large block size under NTFS

Hi

I understand that the largest cluster/block size under NTFS is 64KB. I
wonder how I can get around this and use a larger block size of , say, 2MB.
In other words, each time when an application writes a large chunk of data,
say 2MB, I want consecutive sectors be used. Can this be done with a filter
driver on top of NTFS?

Bo

Mark
Wed Oct 13 06:47:51 CDT 2004

In article <B6E55F0F-6AFA-423E-8F6C-DDCEE45C77C3@microsoft.com>,
Bo@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> Hi
>
> I understand that the largest cluster/block size under NTFS is 64KB. I
> wonder how I can get around this and use a larger block size of , say, 2MB.
> In other words, each time when an application writes a large chunk of data,
> say 2MB, I want consecutive sectors be used. Can this be done with a filter
> driver on top of NTFS?
>
> Bo
>

I don't see how a filter above NTFS is going to convince NTFS to change its
allocation strategy.

You could pretend that the storage media has really big sectors, but I suspect
that a 2MB sector size, if that is even possible, will break most everything
else in storage stack :-)
--

=====================
Mark Roddy DDK MVP
Windows 2003/XP/2000 Consulting
Hollis Technology Solutions 603-321-1032
www.hollistech.com
markr@hollistech.com

botao_99
Fri Oct 29 01:48:56 CDT 2004

Hi,

I am revisiting this issue. I am thinking to make a customized format
utility that changes the cluster factor byte in the first sector on an
NTFS partition to 256. This will give 128KB for a cluster (assuming
512B sector). Has anyone had experience with this? Or do you know any
tools available for this job?

Thanks.

Bo

Mark Roddy <markr@hollistech.com> wrote in message news:<MPG.1bd6dff634134e599896c8@news.microsoft.com>...
> In article <B6E55F0F-6AFA-423E-8F6C-DDCEE45C77C3@microsoft.com>,
> Bo@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> > Hi
> >
> > I understand that the largest cluster/block size under NTFS is 64KB. I
> > wonder how I can get around this and use a larger block size of , say, 2MB.
> > In other words, each time when an application writes a large chunk of data,
> > say 2MB, I want consecutive sectors be used. Can this be done with a filter
> > driver on top of NTFS?
> >
> > Bo
> >
>
> I don't see how a filter above NTFS is going to convince NTFS to change its
> allocation strategy.
>
> You could pretend that the storage media has really big sectors, but I suspect
> that a 2MB sector size, if that is even possible, will break most everything
> else in storage stack :-)

botao_99
Fri Oct 29 10:54:54 CDT 2004

Dumb question. Please ignore. ^_^