Formatting Hard Drive

[jeffbouldin]

I installed a new hard drive on a XP Home machine, I choose NTSF then it asked about the cluster size(I think),512k, 1mg, 2mg, or 4mg(I may have the k and mg wrong). I choose 2mg. What does this mean and which one should I have choosen?

 

[esreverse]

How big is this new drive?

 

[jeffbouldin]

60 gig IBM 7200rpm

 

[braddds]

In FAT/FAT32 the smaller the cluster the better (usually) as it doesn't waste as much space. I'm not sure about NTFS but I'd bet the same holds true. Clusters are formed to hold your files/programs/data. The way information is stored is that when a data is laid down it uses cluster(s) up to store the info. If data is larger than the cluster then it puts the remaining data in the next available cluster until it is all written. If you take a file that is 2.1 mb and write it to disk it will fill a cluster (2 mb) in your case and then place the remaining data in another available cluster. This .1 mb will fill show that this cluster is filled - even though 1.9 mb is still available, thereby creating a lot of waste!

I don't use NTFS. I use FAT32 as I can get much smaller clusters - usually 32kb or smaller. Therefore my wasted space is much smaller. I've heard you can get smaller clusters with NTFS but you'll have to search for this info.

This is a very simplified explaination but it should give you some food for thought! Mind you there are some performance and compatability issues that you need to consider also. Do a google search to get a better idea and decide for yourself!

Cheers

 

[linney]

Cluster Size
This is the smallest amount of hard disk space a file can occupy. Floppies have a cluster size of 512 bytes and hard disks can have a cluster size ranging from 1 kilobyte to 16 kilobytes (sometimes even more). The larger the partition, the larger the cluster size. See Slack Space.

Slack Space
The amount of disk space that is wasted by having a large cluster size. For example, if a 300-byte file is stored on a disk with a cluster size of 1,024 bytes, there will be 724 bytes of slack space that can't be used for any other files. You can see how much space is allocated to a file by typing "DIR /v" at the command prompt.


How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP(Q315668)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/6/68.asp

The Default Cluster Size for the NTFS and FAT File Systems(Q314878)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/8/78.asp

Files Are Larger on FAT Partitions(Q101267)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q101/2/67.asp

 

[subxp]

You can choice 4kb clusters with NTFS format disk.

 

[jeffbouldin]

So my choices were 512kb, 1kb, 2kb, and 4kb? So 1kb would have been the best choice?

 

[linney]

Review this article to determine the default cluster size and how your disk space is being used. To see if the cluster is using the optimal cluster size, and determine the amount of wasted space. Or you could just settle for the default 4kb size.


315688 - How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315688&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH