XP SP3 Doesn't Play Nice with Heavy I/O Operations on NTFS Volumes

Windows XP fails to play nice with heavy I/O operations occurring on volumes formatted with the NTFS file system, Microsoft informed. According to the Redmond company, the issue is related to the “Compress drive to save disk space” option. The software giant did not offer an explanation of the problems, but indicated that both Service Pack 3 and SP2 for Windows XP were affected. Post-XP releases of the Windows client, including Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not impacted by the issue.

“On a Windows XP-based computer, you have an NTFS-formatted volume. You enable the Compress drive to save disk space option on this volume. After you do this, the operating system stops responding when there are heavy I/O operations on this volume,” Microsoft explained.

For the time being, XP users that have come across this issue will need to use a hotfix from Microsoft in order to allow heavy I/O operating on NTFS formatted volumes for XP SP2 and XP Sp3 even in the context in which disk compression is enabled. Microsoft did not provide sufficient details to properly define “heavy I/O operations” for the end users.

No update to permanently resolve this problem is currently available, nor did the Redmond company provide any indication that such a fix was coming. Windows XP has after all “aged” past the Mainstream support period. Moving forward, the software giant will focus only on plugging security issues for XP, and will provide hotfixes only for customers willing to pay for them through Extended support.

“A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described [here]. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem,” Microsoft advised.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Final is available for download here.