SFS stops being fast when admin blocks are cluttered over the disk. Performance degrades faster if you are using .recycled directory but reality is that newly formatted SFS disk is always faster than old empty SFS disk.
Just for interest sake.
Some performance stats testing I did on newly created, freshly formatted partitions on my A4000 FastlaneZ3 SCSI equipped PC.
SFS should be at its fastest this way. PFS still kills SFS in speed.
PFS3020ds
MKSoft DiskSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
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CPU: 68030 AmigaOS Version: 45.57 Normal Video DMA
Device: hd2: Buffers: 250
Comments: DiskSpeed 4.2
CPU Speed Rating: 1521
Testing directory manipulation speed.
File Create: 61 files/sec | CPU Available: 8%
File Open: 147 files/sec | CPU Available: 1%
Directory Scan: 1023 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
File Delete: 149 files/sec | CPU Available: 9%
Seek/Read: 507 seeks/sec | CPU Available: 0%
PFS3020ds (With Increased buffers)
MKSoft DiskSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68030 AmigaOS Version: 45.57 Normal Video DMA
Device: hd0: Buffers: 512
Comments: DiskSpeed 4.2
CPU Speed Rating: 1522
Testing directory manipulation speed.
File Create: 92 files/sec | CPU Available: 8%
File Open: 146 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
Directory Scan: 1024 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
File Delete: 149 files/sec | CPU Available: 7%
Seek/Read: 508 seeks/sec | CPU Available: 0%
SFS/2 (With Increased buffers to 600)
MKSoft DiskSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68030 AmigaOS Version: 45.57 Normal Video DMA
Device: hd1: Buffers: 600
Comments: DiskSpeed 4.2
CPU Speed Rating: 1521
Testing directory manipulation speed.
File Create: 61 files/sec | CPU Available: 3%
File Open: 133 files/sec | CPU Available: 2%
Directory Scan: 668 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
File Delete: 21 files/sec | CPU Available: 2%
Seek/Read: 78 seeks/sec | CPU Available: 0%
SFS/2 (Only 100 buffers)
MKSoft DiskSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68030 AmigaOS Version: 45.57 Normal Video DMA
Device: hd1: Buffers: 100
Comments: DiskSpeed 4.2
CPU Speed Rating: 1520
Testing directory manipulation speed.
File Create: 56 files/sec | CPU Available: 3%
File Open: 132 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
Directory Scan: 668 files/sec | CPU Available: 0%
File Delete: 44 files/sec | CPU Available: 10%
Seek/Read: 77 seeks/sec | CPU Available: 0%