*TechNote*: Hard disks #1 - Sectors, Clusters, Fat

bellboy

A sector is always 512 bytes, which is half a kilobyte.

A cluster (also known as allocation units) is the smallest unit of disk that the operating system knows how to handle when writing files and is made up of a number of sectors.

Logical formatting creates a file allocation table (FAT) and defines the minimum number of sectors a cluster can use to store data.
The number of clusters is dictated by the format. FAT16 has 65,525 and FAT32 has a maximum of 268,435,456. They typically vary in size between 2k and 32k, depending on the size of the volume.
The FAT is a record of which files are contained in which clusters. For instance, if a file is 32k in size it will take up 8 clusters, if the clusters are 4k in size. Regular defragging of a drive ensures that these clusters are continuous.

The more sectors a cluster has, the lesser the demands are on the FAT.

Partition size....Recommended file system / cluster size
1-16M..............FAT-12 / 4K
16-256M..........FAT-16 / 4K
256-512M........FAT-16 / 8K
512M-1G..........FAT-16 / 16K or FAT-32 / 4K
1-8G...............FAT-32 / 4K
8G and up........FAT-32 / 8K

JakL

Is that a typo? you state:
Partition size....Recommended file system / cluster size
1-16M..............FAT-12 / 4K
16-256M..........FAT-16 / 4K
256-512M........FAT-16 / 8K
512M-1G..........FAT-16 / 16K or FAT-32 / 4K
1-8G...............FAT-32 / 4K
8G and up........FAT-32 / 8K

AND you state 1-16M....Fat-12 / 4K. Well, my questions is FAT-12? Ive never head of FAT 12. Is this a Typo or am I just clueless?
~JakL~