0
I made a mistake and formatted the OS partition with 512 bytes cluster size, thinking that this will save a lot of space when storing small files (That was a long time ago, I didn't know that it will increase fragmentation) So my question is: Should I change it to 4096 bytes to reduce this fragmentation problem (and possibly increase speed) or it's not worth it?
Note: I restored this OS from a backup to a new HDD less than 3 weeks ago and now I'm defragging it (12% fragmented). Seems high for me.
ICTAddict
Posted 2014-06-24T06:56:29.810
Reputation: 388
Fragmentation really depends on your usage. For example if you only write a few MB a day to the drive it will be able to 'place' those bytes much tidier on the drive. If you do a huge amount of data shuffling (like the OS backup you ran) it will be very fragmented just purely from having to place bytes all over the disk. I would say its not worth the hassle as you can only do this at point of Format. – CharlesH – 2014-06-24T08:04:00.263
"like the backup you ran". You mean that making the backup increases fragmentation? I think it's just 'reading' off the hard disk (and I'm storing the backup file on a different HDD) or did you mean 'restoring' the backup? – ICTAddict – 2014-07-10T16:37:50.070
Yeah sorry if your backing up to another HD then that drive will become fragmented, the restore to your drive will also increase fragmentation. I tend to do a defrag once a week on my drive. – CharlesH – 2014-07-12T10:18:01.000