optimum partitioning of 80Gb drive under Win98SE?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Joel - 24 Apr 2004 21:34 GMT

I am rebuilding a PC for a friend -- updating the motherboard, adding
80Gb WD 7200 rpm hard drive -- and they want to keep it Windows 98SE
for now. My own systems have always been NT and now Windows 2000
Professional (always NTFS), so I am unfamiliar with Windows 98 stuff.
The WD Data LifeGuard tools recommend 32Kb cluster size under FAT32
but that seems like a waste of disk space. The tool will allow me to
set any cluster size from 512 bytes to 32Kb, but what will that do to
performance. From what I can garner from Microsoft KB, if drive is
over 32Gb, I should use 32K cluster size. I guess I can partition the
drive into 32Gb, 32Gb, 16Gb units ... in addition to the 2 CD drives
and Zip drive!

? Any advice on how to optimally partition this 80Gb under Windows
98SE, for good balance of performance and storage?

TIA

Reply to this Message

philo - 27 Apr 2004 11:23 GMT

> I am rebuilding a PC for a friend -- updating the motherboard, adding
> 80Gb WD 7200 rpm hard drive -- and they want to keep it Windows 98SE
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> TIA

due to cluster size...i'd recommend keeping the partitions under 32 gigs

Reply to this Message

Ron Badour - 29 Apr 2004 17:26 GMT

I don't know what you read nor why Philo recommends 32 gb; however, the most
efficient file storage takes place with 4 kb clusters and to get that, the
fat 32 partitions need to be 8 gb or smaller. If you deal with all large
files (in the MB range instead of KB), then it doesn't make much difference.

Signature

Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

> I am rebuilding a PC for a friend -- updating the motherboard, adding
> 80Gb WD 7200 rpm hard drive -- and they want to keep it Windows 98SE
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> TIA

Reply to this Message