Formatting flash drives

Hi all.

Lately, every flash drive I've bought requires to be NTFS formatted. Quick formatting gives me the option to change allocation size. Is there a specific size I should be using or just go small?

I would just use the default value (which should be 4MB).

milford said:

Hi all.

Lately, every flash drive I've bought requires to be NTFS formatted. Quick formatting gives me the option to change allocation size. Is there a specific size I should be using or just go small?

The answer would be that it depends upon what the file sizes are that will be stored on them.

But there is a caveat: most flash cards intended for use in cameras become unusable in the camera when formatted by a computer, have to be reformatted in the camera to be usable. Thumb drives are different, seldom if ever used in a camera.

A 4 KB cluster size is appropriate for just about any purposes. That is why it is the default. Only if you have a specific need would you change it to something else and with flash drives there usually isn't.