But how to do it? Here are 3 ways for you. How to Change File Allocation Unit SizeĪfter learning about the reasons why you need to change file allocation unit size, you can try changing it as your needs. Also, the maximum size of a partition could change accordingly if its cluster size is changed.Ĭommonly, 4k is a rather common allocation unit size today, and 64k cluster size is widely used among users who stores big files like game, 3D movie, HD photo, etc. Considering this, many users would like to enlarge the original cluster size. So, you might need to adjust the file allocation unit size according to the size of your files.īesides, if you set a large cluster size for the partition, there will be less blocks to seek for your system, thus improving reading and writing speed overall. On the contrary, if you save large files on a file system with small cluster size, your system performance will be reduced. If you save small files on a file system with large allocation unit size, your disk space will be wasted. Actually, one allocation unit can only store one file, but one file can take up several allocation units. Why do You Need to Change File Allocation Unit SizeĪs mentioned before, your hard disk is organized by Windows file systems based on allocation unit size (cluster size). The default cluster size is depended on file system ( NTFS, FAT or exFAT), the size of partition, and the version of your Windows. If you format a partition (either in Disk Management or Command Prompt) without specifying the allocation unit size, the default allocation unit size will be used. In other words, allocation unit is the smallest unit to save and manage files on disk in Windows. It is a unit of disk space allocation for files and directories as the filesystem allocates contiguous groups of sectors rather than individual disk sectors by default. What is another name for a file allocation unit and what does it mean?Īnother name for a file allocation unit is cluster. However, if needed, you can also choose another value from its drop-down menu. Besides, you might have noticed that there is another item called Allocation unit size.īy default, the value of allocation unit size is set to Default, and you don’t have to change it in most cases. How to Change File Allocation Unit SizeĬommonly, when you format a partition or create a new partition, you will be required to choose a specific file system and assign volume label for this partition.Why do You Need to Change File Allocation Unit Size.For a windows boot partition I use the Windows default (which is 4K for any NTFS drive smaller than 16TB).Do you know what allocation unit size is? In this post, you will get a brief introduction about file allocation unit as well as the way to change allocation unit size provided by MiniTool software. 16x the block size means 1/16th the number of blocks to keep track of.įor a media disk where your photos, music and videos are stored (files typically 1MB+) I use the biggest AUS. With a 64K AUS there are a lot fewer blocks to keep track of and less fragmentation. With a 4K AUS the data needs to be split over two blocks - and they may not be together so you get fragmentation. Let's say you have a 3K file which needs to grow 2K. Instead think about how the OS uses space. However, as Jonathon points out, modern drives are massive and a little wasted space is not worth fussing over and this shouldn't be a determining factor (unless you are on a small SSD).Ĭompare 4K vs 64K average case waste (32K-2K = 30K), for 10,000 files that only comes out to 300,000KB or around 300MB. So 4K wastes 2K per file and 64K wastes 32K. The average space wasted per file will be half the chosen AUS. In terms of space efficiency, smaller allocation unit sizes perform better.
0 kommentar(er)
