Defragmentation and 15% minimum space with Windows XP

Defragmentation and 15% minimum space with Windows XP Why does Windows XP require a minimum space of 15% of the HDD to complete a defrag of a NTFS drive? Is there a better utility which doesn't have this limitation and yet does the job?
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Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

"Use MyDefrag (new version of Jkdefrag)

MyDefrag does not require a minimum
free disk space, but:

Windows reserves some space on NTFS
disks for expansion of the MFT,
default is 12.5% of the volume size.
This space is counted by Windows as
free space because it can/will be used
for regular files when the rest of the
volume is full. MyDefrag cannot move
files into this space, only out of
(see ReclaimNtfsReservedAreas).

On very full harddisks MyDefrag will
take more time to shuffle files
around, and in some cases will have to
throw the towel in the ring and leave
some files fragmented or not
optimized. A file can only be
defragmented if there is a gap on disk
big enough to hold the entire file,
depending on the script that you have
chosen. There may be plenty of free
space, but what is needed is a single
big gap."

Guest [Entry]

According to their site, PerfectDisk 10 will defragment with 1% free. I've used PerfectDisk and it an excellent piece of software. Very powerful.