kianwee

What is the difference between FAT16 and FAT32 of a SD memory card? The default is FAT16 and what will be the difference if I format it to FAT32? Will i gain more storage space?

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whitelyt

Quote:

Originally posted by kianwee What is the difference between FAT16 and FAT32 of a SD memory card? The default is FAT16 and what will be the difference if I format it to FAT32? Will i gain more storage space?

You will not gain anymore storage space using one or the other. Using the different formats depends on your usage. FAT16 is good for very large files (e.g. multimedia files). FAT32 is good for tons of small files. Since I use my card for applications and data, I use FAT32. If I was using it for songs or movies, I would use FAT16.

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kianwee

thanks man! how about the 'cluster' thing?

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whitelyt

Quote:

Originally posted by kianwee thanks man! how about the 'cluster' thing?

For large files such as MP3, video, etc., use FAT16 Cluster size 32K. For just applications and data, use FAT32 Cluster size 2K.

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magnito

Which (FREE is posible) program do you use to format it from the IPAQ (not using a card reader)?

Thanks

simon tahiti

Originally Posted by magnito

Which (FREE is posible) program do you use to format it from the IPAQ (not using a card reader)? Thanks

I use Pocket Mechanic for this. It's not free (but is very reasonably priced) and is available on PocketGear.com or Handango. The developer is Anton Tomov. See http://www.antontomov.com

whitelyt

Originally Posted by magnito

Which (FREE is posible) program do you use to format it from the IPAQ (not using a card reader)? Thanks

I have not seen any free programs around to do this. I use Pocket Mechanic. You can also use StorageTools. Both apps are payware but they are not expensive. You can get both from this site's software store by clicking on the Shopping tab at the top and going down to software.

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magnito

Thanks! Will try them tonight...

whitelyt

Originally Posted by magnito

Thanks! Will try them tonight...

Great! Let us know how it works for you.

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JNGold

This is quoted from Anton Tomov the author of Pocket Mechanic:

Quote:

Indeed, FAT type and cluster size make a difference when speaking of file system speed. FAT16 uses 16bit entries for each cluster and FAT32 uses 32bit ones. When reading the FAT to determine the clusters in a file chain FAT16 is virtually twice as fast as FAT32 because a single FAT16 sector contains twice the allocation entries of a FAT32 sector. The cluster size also matters. The bigger the cluster size the less clusters in a file chain. For example if the cluster size is 512 bytes a 10K file will have 20 clusters and if the cluster size is 16K the same file will only have two clusters. Having less clusters in a chain minimizes the accesses to the FAT tables and therefore improves performance. FAT16 and larger cluster size is not very effective if you store a lot of files because the "slack" (wasted space) will be very high. In such case FAT32 should be used. For example, a 64MB card formatted with FAT16/8K cluster that contains 1000 files 100 bytes each will report 7.8MB used space (instead of 0.09MB) because one 8K cluster will be allocated for each file (8K * 1000 = 7.8MB). To summarize: FAT16 + larger cluster size = better performance (use if you will store a few large files on the volume to avoid large "slack"). FAT16 should also be used if the card will be used in a digital camera. Most digital cameras only support FAT16. FAT32 + smaller cluster size = better space allocation (less "slack") - use for cards larger than 64-128MB and when storing a lot of small files.

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magnito

worked fine with my new 1GB-SDcard !