CLUSTER RESIZING FAILS

Any idea why a cluster resize would fail with some kind of "empty block at new location". I'm at work right now so that's from memory. I launched from Windows and DD issued a reboot to attempt.

Trying to change 4kb cluster to 64kb on the first of hopefully four drives; this first one I tried has about 50GB remaining of a 1TB (960GB).

Using Windows XP SP3 newest version of DD.

thanks
DC

 

Have you tried booting to the DD CD and doing the procedure instead of starting it in Windows?

Have you checked the partition(s) for any errors (chkdsk /r)?

Hopefully, you have a current backup of all drives which you're changing.

Also, if one of the partitions you're changing is the XP partition, be aware that it may not boot if you change the cluster size. I'm not sure about XP, but Vista has to have 4KB.

 

I forgot to mention that I did first run from the DD boot disk, then lastly, tried to do it from Windows.

I can run chkdisk tonight, but I may have done that as I did some reading before attempting this.

I have all data backed up. I guess I could just "start over" with a format. I'll try another disk later.

DC

 

Checkdisk run from DD shows 0kb in bad sectors. The size is 931GB w/ 61GB available. Drive is SataII on a DFI P35 mb which has tested stable.

DC

 

Have you tried using the Safe Mode version of DD?

Do you know for sure that the data will fit on the drive with 64KB clusters?

 

Thanks, I forgot about the Safe Mode. I'll try that. Maybe space is limited, but I thought I remember DD reporting the new size as the same; should it end up being larger given the increased cluster size.

I appreciate your adivce on this!

DC

 

If you have a lot of small files, the free space after the conversion could be quite a bit less. DD should show the chart of Useful Space that shows how much wasted space there would be. On a small Vista installation (around 9GB), 64KB clusters will waste 2GB of space. That space is coming out of any "unused space" currently on the drive.

If there are some large files you could copy off the partition and then delete to free up space, you could try it again and see if free space is an issue.

 

So am I looking at a proportional amount of wasted space (to your 9gb Vista example) converting 850gb from 4kb to 64kb cluster size?

This drive is all files that are at least 600mb (up to 5-10gb).

DC

 

You'll have very little wasted space with files that large. That shouldn't be the problem, then.

Do you get the same error if you try a different cluster size (32KB, for example)?

 

Would there be a better choice than 64kb cluster for drives full of files which average 30mb in size, in terms of performance:space wasted?

I'm going to use 64kb on the video drive with the giant files.

DC