Enquanto diz 12,5% aqui:
Because of the importance of the MFT to NTFS and the possible impact on performance if this file becomes highly fragmented, NTFS makes a special effort to keep this file contiguous. NTFS reserves 12.5 percent of the volume for exclusive use of the MFT until and unless the remainder of the volume is completely used up. Thus, space for files and directories is not allocated from this MFT zone until all other space is allocated first.
mais tarde diz isso:
A new registry parameter was introduced in Service Pack 4 for Windows NT 4.0 that can increase the percentage of a volume that NTFS reserves for its master file table. NtfsMftZoneReservation is a REG_DWORD value that can take on a value between 1 and 4, where 1 corresponds to the minimum MFT zone size and 4 corresponds to the maximum. If the parameter is not specified or an invalid value is supplied, NTFS uses a default value of 1 for this parameter. The exact ratios that correspond to each setting are undocumented because they are not standardized and may change in future releases. In order to know what setting is best for your environment, it may be necessary to experiment with different values.
Existe também esta linha no texto:
Note You can change the NtfsMFTZoneReservation registry key to increase the volume in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.
que me faz acreditar que essa é a versão do Windows a que este artigo foi originalmente aplicado. Se você não estiver usando esta versão, isso é algo que provavelmente foi alterado devido ao aumento do tamanho dos discos rígidos ao longo dos anos, e permanece não documentado como prometido.