how to change cluster size

[~Krunal]

i have winxp pro spII installed,,
i have 40 GB hard drive 3 partition
c:\ for xp & d:\win98
it has formmated in cluster size of 16 kb
i want to change it to 4 kb..

how to change cluster size of partition or of whole disk, without losing any
data,,

thank you
krunal

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You can either backup your data and perform a
"clean install" of Windows XP, or you can purchase
and use a third-party program such as Partition Magic 8.

Partition Magic 8 has a utility program to change cluster sizes:
http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/

Key Features
http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/features.html

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| i have winxp pro spII installed,,
| i have 40 GB hard drive 3 partition
| c:\ for xp & d:\win98
| it has formmated in cluster size of 16 kb
| i want to change it to 4 kb..
|
| how to change cluster size of partition or of whole disk, without losing any
| data,,
|
| thank you
| krunal

 

[Don MI]

i have winxp pro spII installed,,
i have 40 GB hard drive 3 partition
c:\ for xp & d:\win98
it has formmated in cluster size of 16 kb
i want to change it to 4 kb..

how to change cluster size of partition or of whole disk, without losing
any data,,

thank you
krunal

If your partitions are using the FAT32 file system, you cannot. For 4Kb
cluster size you must use the NTFS file system which your Windows 98 will
not recognize.

Don

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Be careful in changing cluster size! The other week I read a post, in this
newsgroup, that someone else had rendered to XP drive completely useless
with a PM 8 cluster size change. They could no longer get the system to
start. .

 

[S.Sengupta]

You may use Partition Magic which allows you to change the cluster size
without loosing any data.

Otherwise from disk management in XP when you format it asks you for the
cluster size.In the Disk Management snap-in, you can specify a cluster
size of up to 64 KB when you format a volume.

Right click on my computer. select manage. selct disk management and
right click on the disk you want to format and select format.This works
if you are not booting and running XP from that disk.

regards,
ssg MS-MVP

 

[R. McCarty]

Windows XP w/SP2 will not boot from any NTFS partition in which
the cluster is not 4-Kbytes. You'll receive an I/O Error. This is a known
problem. You can modify the NTFS system partition at SP1 or Gold
version to a non-4Kbyte size and then apply SP2. In that case the XP
instance will continue to boot and use the non-4K cluster size.

 

[S.Sengupta]

Further Ref. here:-

'Cluster Size'
http://tinyurl.com/6z475

regards,
ssg MS-MVP

 

[Richard Urban]

Yes, you must backup everything you absolutely can not afford to lose. I
have successfully changed the cluster size quite a few times. Then there was
the time I lost everything because the drive I was converting has some
logical error that PM8 could not work around.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!