Cluster Size versus Performance

[R. McCarty]

While I wouldn't globally advocate changing from the default
4KByte cluster size, there are cases where it has it's advantages.

Read the following from NTFS.Com and note the comment from
the site...
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_optimization.htm

""The bigger the cluster size, the more disk space is wasted,
however, the performance is better.""

HOWEVER - You should not change the XP partition from 4K
or you'll loose the ability for compression and SP2 based XP
instances will NOT boot from a Non 4KByte cluster size. It's
not by design, but a flaw in the parsing of attributes that span file
records. At boot you'll likely see an I/O failure, if the Cluster size
has been changed from 4KBytes

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Thanks for posting the link.

Guess it might be the time for some experimentation <g>.

--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[R. McCarty]

It's another one of those "Debatable" settings. I wouldn't want
someone to just arbitrarily change their cluster size and end up
damaging the partition or loose any data.
I use large clusters on my dedicated Music partition and that
Maxtor external, but everything else is the standard 4KByte size.
It does generally increase performance (File access & defrag)
but it's not for every situation or disk setup. If you do change or
experiment, post back your results/conclusions.