How to format NTFS

i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
file.

what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
capability?

Thanks

"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7881c5ac-8ff1-4cbe-8919-dc959a87b9fb@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
> i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
> file.
>
> what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
> capability?
>
> Thanks


Use default......

In message
<7881c5ac-8ff1-4cbe-8919-dc959a87b9fb@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
Robert <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote:

>i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
>i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
>file.
>
>what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
>capability?

Unless you have a specific need for a different allocation size and
understand the ramifications, use the default.

If its already formatted as Fat32 you can use the convert command to make it
an NTFS format without destroying the data already on the disk.

"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7881c5ac-8ff1-4cbe-8919-dc959a87b9fb@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
> i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
> file.
>
> what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
> capability?
>
> Thanks

Hi,

The default for NTFS is 4K. What this means is that each data bit stored on
the drive will occupy a minimum space of 4K, even though the actual size of
the data might be smaller. Rarely is it necessary to change this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7881c5ac-8ff1-4cbe-8919-dc959a87b9fb@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
> i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
> file.
>
> what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
> capability?
>
> Thanks

Maybe it's an idea to format it in exFAT. Avalible in Vista SP1 and
specially for external storage.

"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:7881c5ac-8ff1-4cbe-8919-dc959a87b9fb@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> i'm going to format an external HDD: in the mask that appears in Vista
> i need to choose the amount i want for the size of the allocation
> file.
>
> what does this mean? How this will influence later my HDD storage
> capability?
>
> Thanks