On NTFS-enabled XP systems, you can control the amount of space allocated to the MFT. The MFT contains reference entries to all the files on the system. This can get fragmented over time and affect system performance. Use this hack to allocate sufficient space for the MFT.
Navigate to:
HLM\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ FileSystem
Modify NtfsMftZoneReservation to a value between 1 and 4. For most users, a value of 2 is good enough. However, in this day of humongous hard disks, a better bet would be to set it at 4.
To be completely effective, this setting should be specified at the time the volume is formatted.
