fat32 to ntfs conversion/cluster size question

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Hi,

I just converted a 6gb hd running win2000 from fat32 to ntfs. Then right
after, I read the following on a web page:

"There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to
be efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable
to end up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.

What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions
except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd
multiple of 2 kilobytes in the “system” sectors before the data area,
where the File Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start.
Therefore, clusters 4 KB in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as
NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE, finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up
and makes the clusters only 512 bytes (one half KB) instead. "

So my questions are, does win200 format a drive to have that
abovementioned odd multiple of 2 kbytes? If it does, meaning the
conversion left me with 512 byte clusters, then what is the disadvantage
from this?

Please reply to this group.

Hannu

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Windows 2000 includes the convert.exe utility that allows you to convert to
NTFS without any loss of data. The downside to this is you'll end up with
512 byte clusters which is pretty inefficient, slow, and more prone to
fragmentation. The overhead of traversing a greater number of clusters to
retrieve and commit data will result in a degradation in file system (or
disk I/O) performance. Best to choose NTFS at the time of install. From a
command prompt;
chkdsk
to see the cluster size.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Hannu Järvinen" wrote:
| Hi,
|
| I just converted a 6gb hd running win2000 from fat32 to ntfs. Then right
| after, I read the following on a web page:
|
| "There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to
| be efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable
| to end up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.
|
| What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions
| except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd
| multiple of 2 kilobytes in the “system” sectors before the data area,
| where the File Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start.
| Therefore, clusters 4 KB in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as
| NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE, finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up
| and makes the clusters only 512 bytes (one half KB) instead. "
|
| So my questions are, does win200 format a drive to have that
| abovementioned odd multiple of 2 kbytes? If it does, meaning the
| conversion left me with 512 byte clusters, then what is the disadvantage
| from this?
|
| Please reply to this group.
|
| Hannu