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Message: <blockquote data-quote="imhotep" data-source="post: 23790252" data-attributes="member: 562115">Allocation size is the block size used in the storage device when you format. You can safely accept the default of 4096. If you have a lot of small files it is better to keep it small, so that you don't waste the space. If your file sizes are large, then you might get a performance gain by having the allocation size large, because then the system needs to seek a lesser number of blocks.The average space wasted per file is half the allocation unit size. Thus 4K wastes 2K and 32K wastes 16K .But note that modern drives have high capacity and hence there's no need to consider wastage - unless you are using a smaller SSD.OTOH, say you have a 3K file which needs another size increase of 2K. With 4K allocation size, data needs to be split over two blocks – and also these blocks may not be together - resulting in fragmentation. Naturally with a larger allocation size, fewer blocks to keep track of and less fragmentation.Hope you understand the differences how the allocation size affects the filesystem.</blockquote>

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