Ok, this is plain wrong. FAT32 just means that 32-bit values are used to address disk clusters. This was an improvement in almost all cases over FAT16, which used 16-bit values to address disk clusters. Remember the 2 gig partition limit of early versions of Windows? That was due to a combination of FAT16 and a maximum cluster size of 32K: 32768 (bytes per cluster) times 65536 (maximum number of addressable clusters) equals approximately 2.1 GB.
FAT32 cluster sizes on typical drives are 4K or 8K. You're trying to find the optimal compromise between the increased speed of larger clusters and the improvement in wasted space due to file slack of smaller clusters. As for the original post: you can try to get rid of temp files, clear your internet cache, etc, but with today's drives being so cheap, it's probably best to succumb to the slow creep of the typical modern operating system and just buy a second drive. They're maybe $100 for 40 gigs now. Peace, Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeremy Wanamaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Kevin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 10:43 AM Subject: Re: [etree] Computer help needed (HD related) > The size and file system of your drive make a difference. If you are > harddrive that is FAT32 (win98 or newer), you will "lose" space rapidly. > What FAT32 means, in an oversimplification (or not?), is that each > block on your harddrive is 32KiloBytes. No more, no less. > Here's an analogy. > Let's look at suburbia, where every lot (block) is 1/4 of an acre > (Richardson, TX). On one street, we have 10 lots or 2 1/2 acres. Each > lot is a little more than 10,000 square feet ( ok, closer to 11K but > this is supposed to be simple). Now let's build a house - and a good > sized one (for my neighborhood) - 2,500 square feet. It takes a whole > lot - That is, building permits require no more than one dwelling per > lot. What's left in the block of homes? 9 quarter acres, or 2.25 > acres, but we've only "used" 1/4 of a lot, which is 1/16th of an acre. > Here's the screwey math: 2.5 acres minus .0625 acres = 2.4375 acres > -- But in the neighborhood (or hard drive) 2.5-.0625=2.25 > You can see how this works now, I hope. Even bigger files do the same > thing. A 50KB file uses two 32KB blocks, so though the file size (used > space) is 50KB, the Remaining space on your harddrive is > TotalHardDrive-64KB! Used space and remaining space may not total Total > Space! Hope this helps, and if I'm deadass wrong, please flame me > directly and I'll personally withdraw my comments! > > As for reformatting, it is certainly a pain, but does get rid of that > stuff you no longer use. It does not solve the long term problem of > shrinking harddrives, though. > > Tiedye Jeremy > > Kevin wrote: > > >So, with > >all this being off my hd, it still is getting smaller. Is this normal? Do I > >have to reformat it? > > > -- > Nobody should take away Microsoft's freedom to innovate, particularly since they haven't used it yet > > _______________________________________________ > etree.org etree mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > http://mail.etree.org/mailman/listinfo/etree > > Need help? Ask <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ etree.org etree mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://mail.etree.org/mailman/listinfo/etree Need help? Ask <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
