Len Warner wrote:
>
> >But be aware that a FAT16 drive saves files in 32K clusters,
> >which wastes a LOT of storage.
>
> It's primary partition size or (extended partition) logical drive size
> that matters, not the disk size. If you insist on having the FAT16 maximum 2GB
> all in one lump, you would be using _64K_ clusters, but you could create
> one or more sub-512MB partitions/logical drives with 16K clusters.

It's true that cluster size is based on partition size (and FAT type),
rather than drive size, but under FAT16 the largest cluster size is 64
KB only if you're using NT. For the rest of us, it's 32 KB. Then on the
lower end, sub-512 MB partitions are only 4 or 8 KB, rather than 16 KB.
The chart below lays it out pretty clearly, I hope.


DOS and Windows default FAT12/16 cluster sizes

Partition Size (MB)   FAT Type    Sects/Cluster   Cluster Size
______________________________________________________________

0-15                  12-bit         8            512 bytes
16-127                16-bit         4            2 KB
128-255               16-bit         8            4 KB
256-511               16-bit        16            8 KB
512-1,023             16-bit        32           16 KB
1,024-2,047           16-bit        64           32 KB
2,048-4,096           16-bit       128           64 KB (NT Only)
______________________________________________________________


Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Windows 98, and Windows NT 5.0
Default FAT32 cluster sizes

Partition Size (GB)     Sects/Cluster    Cluster Size
______________________________________________________

0.256-8.01                8                4 KB
8.02-16.02               16                8 KB
16.03-32.04              32               16 KB
> 32.04                  64               32 KB



Jeff Delzer

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