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#1
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Best size cluster for NTFS partition
By default WinXP formats NTFS to have 4k cluster sizes but what is
the best cluster size for my situation :- I have a 60 GB NTFS partition which I use mainly for storing downloads (software and audio). It will be used by WinXP. What would the best NTFS cluster size be if this was a 160 GB partition filled mainly with 200K jpegs and some 10 MB movie clips? ------- I suspect that 4K might be the best for my 60G and 160 Gb partitions becuase it saves space. But I don't know if there are overheads in the MFT and other metadata when the NTFS partition gets to 160 GB. I also read that third-party defrag utilities (like Diskeeper and Perfectdisk) will not work on NTFS clusters above a certain size. Is this true? What is the biggest cluster size I can have if I want to defrag an NTFS partition? |
#2
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4K is optimal....
-- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alex Coleman" wrote: | By default WinXP formats NTFS to have 4k cluster sizes but what is | the best cluster size for my situation :- | | I have a 60 GB NTFS partition which I use mainly for storing | downloads (software and audio). It will be used by WinXP. | | What would the best NTFS cluster size be if this was a 160 GB | partition filled mainly with 200K jpegs and some 10 MB movie clips? | | ------- | | I suspect that 4K might be the best for my 60G and 160 Gb partitions | becuase it saves space. But I don't know if there are overheads in | the MFT and other metadata when the NTFS partition gets to 160 GB. | | I also read that third-party defrag utilities (like Diskeeper and | Perfectdisk) will not work on NTFS clusters above a certain size. Is | this true? What is the biggest cluster size I can have if I want to | defrag an NTFS partition? |
#3
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Just curious. Why?
-- Regards. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote in message ... 4K is optimal.... -- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alex Coleman" wrote: | By default WinXP formats NTFS to have 4k cluster sizes but what is | the best cluster size for my situation :- | | I have a 60 GB NTFS partition which I use mainly for storing | downloads (software and audio). It will be used by WinXP. | | What would the best NTFS cluster size be if this was a 160 GB | partition filled mainly with 200K jpegs and some 10 MB movie clips? | | ------- | | I suspect that 4K might be the best for my 60G and 160 Gb partitions | becuase it saves space. But I don't know if there are overheads in | the MFT and other metadata when the NTFS partition gets to 160 GB. | | I also read that third-party defrag utilities (like Diskeeper and | Perfectdisk) will not work on NTFS clusters above a certain size. Is | this true? What is the biggest cluster size I can have if I want to | defrag an NTFS partition? |
#4
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Because 4k is the data size used when the system is "paging". It just seems
to make the operating system a bit more "snappy" [in my estimation]. I would guess that it may eliminate extra overhead involved when using larger/smaller cluster sizes, and the system is making use of the pagefile. -- Regards, Richard Urban Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User Quote from: George Ankner "If you knew as much as you think you know, You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!" "Gerry Cornell" wrote in message ... Just curious. Why? -- Regards. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote in message ... 4K is optimal.... -- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alex Coleman" wrote: | By default WinXP formats NTFS to have 4k cluster sizes but what is | the best cluster size for my situation :- | | I have a 60 GB NTFS partition which I use mainly for storing | downloads (software and audio). It will be used by WinXP. | | What would the best NTFS cluster size be if this was a 160 GB | partition filled mainly with 200K jpegs and some 10 MB movie clips? | | ------- | | I suspect that 4K might be the best for my 60G and 160 Gb partitions | becuase it saves space. But I don't know if there are overheads in | the MFT and other metadata when the NTFS partition gets to 160 GB. | | I also read that third-party defrag utilities (like Diskeeper and | Perfectdisk) will not work on NTFS clusters above a certain size. Is | this true? What is the biggest cluster size I can have if I want to | defrag an NTFS partition? |
#6
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"Leythos" wrote in message ... I have a drive that is used to store small images, under 30k many times, I have worked with the drive set at 512b and at the default 4k and even larger - the 512b provides the best in unwasted slack space - and you can really see this with 50,000+ files. Yea, you've gained the whole 90 MB by doing that! |
#7
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Agreed. For best overall file system performance, a 4K cluster size is
best. You only really need to consider going larger if the drive is used for larger files (ie database, large multi-media files, etc...) and absolute speed is the primary concern. - Greg/Raxco Software Microsoft MVP - Windows File System Want to email me? Delete ntloader. "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote in message ... 4K is optimal.... -- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- "Alex Coleman" wrote: | By default WinXP formats NTFS to have 4k cluster sizes but what is | the best cluster size for my situation :- | | I have a 60 GB NTFS partition which I use mainly for storing | downloads (software and audio). It will be used by WinXP. | | What would the best NTFS cluster size be if this was a 160 GB | partition filled mainly with 200K jpegs and some 10 MB movie clips? | | ------- | | I suspect that 4K might be the best for my 60G and 160 Gb partitions | becuase it saves space. But I don't know if there are overheads in | the MFT and other metadata when the NTFS partition gets to 160 GB. | | I also read that third-party defrag utilities (like Diskeeper and | Perfectdisk) will not work on NTFS clusters above a certain size. Is | this true? What is the biggest cluster size I can have if I want to | defrag an NTFS partition? |
#8
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One of our servers uses 64KB block size. 700KB worth of cookie data
can easily take 120MB in user roaming profile directorys. This can be copied to a 4KB block size partition and take around 7MB versus 120MB. SQL server (MSDE) benefits from 64KB block size. The benefit is if you have a bunch of large files (on a second drive, don't do this on you Windows system drive), you get better performance when loading/saving the files. If you setup a second drive just to store a bunch of GB MPG files, the 64KB block size makes more sense. This usually isn't worth it, though. If you want to increase your performance, setup a RAID 0 across 2 or 3 drives. If you have two drives that can sustain 50MB/s and you put them in RAID0 you can realize 90-100MB/s sustained. Some of this is my opinion, there are enough variables in systems today that others may have different opinions based on those variables. |
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