Time: Tue Jun 03 05:22:51 1997
	by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id FAA14909;
	Tue, 3 Jun 1997 05:15:52 -0700 (MST)
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 05:12:42 -0700
To: timr@efn.org
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLF: FAT16 problem: demonstration and proof
References: <3.0.1.16.19970603041137.2b5f5d34@pop.primenet.com>

Tim,

Thanks for pointing out my error.
I was mistaken for thinking that
cluster size was 64KB on a large
partition.  I just checked my
Western Digital owner's manual,
and their table for cluster
size says:

  1024 - 2047 MB   cluster is 32 KB

So, my formula predicts 0.50 x 32 KB = 16 KB
average waste per file, not 32 KB.

I was trying to remember a similar table
which I cut out of a computer magazine
last fall, when I first encountered 
this overhead problem.  I am afraid that
page has walked out of my life, however!

Thanks for the clarification.  

And do I apologize for the error.
I should have looked it up first;
I am getting too busy to dot my T's
and I end up crossing my I's :)

Have you done any of the experiments
which I described in that message?

/s/ Paul Mitchell
http://www.supremelaw.com



At 11:40 PM 6/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Paul Andrew Mitchell wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Friends,
>> TOTAL WASTED SPACE, FAT16:         28,745 bytes per file
>>                              ============
>> 
>> Your numbers may vary;  the average will be
>> closer to a mean waste per file of 32K
>> (0.50 x 64K).
>
>Well, the won't really be 32K, since that IS the cluster size with large
>partitioned disks and the FAT16 software.  A cluster is the number of
>bytes within a set of tracks addressable by a head movement, i.e, the
>smallest addressable space for file storage.  If you have a file which
>is 269 bytes, it is stored within 32K and nothing else can get stored
>there.  If you have a file which is 33K, one full 32K cluster is used
>plus another which has ONLY 1K in it, but cannot be used for any other
>data.
>
>The old DOS used to partition disks with a 512 byte sector, so even if
>you had a drive with 16 heads, you still only had a cluster size of 8K,
>which was 4 times more efficient than the 32K cluster you get now.
>
>The real answer is to go to Windows 95B.  A relatively new release which
>contains FAT32.
>> /s/ Paul Mitchell
>> http://www.supremelaw.com
>> 
>>
>-- 
>  *************************************************************
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>  -- Anonymous
>  *************************************************************
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>  decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings
>  which thinks that nothing is worth fighting for is much
>  worse.  A man who has nothing for which he is willing to 
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>  safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of 
>  being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of
>  better men than himself."  --Anonymous.  Seen on a poster
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>  *************************************************************
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> timr@efn.org
>
>

========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.    : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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