reformatting my external harddrive

[Michael Mauzey]

I want to reformat the Maxtor external harddrive so I can duplicate my new
harddrive without all the extraneous stuff that I had on it before. My
question is what allocation unit size do you recommend when I reformat it in
the NTFS format? My options are:
512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K or 64K.

My understanding is that the larger the allocation unit, the more efficient
the system. Is that correct? The Maxtor is 80 Gigs and I'm only using about
25 Gigs on my main internal harddrive. Thanks ... Michael Mauzey

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You should format your drive using 4096 KB for
your NTFS cluster size.

NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/winpreinst/ntfs-preinstall.mspx

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

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

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

:

| I want to reformat the Maxtor external harddrive so I can duplicate my new
| harddrive without all the extraneous stuff that I had on it before. My
| question is what allocation unit size do you recommend when I reformat it in
| the NTFS format? My options are:
| 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K or 64K.
|
| My understanding is that the larger the allocation unit, the more efficient
| the system. Is that correct? The Maxtor is 80 Gigs and I'm only using about
| 25 Gigs on my main internal harddrive. Thanks ... Michael Mauzey

 

[Michael Mauzey]

Thanks Carey, but I wish you had explained your answer more. The article
that you sent me to says that the cluster size for NTFS should be a power of
2 between 512 K and 64 M. Why do you suggest only 4K? Now I'm just more
confused.

You should format your drive using 4096 KB for
your NTFS cluster size.

NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/winpreinst/ntfs-preinstall.mspx

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

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

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

:

| I want to reformat the Maxtor external harddrive so I can duplicate my new
| harddrive without all the extraneous stuff that I had on it before. My
| question is what allocation unit size do you recommend when I reformat it
in
| the NTFS format? My options are:
| 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K or 64K.
|
| My understanding is that the larger the allocation unit, the more
efficient
| the system. Is that correct? The Maxtor is 80 Gigs and I'm only using
about
| 25 Gigs on my main internal harddrive. Thanks ... Michael Mauzey