NTFS Cluster Size

Hey all,

I just converted my w3j's hd to ntfs using one of the guides that were posted on the forum but i wanted to verify the cluster size (to make sure its 4k) except i looked everywhere i cant find that info. anyone know where i can find the cluster size info from my hd?

 

just analyse the drive using the inbuild XP defrag utility, the report will tell you the cluster size
a

 

thanks! and its 4k which is great for anyone doing the ntfs conversion i really reccommend this guide. http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

 

yep ntfs is the way to go. cant imagine using fat32 for anything these days.

as a side note, always remember to use the default 4k cluster size otherwise you'd run into alot of problems with large files.

 

an easy way to check cluster size (I already mentioned this on some other topic):

from command prompt:

chkdsk c:

and cluster size is reported. The report looks smth like:

Code:

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

  14683378 KB total disk space.
   5970004 KB in 130765 files.
     41256 KB in 11146 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    212070 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
   8460048 KB available on disk.

      [b]4096 bytes in each allocation unit.[/b]
   3670844 total allocation units on disk.
   2115012 allocation units available on disk.

 

is it really necessary to convert to the 4k cluster size. I used the utility that came with my w7j and my clusters are 512 kb. After which I have placed several compressed movies on my hard drive with files greater than 1 gb. The winxp defrag utility showed most of the disk is not fragmented. It is my understanding that smaller clusters should lead to more fragmentation of files. I ask this question because there does not appear to be a way to maintain my current drive and convert the clusters to 4k. I would have to reformat to acheive this.
Thanks

 

BootItNG (see link to aumha.org above) or Partition Magic can PROBABLY convert the clusters without losing data, but I would back it up first to be safe, which pretty much defeats the purpose of not having to re-format . . .

 

Wait a sec.. i don't understand why ASUS would make the default FAT32? Is it? That's crazy!

 

Most manufacturers do that, because you can convert from Fat32 to NTFS, but you cannot convert from NTFS to Fat32. Some old programs and such don't like NTFS very much, and Operating systems older than Windows 2000 don't use it at all. Linux, I believe, also cannot use NTFS natively. Therefore, it makes sense to accomodate as many people as possible, and use Fat32...then include a way to convert if the user wishes.

 

One reason is that FAT32 can be converted to NTFS, but NTFS never convert back to FAT32. This way can give the users more flexible to choose what format they want. Moreover, after we use a recovery cd to format a hard drive and reinstall a Windows, the default format of hard drive is a FAT32, then it can let the user change the format later.
Cheers

 

Can someone enlighten me with the purpose of converting?

 

To summarize some of the facts:

1. NTFS is much better than FAT32 in many ways: security, reliability, storing files and folders below 1500 bytes into the MFT **** database. Faster on large volumes. No limits in number of files. Very large volumes possible. 256 unicode characters for file name.
2. The smaller cluster size means less slack space, but slower access due to the sheer number of clusters. Imagine it as a smallest box on the disk for putting files in it. 1 kb file in a 512kb box will use - 512 kb! 511 kb is slack space. NTFS does it much better - putting all below 1500 bytes into a large file called MFT - similar to index like FAT in FAT32, but way, way more powerful. For example FAT32 needs to read FAT every time it accesses a new file. NTFS doesn't read MFT all the time.
3. FAT32 can be converted into NTFS. Do the defrag after that. You will get more free space. NTFS cannot be converted into FAT32.
4. NTFS can be set to have any cluster size. All volumes above 2GB will have 4kb cluster size by default!

Check www.ntfs.com and learn something about this great filesystem. Check for comparison between FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. Learn more about Windows Future Storage or WinFS.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

dont forget fat32 is limited to 4gb file size.

simply ntfs is better than fat32 bar none

 

Good point. Thanks khull. And why the word "M-E-T-A" in my last post is turned into ****? I don't get it....

Cheers,

Ivan

 

I just went ahead and used partition magic 8.0 to resize the clusters after I did the command to switch to NTFS. I didn't know about the cluster thing before I'd converted. Interestingly, the main partition was the right cluster size... Or was it the blank one, I don't remember

In any case, I also used it to combine my partitions.

Krista

 

I used Partition Magic too to convert my 512 clusters to 4096 after several suggestions here. As far as I can tell, all seems well with my w7j.

 

Hey, I converted my FAT32 partitions without first reading the guide, so they now have 512b clusters. I was going to resize the clusters with Partition Magic 8, but then read this chilling report:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsnt/msg/85a33f910b42eead
It seems that Partition Magic will not be able to successfully resize the clusters on my C: partition. Is there any other way I can do this? My hard drive has started getting way too hot since I converted the partitions...

 

I have heard success stories with PQMagic, however. Check my XP Install Guide for suggestions of other utilities that can perform the resize.

In any case, backing up your data before trying to resize is a good idea.