Reformatting to speed up data on WD Passport 3Tb?

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blobbyflob

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Nov 28, 2009
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Hi,

QUERY
I have just received my 3Tb WD Passport Ultra model and I would like to be very clear about reformatting in order to have fast data speeds.
In addition I would also like to know if your answer is the same for my 2Tb Ultra models.

PC INFO
I use Windows 10 on a 2 year old Dell i7 computer with 20Gb RAM. USB3 sockets used.

ISSUE DETAILS
My equipment is used to play Apple movies on my PC using iTunes.
The .m4v files are held on an external WD Passport.
Most of the time replaying the films does not cause any buffering, however, I wondered whether reformatting differently might cause the the .m4v files to be retrieved at a higher speed and lower any chance of buffering.

WHAT I'VE DONE
To try and test this, I have (FULLY) reformatted an earlier My Passport Ultra 2TB using NTFS still as a single partition but with 8192 allocation units instead of the default 4096.
My thoughts were that this might help the rate of both storage and retrieval of large files, albeit at the expense of wasting some space.

QUESTIONS
1. Is my change to 8192 AU on the 2Tb model a 'sensible move' in order to increase read speed, or is there a better way? Alternatively, am I wasting my time?
2. Is it safe to carry out reformatting the new 3Tb My Passport in exactly the same way as I did on the 2Tb model - in order to increase read speed?
3. Can I 'security erase' the new 3Tb My Passport without any issues, and then reformat it using the usual Disk management in the Administrative tools of Windows 10 Control Panel?
I am aware that there are such things as GPT etc, but I don't know enough about this and would appreciate guidance. After all, I don't want to brick my new 3Tb unit.

Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable expert advice here!.


Blobbyflob :??:
 
Solution
SuperSoph_WD
Hey there, blobbyflob!

Since you are dealing with massive media files, I guess the allocation unit size can stay set up to 8192b. However, you should keep in mind that in terms of space efficiency, smaller allocation unit size performs better and it's recommended to use MS default (4096). The average space wasted per file will be half the chosen AUS. However, I don't think that this should concern you in any way, since both of your WD My Passport drives have big capacities. Either way, having a backup of your files stored in different locations is always a good idea to avoid any potential data-loss headaches.

The transfer speed is standard for any USB 3.0 external device. It neither depends on the cluster size, nor the performance...
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hey there, blobbyflob!

Since you are dealing with massive media files, I guess the allocation unit size can stay set up to 8192b. However, you should keep in mind that in terms of space efficiency, smaller allocation unit size performs better and it's recommended to use MS default (4096). The average space wasted per file will be half the chosen AUS. However, I don't think that this should concern you in any way, since both of your WD My Passport drives have big capacities. Either way, having a backup of your files stored in different locations is always a good idea to avoid any potential data-loss headaches.

The transfer speed is standard for any USB 3.0 external device. It neither depends on the cluster size, nor the performance gets affected by it. The AUS affects the size of the file system structure, reading a 1MB file from the disk for example, the system will perform the same number of reads whether the size 4K or 64K. However, you can still give the 8K a try, if you do have lots of large files, keeping it higher will increase the system performance by having less blocks to seek.

If you need assistance with the formatting of the drive, I'd recommend you to check the tutorials in our knowledge base here:
How to initialize your HDD - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=By8x0D
How to partition & format it - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=42AAG2

As for the secure erase, you can perform the so-called WRITE ZEROS process which will erase your drive entirely. You can do this using WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics Utility for Windows. It also can let you know what is the health and SMART status of your WD drives. Here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=t7v5dd
How to low level format your drives with the DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KFYBSo

Hope it helps. Keep me posted if you have more questions! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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Solution
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blobbyflob

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Thank you lots SuperSoph_WD for a very clear and helpful explanation.

However, I don't quite understand ..... The AUS affects the size of the file system structure, reading a 1MB file from the disk for example, the system will perform the same number of reads whether the size 4K or 64K. However, you can still give the 8K a try, if you do have lots of large files, keeping it higher will increase the system performance by having less blocks to seek.

Can you unpack that a bit or direct me to a link where I can try and get my head around it?

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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hey there again, blobbyflob!

I'm sorry I wasn't very clear on this explanation, I'd recommend you to take a look at this article: http://www.howtogeek.com/136078/what-should-i-set-the-allocation-unit-size-to-when-formatting/
It's very detailed and explains the different allocation unit sizes and their influence in terms of space efficiency.

Hope it helps you. Best of luck! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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blobbyflob

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That's great - I've just had a read.

Thanks for all your help

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