[04/07/10]V5 *Purple Haze Sense 2.5 WM 6.5.5 Facebook,Reader,Doc tabs, MAX 3.0

[ModmyPPC]

Originally Posted by kscawley

The format options should default to "Fat 32" and "32k" for the allocation unit size. Leave those alone.

Your post really helped but

The only option I have for the

File system is: -----> Fat & fat32 (Which one is better to use?)

Allocation unit size: ---> Default allocation size (this is the only option)

So As far as the file system type. Which one do I use.

Sorry for the newbie question I have no clue what im doing so I like to be cautious

Thanks again

[Timberwolf671]

Originally Posted by ModmyPPC

Your post really helped but

The only option I have for the

File system is: -----> Fat & fat32 (Which one is better to use?)

Allocation unit size: ---> Default allocation size (this is the only option)

So As far as the file system type. Which one do I use.

Sorry for the newbie question I have no clue what im doing so I like to be cautious

Thanks again

Fat32, Fat is 16 bit and less secure and slower.

[kscawley]

Originally Posted by ModmyPPC

Your post really helped but

The only option I have for the

File system is: -----> Fat & fat32 (Which one is better to use?)

Allocation unit size: ---> Default allocation size (this is the only option)

So As far as the file system type. Which one do I use.

Sorry for the newbie question I have no clue what im doing so I like to be cautious

Thanks again

Short answer - Format Fat32 and don't worry about allocation size.

Long answer

FAT stands for File Allocation Table. Think of it as a table of contents for what is on a drive. You want to use Fat 32 as it compatible with most computers nowadays. FAT 16 hasn't been used since the days of DOS (when you actually had to type commands for us old guys) NTFS is what Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 use for hard drives by default. It is more efficient with managing drive space and data, as well as being more secure. But I don't think the TP2 would even recognize the SD card if it were formatted this way.

The File Allocation Size is the smallest unit of storage on a hard drive (also referred to as Cluster size). Most of us are fine with the default, but it is an area some people will play with depending on how the drive is most utilized. If you have a large cluster size, you will waste a lot of disk space if all you work with are small files. That is because a file will still take the full cluster even if the actual size of the file doesn't need that much space. Conversly, if you have a lot of very large files (think video), small clusters are not so good because it tends to scatter the file all over the hard drive if there are not enough free clusters are in sequence to handle the whole file. This is what causes the drive to become "fragmented" if you have heard that term before. Defrag utilities such as Diskeeper will shuffle files all around your hard drive until most files are contiguous again.

This is probably more than you wanted to know (and I am over simplifying some areas), but I was a computer noob once and someone took the time to explain things to me, so just thinking I would return the favor.