Best cluster size for 500gb sata drive

[Guest]

I bought a 500gb sata drive, i was wondering if whats the best cluster size to choose, I will be installing win 7 and xp on it, also most of the files ill be storing are media files, mp3, videos

 

[treefrog07]

If you are trying to decrease the read/write time, use 512k to 2048k clusters if you expect to have mostly small files on your disk; use larger clusters (at least 4096) if you are storing mostly large files, like DVDs or large databases.

 

[Pointertovoid]

Cluster sizes are in bytes, not k.

Cluster size determines the allocation unit, not the size or reads and writes. And anyway, writing 4k is negligible as compared to accessing them.

As for the best cluster size with Ntfs, the answer is: the default one.

It's the size that allows defragmenting Ntfs with Xp, for instance. And Ntfs doesn't accelerate with bigger clusters, as opposed to Fat32.

 

[treefrog07]

Cluster sizes are in bytes, not k.

Cluster size determines the allocation unit, not the size or reads and writes. And anyway, writing 4k is negligible as compared to accessing them.

As for the best cluster size with Ntfs, the answer is: the default one.

It's the size that allows defragmenting Ntfs with Xp, for instance. And Ntfs doesn't accelerate with bigger clusters, as opposed to Fat32.

You are correct, my brain must be getting mushy - time for my nap.