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| Thread ID: 27082 | 2002-11-13 07:55:00 | Allocation Unit Size / Cluster Size | Mike (15) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 98331 | 2002-11-13 07:55:00 | Running Windows XP Pro on NTFS - what size should I set for the Allocation Unit size (I think it used to be called Cluster Size)? My drives are currently set to 4kb (I think) - should this be more or less and why? Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 98332 | 2002-11-13 08:20:00 | As far as I can see mine are set to 512bytes. What are the advantages/disadvantages of larger ones. I'm pretty sure that 512 is default, but It may be 1024bytes. |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 98333 | 2002-11-13 08:30:00 | That depends on the size of the harddrive and what it's used for Mike. | -=JM=- (16) | ||
| 98334 | 2002-11-13 08:34:00 | Okay, Hypothetical (Well, not the 1st one). A small drive used as a holding bay for network transportation (Under 100Megs) and a HDD used for Gaming, Media storage and Media manipulation (Over 6 gig). |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 98335 | 2002-11-13 08:48:00 | Mike, For NTFS volumes I usually recommend the default cluster size for the partitions. (somewhere between 512 Bytes and 4 KB). Do not use a cluster greater than 4KB if you want to use compression on the volume. Cluster size is the common thread between disk capacity and fragmentation. A small cluster size leads to less sector slack and higher capacity, while a larger cluster size leads to less fragmentation. So you could use a small cluster size to improve disk capacity and efficiency and still avoid excess fragmentation, as long as you periodically defragment the disk. However to help make up your mind take a look at NTFS_Optimisation (www.ntfs.com) Cheers, Babe. |
Babe Ruth (416) | ||
| 98336 | 2002-11-14 05:52:00 | Thanks for that Babe - the reason I asked was because I installed Norton Utilities and the System doctor told me there was a lot of slack waste space on one of my drives, and I thought this might have something to do with the allocation unit size, and it seems I was right (by your explanation) - My drive doesn't get very fragmented as I defrag quite regularly. Is there any way to change the cluster size without formatting? (I suppose I could format LOL) Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 98337 | 2002-11-14 09:07:00 | I hear there is a tool to change FAT16 to FAT32 on win98se (or something) and you might keep the data. But don't think the ability would be there for XP as it has tighter security.?:| Here's that format that will bring the subscription to a level par.:D rads:) |
raddersnz (684) | ||
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