Cluster Size on XP-Sp2

[R. McCarty]

I've got a question, I can't find any documentation on. If I'm not mistaken
Windows 2003 Server restricts the cluster size on the System partition
to 4K. I was checking a system with SP2 and found 512 K clusters. I
tried to increase it to 8K and after resizing - Xp wouldn't boot. I got an
error "A Disk Read/IO error occurred". I went back and resized to 4K
and the system booted normally. Anyone know if there is a change to
supported cluster sizes with SP2 or was this just one of those "Quirks"
you run into on occasion ?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, R.

First, I know nothing of servers.

With that caveat, cluster size is a function of the File System (FAT32 v.
NTFS), not of the operating system (WinXP v. Win2K3 v. Win9x/ME). Nor of
SP2.

A common cause of 512-byte clusters is use of convert.exe, especially in
Win2K, so it might apply in Win2K3 Server, too.

Your best chance for an answer on this question is probably at
microsoft.public.windows.file_system.

RC

 

[R. McCarty]

Thanks, I'll check on that NG and see what turns up.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I've got a question, I can't find any documentation on. If I'm not mistaken
Windows 2003 Server restricts the cluster size on the System partition
to 4K. I was checking a system with SP2 and found 512 K clusters. I
tried to increase it to 8K and after resizing - Xp wouldn't boot. I got an
error "A Disk Read/IO error occurred". I went back and resized to 4K
and the system booted normally

This sounds like a case where the file system has been converted to NTFS
without due precaution. that can easily result in 512 byte clusters. I
know of no reason why SP2 should make any difference in the matter,
though only 4K clusters match the inbuilt hardware page size of CPUs, so
the wrong size *might* give trouble with the resulted need to buffer
page file operations. What tool did you use to change cluster size?

Note BTW that SP2 is for Windows XP and *not* for Windows 2003 server