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Thread: Recommended 'Allocation Unit Size' on hard drive

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
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    Recommended 'Allocation Unit Size' on hard drive

    I am going to format my old 80GB hard drive to wipe out the windows installation from it as I am going to install it on the new 500GB hard drive. Now this old 1 will only be used to store all the downloaded files which will include some softwares, lots of music files and too much of video files

    I know about Allocation Unit Size on hard drive. If I increase this size while formatting, will it improve the performance of this hard disk? This old hard drive is going to work with the new giant, so there fore I ask this if it will improve the performance or not.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    3,522

    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    You mean cluster size? The largest size is faster, but leaves you with less overall space, smaller saves you space at the cost of some disk performance. I prefer larger, it's up to you.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    For NTFS volumes I usually recommend the default cluster size for the partitions. (somewhere between 512 Bytes and 4 KB). Do not use a cluster greater than 4KB if you want to use compression on the volume. Cluster size is the common thread between disk capacity and fragmentation. A small cluster size leads to less sector slack and higher capacity, while a larger cluster size leads to less fragmentation. So you could use a small cluster size to improve disk capacity and efficiency and still avoid excess fragmentation, as long as you periodically defragment the disk.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2008
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    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    It works something like this. i think. If you have 4069 byte, it will store 4069 bytes of data, then move to the next allocation unit. However, if you only write 1 bytes of data, you will lose the 4068 bytes.

    If you use 512 byte. It will write 512 and move on. If it writes 1 byte of data you will only lose 511 bytes of data space.

    So smaller, you get more space, but it takes longer because it has to write so much more units, and writing extra data that goes with each unit. But if you get bigger, because it doesnt have to constantly switch to new units and write data for the new units as well as your data, it goes faster

    smaller, slower, more storage
    bigger, faster, less storage


    Google how Allocation unit sizes work because i do not know for sure if what i said is correct.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
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    13

    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    Ok, nice explanation by all. So as compared to my case, except softwares, much of the data is large file sized. Especially the video files are of much larger file size. So will you recommend to go for large allocation unit size if I am storing mostly large sized data on that drive?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    3,295

    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    Go as large as you would like to afford. You may want to add something later....and if you limit your ability to add...your drive is dead meat.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2008
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    2,680

    Re: Allocation Unit Size

    If it's media files of a certain size - i.e. MP3's and AVI's, and the like, then a larger cluster size (like 32k) will still result in little wasted slack space. If you're storing shortcuts, news articles or maildirs, then 4096 is the go.

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