Format HD question
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,877
connoisseur
|
OP
connoisseur
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,877 |
I'm formatting my WD external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. It asks for allocation unit size with options ranging from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes.
Default is 4096 bytes.
Most files that will be on the drive are flac files ranging from 15-40 MB on average.
There will be some photos, program installation files, etc. too.
which allocation size should I choose?
Thanks.
-David
|
|
|
Re: Format HD question
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840 Likes: 13
shareholder in the making
|
shareholder in the making
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840 Likes: 13 |
The default unit allocation size is a good balance between space and speed, so my advice would be to stick with 4096 bytes, for NTFS.
M80s VP180 4xM22ow 4xM3ic EP600 2xEP350 AnthemAVM60 Outlaw7700 EmoA500 Epson5040UB FluanceRT85
|
|
|
Re: Format HD question
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,877
connoisseur
|
OP
connoisseur
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,877 |
Good, started formatting 2 minutes ago and went with the default. figured I could always re-re-format if someone suggested something better here.
-David
|
|
|
Re: Format HD question
|
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,466
connoisseur
|
connoisseur
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,466 |
You could have gone larger, but it doesn't really matter much.
The biggest effect of the allocation size is that every file will be rounded to a multiple of that. So 4k is a pretty good trade off. If you were storing millions of files less than one 1k, then the 512 byte size would make sense. If all the files you were storing were gigabytes in size, then the 64k would probably gain a little extra speed.
The default is good.
Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011 Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8 Sony PS4, surround backs -Chris
|
|
|
Re: Format HD question
|
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,703
connoisseur
|
connoisseur
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,703 |
Doubtful you'd even notice a difference no matter what you chose. That said I believe in using defaults unless you have a really good reason not to.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics24,945
Posts442,479
Members15,617
|
Most Online2,082 Jan 22nd, 2020
|
|
1 members (2x6spds),
880
guests, and
2
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|