What cluster size should i use for fat32 USB sticks ?

[Subzerok11]

So about the allocation size I found this chart on a website and hoping it's correct.

4GB - 7GB = 4096 bytes (4K)
8GB - 15GB = 8192 bytes (8K)
16GB - 31GB = 16384 bytes (16K)
32GB - 63GB = 32768 bytes (32K)
64GB - 127GB = 65536 bytes (64K) and etc..................


So for example I have a 64GB USB stick, it's not actually 64GB, it's 63GB. So according to the chart I used allocation size 32768 bytes (32K).
I'm formatting to FAT32 by the way all my USB sticks of different sizes.


By the way I'm using a nice little free program to for my USB sticks to FAT32 cause Windows does not format in FAT32 higher then 32GB. When I bought my 64GB sticks from the factory they were FAT32 but since I formatted them to NTFS and then trying to put back to FAT32 Windows won't allow it. So that's why I'm using a 3rd party program.

Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd

Anyway the program defaults to what the chart is saying. The program defaults to 32768 bytes (32K) for a 64GB stick which is really a 63GB, just like I was saying above. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. So for another example my 16GB is is really 15GB so I'm choosing to format using 8GB - 15GB = 8192 bytes (8K) and this is also what the program is defaulting to.

So does all this sound correct ?

 

[izx]

Yes, sounds correct. Note that 64KB clusters are not supported by pre-XP Windows. Also note that Microsoft does not recommend the use of cluster sizes larger than 64KB. Even 32KB clusters are sufficient for at least up to 2TB.

FAT32 allows a maximum of 2^28 clusters, with the caveat that a valid FAT32 files stem must contain at least 2^16 clusters. Any cluster size from 512 bytes to 64KB is acceptable as long as those two limits are satisfied.

 

[Subzerok11]

Thanks

 

[BillCarson]

When I recieved my external hard drive I formatted it in NTFS but it was only recognized by win7 but not OSX or winxp. So I reformatted it to Fat32 & now its recognized by all my computers.