often.
I'm guessing such a tool would be of only limited value for a freenet
datastore.  I have no idea if comparable utilities are available for use
with FAT partitions.

dave


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RE: [freenet-support] Re: [freenet-chat] slightly off topic: fat32 methods of keeping my store folder size

2002-10-28 Thread William_dw -- Sqlcoders
The negative effects are when you need to store large files,
essentially the file needs to be broken up into smaller chunks, and so takes
longer to store/retrieve. I don't think the size of your FAT table matters
anymore, way back when it was limited and so you were limited by disk size
vs cluster size vs FAT table size.

Or something like that.

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:support-admin@;freenetproject.org]On Behalf Of Josh Steiner
> Sent: 28 October 2002 14:38
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [freenet-support] Re: [freenet-chat] slightly off topic:
> fat32 methods of keeping my store folder size
>
>
> good idea, hadnt thought about just making a freenet datastore
> partition, what are the negative effects of using smaller cluster sizes?
>  (there must be some, otherwise they would default to 16 :)  perhaps its
> just addressing, if you have smaller clusters you have *more* clusters
> and therefore have to address more clusters... if this is all, then it
> should matter as i'd be having at most a partition of a gig or two for
> freenet...
>
> i'm not sure i'm going to do this though since i dual boot to linux
> about 50% of the time i use my computer, so i was planning on setting up
> a node on my linux box that shares the same datastore...
>
> -joschi
>
> ___
> Josh .. Yoshi .. Joschi .. http://mp3.com/vitriolix
>
>
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >>>so (unfortunately) i am forced to use fat32 on my windows
> machine where
> >>>i run my freenet node... right now here is the size info:
> >>>
> >>>Size:  391 MB (410,077,960 bytes)
> >>>Size on disk:  506 MB (531,529,728 bytes)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>I would recommend putting the freenet datastore on a separate
> >>partition if possible.  Partition Magic (commercial software, but well
> >>worth the money) can do this for you without destroying your existing
> >>files.
> >>
> >>When formatting the new filesystem, try to give it as large a cluster
> >>size as possible, and you will cut down on lost space.  (Or format it
> >>as NTFS, if that's an option).
> >>
> >>
> >
> >no, sorry. make the clusters as SMALL as possible, so the last
> used cluster by a file is filled up more effectively.
> >the clusters that do not fill completely contain the wasted space:
> >cluster 256 bytes, data 64 bytes = 192 bytes wasted
> >custer 4096 bytes, data 64 bytes = 4032 bytes wasted
> >
> >
> >
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> of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or
> entities other than the intended
> >recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please
> contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> --
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>
>
>
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[freenet-support] Re: [freenet-chat] slightly off topic: fat32 methods of keeping my store folder size

2002-10-28 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>so (unfortunately) i am forced to use fat32 on my windows machine where 
>>i run my freenet node... right now here is the size info:
>>
>>Size: 391 MB (410,077,960 bytes)
>>Size on disk: 506 MB (531,529,728 bytes)
>
>I would recommend putting the freenet datastore on a separate
>partition if possible.  Partition Magic (commercial software, but well
>worth the money) can do this for you without destroying your existing
>files.
>
>When formatting the new filesystem, try to give it as large a cluster
>size as possible, and you will cut down on lost space.  (Or format it
>as NTFS, if that's an option).

no, sorry. make the clusters as SMALL as possible, so the last used cluster by a file 
is filled up more effectively.
the clusters that do not fill completely contain the wasted space:
cluster 256 bytes, data 64 bytes = 192 bytes wasted
custer 4096 bytes, data 64 bytes = 4032 bytes wasted



The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is 
addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any 
review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in 
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended 
recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and 
delete the material from any computer.









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