Solved Recommended format and cluster size for external SSD

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T14:55:07-0400

Hey guys.
today I bought an external SSD (ADATA ELITE SE880 - 500GB) to back up my files. (music, pictures, videos, documents and some huge zip files)
I have two Windows laptops and never use this SSD on linux or mac os. so I will only connect it to windows.
which format and cluster size do you recommend for my usage?
SSD Health is the most important parameter for me. I know that health is based on write cycles, but I've heard some bad things about NTFS. Also the default option for this SSD is exFAT (128KB). is it better to use NTFS on this SSD?
thanks.

spapakons · 2025-07-19T15:20:07-0400

I vote for NTFS which supports more features, not only larger than 4GB files. The smaller the cluster size, the more space you save for very small files such as documents. If you mostly have large files such as videos, you won't see any difference. Small files occupy minimum space one cluster. So multiple small files occupy too much disk space as they cannot share the same cluster (unless you enable disk compression). However this was valid in older disk which were a few GB. Modern disk which are 500GB or more have little benefit using a small cluster size.

garlin · 2025-07-19T15:24:03-0400

Sheikh said:
but I've heard some bad things about NTFS. Also the default option for this SSD is exFAT (128KB).

What bad things? The only journaled filesystems available on Windows are NTFS and ReFS. Journaling increases your reliability if Windows randomly crashes in the middle of disk writes.

exFAT is preferred if you want non-Windows platforms to read this disk.

The next question is the whether you accept the default cluster size or not. Windows tries to use larger cluster sizes as the disk capacity grows. This might end up with more wasted disk space depending on the file mix. Suppose your cluster size is 8K. If any file doesn't fit exactly in multiples of 8K, the leftover part will consume an entire 8K block, wasting whatever empty space isn't being used.

When your filesystem consists mostly of very large files (like movies or databases), the large cluster size helps improve disk I/O performance. The relative percentage of wasted space taken up by incompletely filled data blocks won't be a big factor. But if you have thousands of smaller files, then the unused space taken up by larger clusters steals a non-trivial amount of usable space from your volume.

Something like a 4K size is more reasonable, and even 2K if you tend to collect lots of individual files. Which is more important to you? Overall disk throughput, or maximizing usable capacity for saving new files?

You can't mix & match cluster sizes for files on the same volume. One size fits all.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T15:48:33-0400

garlin said:
What bad things? The only journaled filesystems available on Windows are NTFS and ReFS. Journaling increases your reliability if Windows randomly crashes in the middle of disk writes.

exFAT is preferred if you want non-Windows platforms to read this disk.

The next question is the whether you accept the default cluster size or not. Windows tries to use larger cluster sizes as the disk capacity grows. This might end up with more wasted disk space depending on the file mix. Suppose your cluster size is 8K. If any file doesn't fit exactly in multiples of 8K, the leftover part will consume an entire 8K block, wasting whatever empty space isn't being used.

When your filesystem consists mostly of very large files (like movies or databases), the large cluster size helps improve disk I/O performance. The relative percentage of wasted space taken up by incompletely filled data blocks won't be a big factor. But if you have thousands of smaller files, then the unused space taken up by larger clusters steals a non-trivial amount of usable space from your volume.

Something like a 4K size is more reasonable, and even 2K if you tend to collect lots of individual files. Which is more important to you? Overall disk throughput, or maximizing usable capacity for saving new files?

You can't mix & match cluster sizes for files on the same volume. One size fits all.

Thank you dear garlin.

My files are like this:
- 2.5 GB Music files
- 4 GB Pictures
- 0.5 GB Videos
- 100 GB Documents (converted to zip files. some zip files are 100MB and some of them are 20 GB)
- 150 GB Downloaded zip files (apps and games each zip file is about 2~10 GB)

I don't care about speed or volume of files on disk. the only important thing is not corrupting files and not reducing SSD life very fast.
it's only for backup. I won't install anything on that.

spapakons · 2025-07-19T15:52:55-0400

Like I said, in a modern disk with mostly large files, you won't see any difference using small cluster size. Just use the default. If you plan to store a lot of documents or small files (in the order of KB), then pick a smaller size.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:01:04-0400

spapakons said:
Like I said, in a modern disk with mostly large files, you won't see any difference using small cluster size. Just use the default. If you plan to store a lot of documents or small files (in the order of KB), then pick a smaller size.

So, partition scheme, format and cluster size have no impact on SSD health or data corruption?

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:02:54-0400

As a result of this thread comments, I understand that choosing GPT/NTFS/4096 bytes (Default cluster size) is the best option for me.
if I'm wrong, please tell me.
thanks.

spapakons · 2025-07-19T16:07:04-0400

Sheikh said:
So, partition scheme, format and cluster size have no impact on SSD health or data corruption?

Too little to be of any real concern, negligible.

spapakons · 2025-07-19T16:09:29-0400

Sheikh said:
As a result of this thread comments, I understand that choosing GPT/NTFS/4096 bytes (Default cluster size) is the best option for me.
if I'm wrong, please tell me.
thanks.

Why GPT? This is only if you plan to install Windows on it or if the disk is larger than 2TB (MBR is limited to 2TB per partition). GPT will create a couple of small FAT32 system partitions which are totally unnecessary for a secondary (no system) disk. I recommend MBR partition scheme and a single NTFS partition taking the whole space of the disk. If you buy a 4TB or larger disk and you want a single NTFS partition to take the whole space, then you have to use GPT. MBR will create a 2TB maximum and require a second or more partitions to use the rest of the disk.

PS: For old timers, do you remember the 2GB limit of FAT? FAT32 supports up to 2TB partitions (huge by Windows 95 standards) and only 4GB maximum file size (also huge back in the 90's), unsuitable for modern videos.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:13:41-0400

spapakons said:
Why GPT? This is only if you plan to install Windows on it or if the disk is larger than 2TB (MBR is limited to 2TB per partition). GPT will create a couple of small FAT32 system partitions which are totally unnecessary for a secondary (no system) disk. I recommend MBR partition scheme and a single NTFS partition taking the whole space of the disk.

no benefits of using modern gpt?

spapakons · 2025-07-19T16:20:25-0400

Sheikh said:
no benefits of using modern gpt?

Not perceivable benefit in performance, plus I don't like the waste in disk space by the small system partitions. No matter how small this is by today standards, I prefer to use the whole disk space for my files, you hardly get enough. No matter how large a disk is, we always find a way to fill it, so every MB counts. Also GPT is not properly supported in Windows 7 or older systems. Not suitable for an external hard disk if you want to be readable almost everywhere.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:25:05-0400

Thank you both for helping me.

Final result: MBR/NTFS/4096 Bytes (Default)

KevTech · 2025-07-19T16:31:48-0400

spapakons said:
GPT will create a couple of small FAT32 system partitions which are totally unnecessary for a secondary (no system) disk.

Say what?

My storage drive (disk 1) is GPT and as you can see there is only one partition using the entire drive.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:44:51-0400

for the last question, which app do you recommend for creating partitions and formatting drives? I guess rufus is suitable for me, but is it recommended to use it for formatting a brand new SSD too?

garlin · 2025-07-19T16:46:10-0400

If you don't have older PC's to swap disks with, keeping everything GPT is just simpler.

Code:

diskpart
select disk N
clean
convert gpt
format fs=ntfs quick label="ADATA ELITE SE880" unit=4096
exit

Rufus is for making bootable USB media. It has nothing to do with data drives.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:48:59-0400

KevTech said:
Say what?

My storage drive (disk 1) is GPT and as you can see there is only one partition using the entire drive.

View attachment 139828

I think he used rufus to create a GPT USB pen drive. rufus will create a small FAT32 partition so that old UEFI systems which don't have NTFS drivers can boot from it too. that's why he told this. no! GPT partition scheme will not create FAT32 partition at all. it's a partition scheme not an independent partition.
also, I have found some security benefits for it. so, let's wait for other replies and see which option is more suitable for and external SSD under 2TB.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:53:53-0400

garlin said:
Rufus is for making bootable USB media. It has nothing to do with data drives.

I agree with you. its main purpose is to create bootable USB drives but has many options for non-bootable devices too. some of users use rufus for repairing their pen drives (to repair some software issues). when using rufus I check the log file, and it does some procedures different from what the disk management does. that's why I asked this question.

Sheikh · 2025-07-19T16:57:41-0400

garlin said:
format

diskpart*

wabbit · 2025-07-19T17:10:48-0400

Sheikh said:
for the last question, which app do you recommend for creating partitions and formatting drives? I guess rufus is suitable for me, but is it recommended to use it for formatting a brand new SSD too?

I suggest Mini-Tool Partition Wizard for partitioning hard drives. You can erase entire disks, format them, partition them, move and resize partitions, and more. Rufus is basically a program for formatting flash drives and making bootable Windows installation disks.

garlin · 2025-07-19T17:16:11-0400

Sheikh said:
diskpart*

Fixed it for you.

Solved Recommended format and cluster size for external SSD

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