Speed Difference - FAT16 and FAT32

[manish]

How much is the approximate speed difference you can expect to notice on a, say 2 GB partition when it is FAT16 and FAT32?



Manish
http://manishmalik.cjb.net - just another 1-page site.

 

[misu]

noticeable

it depends on the drive in fact

Misu
__'_

 

[mpjesse]

There is no speed difference- only a difference in the size of clusters.

-MP Jesse

 

[Guest]

There is a VERY noticable speed difference between the two perhaps not on todays HDD's therefore dont waste your time with Fat16. Fat 16 uses big cluster sizes, therefore a file can be read and addressed quicker. Fat 32 will depending on what is being stored save disk space as the cluster sizes are significantly smaller resulting in more clusters required for a file and less waste.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sour2k on 01/28/01 05:34 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[mpjesse]

Your right- but only on smaller drives as you said earlier. FAT32 loses it's performance i think somewhere around 10 gigs. The same goes for wasted space. After a drive is larger than 20 gigs, FAT32 loses it's space saving qualities.

-MP Jesse