NTFS Cluster Sizes on WinXP

fournier · Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

I have a Maxtor 120gig SATA drive. I formatted it with Maxblast3 and divided it into two 60Gb NTFS partitions (since I’ll be using WinXP I decided they should be NTFS). I wanted to make 16K clusters but it didn’t let me choose the cluster size and I had to make them 4k. I’ve read it here and there that most of the people make their cluster size be 16K when it comes to NTFS partitions. I was just wondering if this is really important or not? And if it is how can I change the cluster size?

reppond · Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

Hi! 16K was default cluster size for FAT32 partitions as far as I remember. I also have NTFS partitions now and cluster size is the default 4K. I fail to see the big difference. I’ve heard, and it has some logic to it, that the larger clusters make your HD work faster but smaller clusters are result in better use of disc space. But I really don’t think that it’s such a huge difference that you’d notice it if you’re using your PC for surfing and gaming.

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NTFS Cluster Sizes on WinXP

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