EndOfFile vs AllocationSize question

For a number of reasons, I need to fudge the EndOfFile information on
files that our HSM system has released from disk. This makes everything
look “normal” to users, particularly when you start copying a file over
the network.

I’m only fudging the EndOfFile, not the Allocation size. After all, the
files aren’t actually on disk taking up any space (well not more than a
couple K anyway). Curiously though, when I view the properties on a
file that has been released, Size shows up as the number I’ve fudged,
and Size On Disk shows up as it normally does. That comes as something
of a surprise.

This of course has the interesting side effect that when you view a
folder’s properties, its Size On Disk can exceed the capacity of the
volume (which *is* sort of the point of the HSM system). I wasn’t
really expecting the Size On Disk to do that though.

Or is this something I should just chalk up to the vagaries of Explorer
and be happy it doesn’t explode?

Thanks,

~Eric

IIRC sparse files and compressed files have smaller allocation size than real file size, so even 0 could work for you. But I am not sure.

-bg