Do you guys find that formatting to a particular cluster size gives more reliability or performance? Do you guys prefer FAT or FAT32?

I have two 4GB cards from different manufacturers. One was preformatted FAT32 with 4K clusters (el cheapo), the other one (Transcend) was preformatted to FAT32 with 32K clusters.

Why would Transcend preformat to such a large cluster size (Windows default for FAT32 4GB is 4K) since it causes a wastage of space? Is it a reliability or performance issue?

The large cluster size doesn't cause a waste of space if you are storing files much bigger than the cluster size. How many users of large capacity cards are using them to store loads of < 32Kb files? I'd bet more are using them in things like digital cameras where files are many times larger than 32Kb.

Windows format is probably choses 4Kb because the thresholds where chosen back when 4Gb hard disks where common. A 4gb hard disk probably would have many small files especially if the OS was installed on it.

I think alot of GP2X users have many small files without evening knowing it. Look at games like egoboo2x which contains 4799 files and all the rom files people use. Files don't have to be less than 32KB to waste space either if you are using 32KB clusters. A 33KB file would use 2 clusters (31KB wasted), a 65 KB file would use 3 clusters (also 31KB wasted), etc.

Basically, if you are using 32KB clusters, you are wasting an average of 15-16KB for every file you have on your card. This really adds up.

The purpose of my post was to ask if there any advantages to using larger cluster sizes on the GP2X, e.g. read speed, write speed, or stability.

Side note: On some old digital cameras, I have heard that a larger cluster size helps the speed of taking pictures (writing to the SD). This could be why Transcend opted for a larger preformatted cluster size.

I think it provides improved read/write speeds. But on a solid state medium I don't think the difference is that astounding compared to how it would be on a HDD.

FAT32 is the way to go, while its only required from 4GB and onwards you can use it for SD cards with 512mb and up. I think it has the advantage to set cluster sizes rather freely so i would recommend it. I recently had a problem with a new sd card, fat32 formatted and the stock gph videoplayer. I'm investigating it - i felt that i should mention it though it might be not related.



Its a question of speed. Usually cameras tend to archieve much better operation speeds with large cluster sizes. With larger cluster sizes the filesystem handling requires less overhead so there is less cpu operation. The disadvantages of this is the waste of space.

I don't know how much the gp2x is affected too but i think especially streaming data (data, video & sound files) should take eighter less or more cpu power to play. This could be vital if you try working with large files, e.g. videos / ISOs.