beno or any of the mackie tech folks in here,
please excuse my ignorance on this matter, but when formatting a new audio drive for T, what size clusters should i use?
im using an 80g/7200rpm/8m cache laptop hdd. the newest hitachi travelstar.
i've heard things about this, but im not sure i know enough to make a wise move. could you kindly help me to find the correct info?
thank you!
lee
Formatting 2.5" HDD: What cluster size for T2?
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- KVRAF
- 4266 posts since 21 Oct, 2001 from my bolthole in the south pacific
For your audio drive or partiton you want the maximum cluster size (64k) to reduce overheads, reduce fragmentation and speed defragmentation.lharless wrote:beno or any of the mackie tech folks in here,
please excuse my ignorance on this matter, but when formatting a new audio drive for T, what size clusters should i use?
im using an 80g/7200rpm/8m cache laptop hdd. the newest hitachi travelstar.
i've heard things about this, but im not sure i know enough to make a wise move. could you kindly help me to find the correct info?
thank you!
lee
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1820 posts since 28 Mar, 2005
in windows, i can use C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskmgmt.msc
this gives me the option to use up to like a 1024 to a 2048 cluster size. do i need to use that size? that's pretty huge. or do i need to go bigger? or smaller than that? or should i use the 64?
im still in the same place here. no idea what to do.
this gives me the option to use up to like a 1024 to a 2048 cluster size. do i need to use that size? that's pretty huge. or do i need to go bigger? or smaller than that? or should i use the 64?
im still in the same place here. no idea what to do.
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- KVRAF
- 4266 posts since 21 Oct, 2001 from my bolthole in the south pacific
The disk management page that you access through control panel tops out at 64kB I think. Bigger might be OK but there would obviously be a law of diminishing returns here. At 4kB - Windows default (good for system drive) you don't waste too much space on small files. At huge cluster sizes the potential for wasted space is much greater.
If your DAW software/streaming sampler reads/writes in buffers of a certain size, having the disk in bigger clusters might not be more efficient. It is hard to say (in principle) without having in depth knowledge - or (in practice) without having benchmarked drives with different cluster sizes on an audio relevant task.
64 kB is what I and many others use and this will deliver >100 streaming 24/44.1kHz tracks from a single 7200 RPM drive on a properly setup WinXP SP1 (needed for drives bigger than 120 odd GB) or later system.
Even if you use 4kB it will still work well - just that you will lose some CPU due to disk overheads AND defraggin will be WAY slower.
If your DAW software/streaming sampler reads/writes in buffers of a certain size, having the disk in bigger clusters might not be more efficient. It is hard to say (in principle) without having in depth knowledge - or (in practice) without having benchmarked drives with different cluster sizes on an audio relevant task.
64 kB is what I and many others use and this will deliver >100 streaming 24/44.1kHz tracks from a single 7200 RPM drive on a properly setup WinXP SP1 (needed for drives bigger than 120 odd GB) or later system.
Even if you use 4kB it will still work well - just that you will lose some CPU due to disk overheads AND defraggin will be WAY slower.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1820 posts since 28 Mar, 2005
i left it at 64k. thanks for the info.
i also use other softwares, and there is a place to set how many buffers and what size. what should one set these to for audio only? can we get into this in here or am i overstepping my boundaries?
i also use other softwares, and there is a place to set how many buffers and what size. what should one set these to for audio only? can we get into this in here or am i overstepping my boundaries?