Memory getting cheaper?

I've just learned that larger cluster sizes read and write faster on flash drives. With memory getting so cheap, why not get the largest cluster size possible. You can always upgrade if you run out of room. My thumb drive was slow until I reformatted it from FAT32 512 bytes to NTFS 1024 byte clusters. Since memory is cheap, waste some space and get some performance!

BTW, I found an HP program that will let you reformat your thumb drive to NTFS, FAT or FAT32



http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64963-page,1-c,downloads/description.html

PS: I use the lexar 1 GB firefly

 

Microcenter is currently selling their generic in house SD 2 Gig card for under $10. I like SD anyhow,so I've been buying my share. You can buy a simple adaptor that turns them in to a flash drive.

I don't think I've seen a MB with this feature yet though.

 

Changing the cluster size on my miniSD seems to have sped things up.

 

I could see SD card, or something equivalent, replacing floppies. Huge memory sizes, small physical footprints, relatively cheap cost, what's not to like?

 

It's hard to find a new pc that has a floppy drive standard. There is an SD that has a USB pice that folds out.

 

Thanks for the link Whickey. I used HDTune to benchmark my OCZ 4Gig USB drive. I tried the default Fat vs NTFS via the link from Whickey.

Hard Drive Tune benched them the same! Interesting.

HD Tune: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4130.html

Anyone got any better benchmarks or a reason why mine is the same?

E

 

wow, that's fast. Maybe cluster size only matters on slow flash drives.

 

What speed are you getting before and/or after?

E

 

It may be that your FAT cluster size is the same as the NTFS cluster size, so you might get the same speeds? Also, I think the HP program tweeks the cluster size based on the size of your thumb drive.

 

Bench marks for lexar firefly 1GB

I have used two programs and the windows hard disk manager for the FAT and FAT32 conversions. I used ATTO and HD tune. HD tune yeilded similar results. I'm guessing it it writes with large files. ATTO seems to have significant differences on smaller files.