PureBasic Forums - English

Hi guys,

does anyone know a tool to change the cluster size of a drive (NTFS) without reformatting the drive and without losing the data?

I found this: https://www.partitionwizard.com/amp/hel ... tml?espv=1
But you need at least the pro version with annual subscription. Also I didn't find that the usual tools can do it and it seems like a bad idea in general. My guts tell me not to do it.

Thanks for the tip, but the fact that you need the Pro version makes it uninteresting for me, unfortunately. I only need it for this one action.

And yes, I don't think it's that great in general either and would of course prefer to format the disk, but it's my primary backup disk and it contains so much data that I can't store it on another disk. I just don't have enough disk space on my other disks.

The problem is that I probably formatted the disk with an incorrect (too large) cluster size. I am wasting many megabytes of disk space as a result.

Use Windows' ""Compress contents to save disk space" to compress some of your backup folders:

Right click on a folder -> Properties; in the "General" tab all the way to the bottom click on "Advanced"
Check "Compress contents to save disk space" then click OK and allow it to compress files and sub-folders.

Since you are doing it in Windows Explorer, your backup software will treat this folder as a regular folder.

You should get another backup drive because one backup is not enough.

Norm.

@Kurzer: I just sold all my harddisks smaller 8TB and smaller for almost nothing, otherwise I would have offered them to you. About what 8nt of data are we talking?

Normeus, the data is already compressed. And they are not written from Windows either. Compression by Windows file management won't work, since the data is written to the disk from a Linux system (stand-alone backup software booted from the USB stick) - unless compression is itself a function of the NTFS system, I'm not sure.

But possibly I actually wanted to get a second backup disk. Then I could also reformat the old disk.

Edit: @jacdelad: We are talking about 2TB

you should be able to use gparted to resize ntfs. backup, defrag and chkdsk then resize.
https://gparted.org/index.php

Information costs more than a hard disk several times. Even if this operation frees up 1 GB, calculate the cost of 1 GB of disk space by dividing the cost of the hard disk by 2000. And keep in mind that the next day this place will end again.

I think you all are right that I should rather buy a second USB disk.
I just have to think about the backup strategy. To backup everything twice takes a long time. Maybe I use the hard drives alternately.

Just to know, I tested MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro pw1206-setup.exe and pw1206-demo.exe in my Win10XPE. One of the few that seems to change cluster sizes without formatting.
But without a serial number, the functionality is disabled. Not a time limit but a functional limit.

It's a bit borderline but in my Win10XPE (booted from a USB key), I use several Apps in demo version which remains fully functional.
For them, the registration is done at startup and as the data (registry) are not saved in a WinPE, it restarts each time on the same image (boot.wim).
And a WinPE has a good advantage for this type of application, it is very fast, everything is loaded in Ram.

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It's always good to have a backup, but with a 2nd SSD(HDD), you should be able to do it even without a backup.
Install Windows and all your applications on your new drive and then transfer your files and folders step by step, as needed.
Fastidious but it allows you to clean up, reorganize at the same time. I have done this several times to get back on a clean Windows.

Short feddback:
I have now bought a second hard drive and was able to reformat the old one (gaining about 80 MB).
The problem is solved and I feel indeed more relaxed with a double backup.