Hello all,

While this is a bit off-topic for this list, I thought it might be pertinent
to some of you as many of us have large Windows file servers (million of
files).  After working with Microsoft for several months we discovered a
flaw in the CHKDSK utility which can cause the NTFS permissions on seemingly
random files/folders to become corrupted.  We were the second customer to
actually report this, so we did a significant amount of testing with them to
resolve it.  Essentially, if the MFT (Master File Table) for any volume on a
Windows server exceeds 4GB in size, this issue will occur.  To make this
happen, the volume must either be extremely large (many terabytes) or
contain over about 4 million files.  (1024 bytes per file record x 4 million
files = ~4GB).    If interested, please see the KB article given below.  The
fix for this will be included in SP5 we were told or can be requested from
PSS directly.  The node this occurred on for us began consuming large
amounts of space in TSM as a result of this since a change in the NTFS
permissions causes TSM to back up the file(s) again.  Feel free to contact
me direclty if you have questions!

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;831375
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;831375>

Just a heads up!

Chris Murphy
IT Network Analyst
Idaho Dept. of Lands
Office: (208) 334-0293
cmurphy AT idl.state.id DOT us