Which NTFS Cluster Size should I choose for maximum disk performance?

Which NTFS Cluster Size should I choose for maximum disk performance?

 

For performance a larger cluster size would be better than small, but at the cost of disk space. I just go for default.

 

If you're using Vista, you might want to take a look at this post by K0lo.

 

Hello Omicron

It really depends on your own mix of file sizes. I go for the maximum cluster size before DDS reports a significant increase in wasted space (for my various drives that's usually 16KB or 32KB but never NTFS's 4KB default).

Regards

Menorcaman

 

how much is the speed improvement if I switch from my current 4KB default entry to another entry?

 

That really depends on the size of the files you're accessing, their physical location on the drive and the amount of fragmentation.

Personally I doubt you will notice a significant speed difference unless you were using a very large and very busy server. For the average user, I believe wasted disk space to be far more relevant. Therefore, as I said above, go for the largest cluster size that Disk Director calculates will provide the least amount of wasted space.

Regards

Menorcaman

 

Hi all,

I would like to ask a question about "Useful Space %" and "Wasted" space reported by Disk Director.

I am assuming that "Useful Space" is a function of wasted space. I have a 152 Gb drive which is formatted in NTFS and is the primary drive. Here, 16Kb cluster siize minimizes the wasted space.
However, with respect to my external drive, Disk Director reports that the Useful Space = 0% !!

Can someone please explain this issue?

Regards

Marserobert