It is not recommended that you use the smallest cluster size on partitions containing a single, large file, such as a database or swap file.

Choosing a smaller cluster size may resize the partition smaller, creating unallocated space next to the partition. You can use this unallocated space to create a new partition.

FAT16 partitions are resized automatically to fit the cluster size.

WARNING! Do not choose the 64 K cluster size unless you have Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Partitions of this type are incompatible with Windows 9x and DOS.

4Click OK.

Default Cluster Sizes

A partition’s cluster size is set by the DOS FORMAT operation, based on the size of the partition, as shown in the following tables.

DOS and Windows default FAT cluster sizes

Partition Size (MB)

FAT Type Sectors Per Cluster

Cluster Size

 

 

 

 

 

0-15

12-bit

8

 

512 bytes

16-127

16-bit

4

2

K

128-255

16-bit

8

4

K

256-511

16-bit

16

8

K

512-1,023

16-bit

32

 

16 K

1,024-2,047

16-bit

64

 

32 K

2,048-4,096

16-bit

128

64

K*

 

 

 

 

 

*Only compatible with Windows NT/2000/XP.

 

 

 

 

Windows default FAT32 cluster sizes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partition Size (GB)

Sectors Per Cluster

Cluster Size

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0.256- 8.01

8

4 K

 

 

 

8.02-16.02

16

8 K

 

 

 

16.03-32.04

32

16 K

 

 

 

> 32.04

64

32 K

 

 

 

68Chapter 4: Completing Advanced Disk Operations

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Norton Abrasives 8 manual Default Cluster Sizes