Ideal Cluster Size for NTFS

[Shiva Parvati]

Hello everybody,

I shall be gald to know what is the ideal cluster size to use in formatting
a hard drive with NTFS for use with WinXP Pro.

I understand that using higher sizes does speed up the computer but also
wastes quite an amount of disc space.

Is there any correlation between cluster size and application - eg.
multimedia, word processing....?

Thanks in anticipation.

Have a nice day.

Shiva

 

[Harry Ohrn]

When you install a fresh copy of XP you will have the option to format as
NTFS. Choose that option.

Read more about it here http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm

 

[DILIP]

4kb, the default, seems to work best for all scenarios.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Hello everybody,

I shall be gald to know what is the ideal cluster size to use in
formatting a hard drive with NTFS for use with WinXP Pro.

I understand that using higher sizes does speed up the computer but
also wastes quite an amount of disc space.

Is there any correlation between cluster size and application - eg.
multimedia, word processing....?

NTFS works well at a 4 kb cluster size.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP MCE
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I shall be gald to know what is the ideal cluster size to use in formatting
a hard drive with NTFS for use with WinXP Pro.

I understand that using higher sizes does speed up the computer but also
wastes quite an amount of disc space.

The optimum size for most purposes is 4K which matches the internal page
size used in the Intel architecture processors. That is the size NTFS
will use - at least up to a 128GB partition.

 

[Shiva Parvati]

Hello everybody,

Thanks for the quick responses! Certainly I learnt something.

Have a nice day, everybody.

Shiva

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

Shiva,

For general file system performance, a 4k cluster size works best.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.