Frequently Asked Questions

Chances are, others have the same questions that you do. Therefore, we have taken the common questions for Diskeeper, Sitekeeper and Undelete and provided the answers (and the questions) below in our Frequently Asked Questions section. Simply select the product below that you have questions about. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can submit a tech support question here.

Diskeeper | Sitekeeper | Undelete

Question
Diskeeper for Windows NT and 2000 can't seem to defragment $Extend files. Is Diskeeper broken?
Answer
Windows 2000 supports a new revision of the NTFS file system. Some references call it NTFS 5, but in reality the revision level stored on the disk is 3. Regardless, it is a new version of NTFS and it has some new features. The old metadata files, such as the MFT, Root Directory, Volume data and other vital files, are still on an NTFS volume with the same names they had under Windows NT 4.0. To make NTFS easier to extend for Windows 2000 and in the future, Microsoft put all the metadata extensions in a special, hidden directory named $Extend. The files commonly found in the $Extend directory are: $Extend$Quota $Extend$ObjId $Extend$Reparse $Extend$UsnJrnl As these files are NTFS metadata files; they cannot be safely defragmented while the system is up and running. The boot-time defragmenter may defragment them if needed while, for example, doing an MFT defragmentation or directory consolidation, but no special features are available in Diskeeper to force these files to be defragmented. As a matter of fact, the $Extend$UsnJrnl file gets so much activity that it would be nearly impossible to keep it defragmented, even if the defragmentation APIs (application program interface) would allow it.

Question

Diskeeper for Windows NT and 2000 can't seem to defragment $Extend files. Is Diskeeper broken?

Answer

Windows 2000 supports a new revision of the NTFS file system. Some references call it NTFS 5, but in reality the revision level stored on the disk is 3. Regardless, it is a new version of NTFS and it has some new features.

The old metadata files, such as the MFT, Root Directory, Volume data and other vital files, are still on an NTFS volume with the same names they had under Windows NT 4.0. To make NTFS easier to extend for Windows 2000 and in the future, Microsoft put all the metadata extensions in a special, hidden directory named $Extend.

The files commonly found in the $Extend directory are:

$Extend$Quota
$Extend$ObjId
$Extend$Reparse
$Extend$UsnJrnl

As these files are NTFS metadata files; they cannot be safely defragmented while the system is up and running. The boot-time defragmenter may defragment them if needed while, for example, doing an MFT defragmentation or directory consolidation, but no special features are available in Diskeeper to force these files to be defragmented.

As a matter of fact, the $Extend$UsnJrnl file gets so much activity that it would be nearly impossible to keep it defragmented, even if the defragmentation APIs (application program interface) would allow it.

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