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What cluster size to choose for best NTFS performance with large files

Tags: size, cluster, ntfs
I am setting up a windows XP system that I will use for editing large digital pictures and video.  I have set up a 36 Gb drive with two partitions.  The first is the system partition and it is 14 Gb and formated NTFS with default options (auto cluster size).  the second partition is the remainder of the drive and will be used for Scratch space.  It is formated NTFS with 64 Kb cluster size.

The other disk is a Highpoint RAID controller set for RAID 0 and with two 200 GB disks attached.  This is set up with one partition of almost 400 GB and formated NTFS with 64 Kb cluster size.

My intent is to use 64 Kb clusters in order to increase disk channel throughput for large files (each of the three drives have an 8 Mb on drive buffer).

My question is whether I am using the "right" approach to maximize disk performance with large files or whether I should do something different?  Also, am I setting myself up for problems later on by not using the default cluster size?

Thanks, Rich
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Question Stats
Zone: Storage
Question Asked By: parent55
Solution Provided By: LRI41
Participating Experts: 6
Solution Grade: A
Views: 735
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Comment by AllCC
Wondering what your file system's cluster size is? I haven't been able to find that information using the tools Microsoft provided (but if you know a way, please send it on and I'll print it next time).

Go to cmd prompt and run chkdsk (read-only if you want), wait until it's done and take the number of bytes in each allocation unit and divide by 1,024.
 
 
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