Windows 7 SP1 - Which logical sector size is preferrable for my drives?

Hello,

What sector size should I use when formatting NTFS my 3 rather new Seagate drives (listed in my signature), and why?

I didn't really bother before, so they are all formatted with 512B logical sector size. Should I change that to 4kB while I still have a chance? (they're full with data, but still some place to format them one by one while moving data to others)

Yours sincerely

 

Just use the default which is 4KB.

If you are formatting a really large disk (16TB on up) then look here for more info: Default cluster size for NTFS, FAT, and exFAT

 

Thank you for your answer.
When I was installing Windows, I've chosen default sector and it formatted disks with 512B. :s However, I was installing from an old distrib without SP1, and then applying all the updates etc... This all really confuses me.

 

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo DRIVE letter

Scroll down the page near the bottom and look for: Issue 4; How a user can retrieve the logical and physical sector size for a volume : Advanced format (4K) disk compatibility update (Windows)

It's a good idea to read the whole thing to gain an understanding.

 

Oh, hey, get a updated version of Windows 7 w/ SP1 integrated - will make life much easier
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

 

RCB, thank you for advices, however,

I've read the article right before starting the topic, and it really confused me instead of giving any understanding... If the 4KB physical sector drive emulates being a 512B, why formatting it to logical 4KB would give any advantage? And remember, I'm talking about the Seagate drives in signature, not the giant ones that require advanced format. They are all 4KB physical sector size according to datasheets, just in case.

Done already. =)

 

Yeah, a little confusing. W7 SP1 doesn't support 4Kn natively.

Unless you have an App or Database that would require a particular setting to cut down fragmentation I'd recommend running that fsutil command and sticking with the proposed default supplied by windows for Bytes per sector. W7 SP1 integrated has everything you need unless you have 4Kn native drives. I'm not familiar with Seagate so maybe someone else could chime in.

There is also no need to account for alignment if using SP1 as it is aware for anything less than 4Kn either in Disk management interface or using Diskpart prior to OS clean install.

 

It reports 512 bytes per sector, 4096 bytes per cluster as expected. So should I format it to 4KB per sector or stay with 512B per sector?

 

I say stick with 512 if that is what it reports for Bytes per sector.

You can accept the default in Disk management UI when formatting, or in Diskpart when using the command FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK (OR FULL - by omitting QUICK), it would automatically format to 512 that was returned by the FSUTIL get info command.

 

RCB Thank you, you've answered my question.