HDD Cluster Size Question

mccmw

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• Today at 7:32 AM

• #1

I just purchased a recertified 26TB HDD that I'm going to plug into a router USB port...until I can set up a proper NAS. It will contain mostly large media files. While Windows defaults to 4K cluster size, I read that using 32K - 128K cluster size for a large drive like this with mostly large files can increase efficiency. Advice? Thanks.

 

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• Today at 7:46 AM

• #2

You are absolutely correct but make sure no tiny files make it to this drive with larger clusters as fragmentation would hinder performance.

Cluster size recommendations for ReFS and NTFS | Microsoft Community Hub

First published on TECHNET on Jan 13, 2017 Microsoft’s file systems organize storage devices based on cluster size.

techcommunity.microsoft.com

 

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JLArranz

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• Today at 7:51 AM

• #3

I use 64k in my biggest partition, that mainly has disk images. I just understand it's better, more "optimal", more "rational", but I don't think it makes any bold performance difference. The 1 or 2 TB disk I use as data disk has another smaller partition with lots of files of all sizes, I format this one with 4k sectors.

 

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mccmw

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• Today at 10:07 AM

• #4

Thanks. I'll consider 32K or 64K. The large drive will have a single NTFS partition. The vast majority of files will be media library (movies). There will be some small files but not much. Mainly for allowing me to transfer across different devices....likely temporary.

 

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  Intel i7-7700K

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Alejandro85

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• 42 minutes ago

• #5

It could increase performance because larger clusters reduce potential fragmentation (and it could save some reads and reduce write amplification ni some cases). The cost is that the slack space wasted for smaller files is increased, so it's not ideal for lots of tiny files. For large, few files, larger clusters are in fact better.

 

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