What is the cluster size?

The space of any information carrier (hard disk or flash drive) is not a whole piece, but a system of memory cells, which are called clusters. Each of them is assigned a unique serial number. In other words, all memory is divided into blocks.

Now let's see what the cluster size is. It's simple, it's a certain size of a single cell of the disk's memory. With the help of modern tools you can set absolutely any value. Set the cluster size when formatting. It can be at least five hundred and twelve bytes and higher. This will already depend on your goals.

Now let's see what this cluster size is set for. This is done to properly store your information on one or another medium. It also affects the optimization of the device. It is always necessary to proceed from what the device will be used for. As mentioned before, the cluster size is determined during the formatting of the information storage device. The first one gave users the opportunity to do this independently operating system Windows XP.

Before starting this process, you must select the file system type. For removable storage it is better to always put FAT 32. This is done so that they are perceived by any devices. It is also worth keeping the cluster size as standard. NTFS is more suitable for hard drives. However, in this case your device will not be available in such operating systems as Windows 98 and its like.

After you determine the file system, you need to set the cluster size. If you do not do this, the system will set the standard size, which will be equal to four kilobytes. What should I consider when choosing a size? The smaller the cluster, the more data you can put on your media. For example, if you make the cluster volume large enough, the file with the smaller volume will still occupy the entire cluster. However, in this case, the speed of reading all data from the disk will increase significantly. If you set a size that is equal to one kilobyte, then files of similar sizes will occupy only this cell and no more. Also, this will give an advantage in those cases when you take out a USB flash drive without using a secure mode. In this situation, fewer clusters will be damaged. However, the speed of reading information is significantly reduced.

Therefore, you must proceed from what you will use the device for. If you plan to keep a film library on one of the partitions of your hard drive, then it can be formatted with the maximum cluster sizes. This will enable the disk to process and reproduce data that is written on it much more quickly. If it is a system disk, then its clusters should not exceed the standard size. Otherwise, you will lose a lot of useful space, because operating systems contain a lot of small files. In addition, this will lead to the fact that the disk will spend a lot of time processing data.