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Cluster size

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Anonymous   02-17-2002 at 09:16:48 PM

Before my question, let me explain the understanding (that may be wrong) I have on this subject. Files on a hard disk must take a whole number multiple of clusters. If a file has an actual size of 12 bytes, a one word text document for example, that file must take up a space of one cluster regardless which could be as much as 16kb.

What effects cluster size? I was told that the size of drive partitions affect cluster size and that a very large partition will store small file extremely inneficiently. But on my new PC with a 120 gyg partition clusters are 4kb while on the 5 year old pc with an 8 gyg partition cluster size is 16kb. Could someone please inform me of the proper information on this subject?

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ycs46241   02-17-2002 at 09:51:53 PM
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fat, file allocation table makes the cluster size fat16,fat32,ntfs

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Zlash   02-17-2002 at 10:10:53 PM
- 0 +

That's a big question...your right that the bigger the partition the bigger the cluster size before NFTS came out. Obviously your new computer is using NFTS which is wonderful and can address everything under the sun efficiently(a max of 4kb clusters). Fat16 and 32 ranged from 4? to 64kb clusters depending on the partition size.

Physically on the hardrive each sector/cluster is 512bytes.

...

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jc14all   02-18-2002 at 03:13:07 AM
- 0 +

Here is a PDF on <A HREF="http://www.wdc.com/library/legacy/EIDE/fatfile.pdf" target="_new">FAT File System</A> and here is some info I posted the other day regarding cluster sizes. Hope this helps.

LOL...in that old PDF their solution was to switch to a different file system, i.e., NTFS

<b><font color=red>Default FAT32 cluster sizes:</b></font color=red>

<b>Partition Size (GB)******Sector Per Cluster******Cluster Size</b>
0.256 - 8.01****************** 8 **************** 4K
8.02 - 16.02***************** 16 **************** 8K
16.03 32.04 ***************** 32 *************** 16K
> 32.04 ******************** 64 *************** 32K
________________________________________________________

<b><font color=blue>Default NTFS Cluster Size:</b></font color=blue>

<b>Drive Size (MB)******Number of Sectors******Cluster Size</b>
512 ********************** 1 *************512 bytes
513 - 1024 (1GB)*************2 ************1024 (1KB)
1025 - 2048 (2GB)************4 ************2048 (2KB)
2049 & larger *************** 8 ************4096 (4KB)


JC-------<*){{{>{~~~~~
Fisher of men<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jc14all on 02/17/02 08:20 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

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