Windows 7: What Size to Format to ?

I just got a new USB Stick from Santa this one here

Sandisk Cruzer Slice 8GB USB Flash Drive - Computing at Play.com (UK)

I popped it into the PC and saw it was formatted to FAT 32 So I decided I would format it to NTFS when I come to format it it gives me the options of Allocation Unit size with several sizes to choose from can anybody please tell me which is the best size to go for ?



Choice are :
Default Allocation Size
512 Bytes
1024 Bytes
2028 Bytes
4096 Bytes
8192 Bytes
16 Kilobytes
32 Kilobytes
64 Kilobytes

Happy Holidays

Steve

I would think the size would depend on what you are going to put on the 8GB stick!
Pictures, music, or documents?

Good Point I use it for mostly transferring music. IPhone/Ipod format.


Steve

With an 8GB(Lots of room) then transfer it to the best quality you want. Besides you will be updating, deleting and all kinds of crazy stuff.
I remember when HD's for pc's were that big.
So test it out as you can always format it to something different.
Have fun with your new present.

If security is not an issue, you might consider using exFAT instead of NTFS.
It was designed for thumb drives and doesn't carry the overhead that NTFS does.
I know this doesn't answer your Cluster size question, but it's something to think about.

Speaking of cluster size-
In the old days, Norton Utilities had a slack space analyzer that would show you what the optimal cluster size to slack space ratio should be based on your current disk usage.
Does anyone know of a current utility that will perform that same function?
(I don't mean to bump here and if this should be in a new thread, then somebody holler at me please.)

TIA

The default cluster size (and most efficient) for NTFS is 4kb (4096), but really, unless you are planning on transfering files over 2GB, there's no reason to go with NTFS. FAT32 should do nicely and can be read by most OS's (except really old - 16 bit - OS's).

Also, here's a link of interest that really puts a USB key to productive use!:

Boot Multiple ISO from USB (MultiBoot USB) | USB Pen Drive Linux

James

Ok many thanks Guys I will leave it as it is.


Steve