P3D Re: cluster size -WARNING - PRE D3D techie talk...

[Dan Shelley <dshelley@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:25 PM 3/30/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Ronald Beck writes:
>>Well, actually, the cluster size on a MS system CAN make a difference to
>>someone who is working mainly on image files. 
>
>I understand NTSF format in Windows NT handles this better than 95 FAT...
>is this correct?
>(I couldn't wait for D3D... ;))

In short, Yes, NTFS does handle files and cluster size, etc better than FAT.

   ***BUT*** 

NTFS formatted drives are only accesible from NT. You can not access data
on a drive formatted this way with Win95, OS/2 or DOS.

Also, NTFS has a higher disk space overhead than the FAT system. It is not
recommended for partitions smaller than 400 MB.

To make this much more general, I would personally stay away from NT for
many other reasons as a home system... If you want a good system for use in
digital 3D imaging, it can be obtainied without having to go to NT.

A simple way to keep FAT cluster sizes small enough to be reasonable, and
to allow for more storage space for large TIF type storage images while
producing pairs, anaglyphs, jps's or whatever, just format you 4 GB )or 6
GB or 8 GB or 12 GB) drive to be a series of 1 GB drives. On a 4 BG, that
would give you C:, D:, E: and F: for example.

There's more, but... =)

Dan Shelley
dshelley@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dddesign.com/3dbydan


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