4GB USB Drive - NTFS? Allocation Unit/Cluster Size?

[Justin]

I understand the difference between FAT, FAT32 and exFAT. But NTFS is
more reliable, journalized and faster.
If I format a 4GB usb drive to NTFS, what allocation unit size should I
use? The smallest @ 512? What about just choosing default?

J

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

I understand the difference between FAT, FAT32 and exFAT. But NTFS
is more reliable, journalized and faster. If I format a 4GB usb drive
to NTFS, what allocation unit size should I use? The smallest @ 512?
What about just choosing default?

Default is always good if you don't know what you are doing. I think the
usual allocation unit for NTFS is 4096.

 

[s|b]

I understand the difference between FAT, FAT32 and exFAT. But NTFS is
more reliable, journalized and faster.
If I format a 4GB usb drive to NTFS, what allocation unit size should I
use? The smallest @ 512? What about just choosing default?

It's more interesting to use FAT32 if you're going to use the flash
drive to watch DivX/XviD/MP4/MKV/... on your TV.

I have a DVD/HD-recorder that supports all those codecs and it has a USB
port. Same for my LCD TV. BUT... both don't support NFTS, only FAT32.
It's the main reason why my flash drives are FAT32. Never gave me any
problem and the latest flash drive I bought was USB 3.0. That's fast
enough for me...

 

[Paul]

I understand the difference between FAT, FAT32 and exFAT. But NTFS is
more reliable, journalized and faster.
If I format a 4GB usb drive to NTFS, what allocation unit size should I
use? The smallest @ 512? What about just choosing default?

J

If you use the Windows "convert" utility, to convert a FAT32
partition to NTFS, you may find it using an allocation unit of 512 bytes.
That's too small, for best performance.

But for any other purpose or situation, 4096 (4K) is fine. That
matches the size of paging on Windows, that size also supports
compressing file system as well. The "most compatible" setting
is 4K, and as such, I'd use that.

If you had a large large volume, holding only movies, you
could entertain a larger size. Your choice.

To learn more about the subject, you can try Uwe's site, which is good.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/english.html

When you want to do FAT32, and the OS isn't cooperating, you
can try the Ridgecrop formatter. Just for FAT32. I use this
all the time, for FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB or so.
It's where my WinXP FAT32 C: partition came from
The OS installer wouldn't have done that. I had to
do it myself.

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/download/fat32format.zip

( http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm )

Paul

 

[Ant]

I understand the difference between FAT, FAT32 and exFAT. But NTFS is
more reliable, journalized and faster.
If I format a 4GB usb drive to NTFS, what allocation unit size should I
use? The smallest @ 512? What about just choosing default?

Linux, Mac OS X, etc. don't have NTFS native writes though, but
FAT(16/32) is the most compatible FS for all platforms. :/
--
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( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Wolf K]

Linux, Mac OS X, etc. don't have NTFS native writes though, but
FAT(16/32) is the most compatible FS for all platforms. :/

Erm, every Linux I've tested since 2008 has been able to mount and
read/write NTFS drives on this box. I was under the impression that OS-X
could do the same ever since Apple switched to Intel chips and enabled
running Windows on the same machine, but I welcome clarification.

AFAIK, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc, are formatted FAT16 or FAT32 by
default.

 

[Ant]

Erm, every Linux I've tested since 2008 has been able to mount and
read/write NTFS drives on this box. I was under the impression that OS-X
could do the same ever since Apple switched to Intel chips and enabled
running Windows on the same machine, but I welcome clarification.

Really? I wonder why mine can't write. I get denied error.
--
"In a battle between elephants, the ants get squashed." --Thailand
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Paul]

Really? I wonder why mine can't write. I get denied error.

In a quick search, there is some mumbling about NTFS write being
disabled on MacOSX. Something about a few users discovering
corruption. You can change it if you want, and take your chances.
There are ways around it.

You'd think with the successful implementation on Linux,
the people at Apple would be similarly successful. I started
using NTFS read/write as of Knoppix 5.1 on Linux, and haven't
looked back. Works fine as far as I can determine here. That
might have used some flavor of NTFS-3G.

The only thing you might have to watch for, is certain files
in System Volume Information, on Vista/Win7/Win8, shouldn't be
meddled with. I had to do a restore from backup on Windows 7,
after touching the wrong thing in there. I suspect it has
something to do with VSS tracking of disk changes, but I'm
not sure about that. Normally, Windows won't let you in there
under any circumstances in the latest OS versions. But with
Linux, it's dead easy to get in there (at your peril).

Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Erm, every Linux I've tested since 2008 has been able to mount and
read/write NTFS drives on this box. I was under the impression that OS-X
could do the same ever since Apple switched to Intel chips and enabled
running Windows on the same machine, but I welcome clarification.

AFAIK, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc, are formatted FAT16 or FAT32 by
default.

The Mac with OSX that I owned a while ago couldn't natively write NTFS.

Windows under a couple of different VMs that I tried could do so, and
there was also third-party software available to enable it within OSX.