How to find cluster size of NTFS

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I've got a spare drive formatted with NTFS.
How do I find out the cluster size ?
 
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On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:13:53 GMT, "Tod" <no_spam_me@comcast.net> wrote:

>I've got a spare drive formatted with NTFS.
>How do I find out the cluster size ?
>
3rd line from the bottom after a chkdsk.

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I'm not that smart, "chkdsk" is ?

"Michael Cecil" <macecil@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:5o5hl0hmv9pvqvmp6eq4h121kv4a79ja1q@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:13:53 GMT, "Tod" <no_spam_me@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>I've got a spare drive formatted with NTFS.
>>How do I find out the cluster size ?
>>
> 3rd line from the bottom after a chkdsk.
>
> --
> Michael Cecil
> http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/
>
 
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On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 23:02:57 GMT, "Tod" <no_spam_me@comcast.net> wrote:

>I'm not that smart, "chkdsk" is ?

- Open a command prompt. (Start>run>type in "cmd" and click OK)

- In the window that opens type "chkdsk c:" and press return (where c is
the drive you want to check).

- Windows will check the drive and report if there are errors. It will
also report "XXXX bytes in each allocation unit". 4096 bytes would mean
you have 4K clusters. 512 bytes would mean you have 512 byte clusters.

(If you want to repair any disk errors it finds use the same command but
with the /f switch. "chkdsk c: /f" It will need to reboot to fix errors
on the system drive.

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In article <Bg06d.126761$D%.22194@attbi_s51>, no_spam_me@comcast.net
says...
> I've got a spare drive formatted with NTFS.
> How do I find out the cluster size ?

Right-click My Computer and choose System Information. Click on the
Drive tab. Choose the drive/partition from the drop-down, then click on
Details. Expand the Logical drive part of the tree. Multiply 'Sectors
per cluster' by 'Bytes per sector' (which is usually 512.)

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richmaxw

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You don't need to use chkdsk. Type this instead. It's faster:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:

Replace the C with the letter of the drive you want to check.
 

wguru

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'Post notes' herein relate to those posts directly above mine (starting from the top) -

Post 4 - closest to correct answer, ie; should have indicated (while sort of obvious) to run the cmd of "chkdsk x:".e; otherwise denoting that 'x' should be the drive letter for the desired drive to run chkdsk on. Also lacks post 6's explanation (which completes the correct answer) that chkdsk's listed "bytes" are not "clusters" (and how to deduce clusters from bytes).

Post 2 - lacks appropriate detail for the user's stated unfamiliarity.
Post 3 - appears outdated/incorrect/off topic* (the reply refs "c" drive rarely if ever is an 'external drive').
Post 5 - appears outdated/incorrect/problematic as my XP SP3's 'my computer' does NOT list 'sys info', instead that's seen only by entering "msinfo32.exe" in run box and results list drives as #'s; ie; problematic at determining which lettered drive the details pertain to.
Post 7 - appears outdated/incorrect/incomplete as on my XP SP3, such a text string (entered into a cmd window) 'error prompts' with 'the system cannot find the file specified' and does nothing if entered into the run box.
 

richmaxw

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You obviously typed the command incorrectly. I've tested it in Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and it works exactly as I said. Next time, copy and paste the text into the command prompt instead of typing it manually.
 

sfeldner

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Another entry from the Post Police. Well, excuse me... I didn't notice the date - I was looking for information and tripped across this crap.

And your post is helpful to anyone, how??

And how does the date have anything to do with the aggorance of posters like wguru or you. If you're so concerned about someone posting on this thread, why don't you remove your e-mail notification and go find something usefull to do with your time.
 

bjtag

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Just right click on the drive you want to find cluster size click format (DO NOT CLICK OK AFTER THAT) the last format cluster size will be displayed!
 

Allnsmth

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Hi,

Cluster is an allocation unit. If you create file lets say 1 byte in size, at least one cluster should be allocated on FAT file system. On NTFS if file is small enough, it can be stored in MFT record itself without using additional clusters. When file grows beyond the cluster boundary, another cluster is allocated. It means that the bigger the cluster size, the more disk space is wasted, however, the performance is better.
 

RonClarke

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Works for cluster sizes up to 4K, but apparently not more, since for my 64K drives it reports "default cluster size", i.e. 4K.
Use the following:
fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:
As stated in previous post this is fast and reliable for all NTFS cluster sizes.
 

soibien

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Aug 24, 2011
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correct with Windows server 2003, easy to use, fast, some more info, but hard to remember the syntax, tks for your instructions.
 

davele

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Sep 21, 2011
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NICE!!
Thanks I'd overlooked that command & WMIC & other commands rarely display the NTFS Allocation Unit Size
 
Here's another way that works for other file systems as well.

Use your text editor (eg Notepad, not MS Word) to create a text file with a single character.

Then r-click this file in Explorer and view its Properties.

On my FAT32 Win 98SE box I see ...

Size: 1 bytes (1 bytes), 8192 bytes used.

Therefore the cluster size in my case is 8KB.

Of course, it would have been easier just to use CHKDSK.