Changing NTFS to FAT32

[Chewy]

I just go with default

that should be larger

my reasoning would be look at the extra overhead of addressing more clusters

prople always said fat32 was faster than ntfs

[gonwk]

THANKS Chewy!

G!

[snagel]

re: chewy

fat32's default to 64K is for a reason, when the hard drive is that large you can't address smaller clusters

the problem with large clusters is only relevant when you are saving thousands of small files, like txt or emails

only one file can be used in each cluster, so a 1 KB txt file will waste 63KB

however a 5 meg mp3 will use 78 clusters and can only waste part of 1

Chewy, When I selected 64 and then said o.k. it still only changed it to 32. I checked the other external drive that I did have and had not changed anything at all on it a Seagate 160 external with FAT32 and the setting that it had was 32. That is the setting the way it came from the factory with no changes at all. So I left the one I changed and then changed back at 32 also.

Both of the externals were exactly the same model, same size in Gigs and also both bought on the same day, same place and time.

[snagel]

re: gonwk

Hi folks,

@ Chewy ... after your explanation above ... if YOU had a 320GB External and reformatting it back to NTSF ... what Cluster size would you pick ... choices are only 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 bytes???

@ Snagel ... sounds like that GAOTD happens to be a good deal then ... 4 seconds ... wow.

Thanks,

G!

I was just lucky to have found the offering on GAOTD I had only gotten it a few days after trying to change it back........ Also I know when I tried to reformat my hard drive thru the Windows the choice for NTSF defaulted to the 4096 size. And also when I checked with the GAOTD offering looking at the C drive it showed that I had the C drive divided into four categories right from the factory. FAT, FAT32, NTFS and some other category unappropriated or some damn thing like that. FAT was pretty small, FAT32 a little larger, NTFS was the big one and the setting on it was 4096. Not sure of the exact sizes of FAT, FAT32 and the unappropriated as I am at work right now. So for NTFS I'd definitely go with the 4096. FWIW