What Is the Best Allocation Unit Size for Video Files in 2024

Choosing the wrong allocation unit size for a drive can have a significant impact on both your system's performance and the capacity of the drive. If you work with large video files, it can also seriously affect your workflow.

Fortunately, this article will show you how to set the best cluster size for video files, thus helping you optimize your system's performance.

What is the optimal size for video file chunks?

< strong > The best allocation unit size for video files is 64KB (the default is 4KB).< / strong > If your drive will be used only for storing large movie files, a larger 2MB allocation unit size might be better. But smaller files (like subtitles) will take up a disproportionately large amount of space.

Your system might fragment larger video files into smaller clusters, which takes longer to allocate. The computer has to search through more clusters to access the file, adding to the overall load time.

However, larger allocation units can result in wasted space. For example, if your PC's allocation unit size is 5 KB and you have ten 4-KB files, you might mistakenly assume that the total space used is 4 KB * 10 = 40 KB.

Since you've set the allocation unit size to 5 KB, these 10 files will take up 50 KB of space no matter how big they are (5 KB * 10). This is why choosing the best allocation unit size matters – it helps you get more storage while keeping your drive's performance in check. This is why setting the best allocation unit size for gaming and video is so important.

Now that you know the best chunk size for your video, continue reading to learn how to apply it to your drive.

For more information about allocation unit size, such as the recommended SSD cluster size, see the following article:

【What is the Best Allocation Unit Size for SSD in Windows 11/10?】

In this article, we will discuss the optimal SSD allocation unit size in Windows 11/10 and provide solutions on how to change it.

How to Set the Best Allocation Unit Size for Video Files

Saving large movies on your PC can slow down hard drive performance. If you're a big movie watcher and have lots of videos on your hard drive, however, consider adjusting the cluster size.

No need to bother with time-consuming manual conversion because a third-party tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant can do it in seconds.

The “Change Cluster Size” feature enables you to modify the allocation unit size of a drive. The operation is simple, and you can follow the steps below to set the best allocation unit size for video files with the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard:

Note: Before you proceed, back up your target drive to avoid data loss during the process.

Step 1: Right click on the partition which cluster size you want to change and select “Advanced”. Then click “Change Cluster Size”.

Right click to change cluster size

Step 3: Click "Run 1 Task," and then click "Apply" to confirm.

Aside from being user-friendly, the Partition Master Tool also offers prompt support, so you won't encounter any problems while using it. You can also enjoy some extra features, such as:

• Change SSD cluster size
• Format/Reformat a hard drive
• Set FAT32 allocation unit size
• Check SSD health on Windows 10
• Change cluster size to improve HDD performance

This makes it a one-stop solution for all your disk partitioning needs. It also offers complete data safety and backup, ensuring your data is secure. Additionally, when you set the optimal allocation unit size, your drive will perform at its best.

Thus, to make your system run faster and manage the features of your storage drives with ease, download the Partition Master Tool for your device.

Conclusions

Your system's loading/searching performance depends on the cluster size of your drive. Also, using an incorrect cluster size might lead to premature hard drive wear. Therefore, you need to determine the ideal cluster size for the files to be stored on your system.

If you have large video files stored on your drive, it's a good idea to change the default allocation unit size to 2 MB. Also, you can use the Disk Management tool to easily run a drive scan, monitor your overall system health, and change the allocation unit size. This utility lets you alter the cluster size for SSD/HDD/SD card and other (external) hard drives to maintain optimal performance of your disk partitions.

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Frequently Asked Questions on the Optimal Cluster Size for Video Files in UTF-8

You should now be able to set the optimal cluster size for your video files. However, if you're still a bit unsure or have other questions, check out the FAQ below for all the answers.

1. What is the optimal allocation unit size for video editing?

The default allocation unit size is usually 64 KB. However, if you need a more powerful video management system, you can change this value manually. A good allocation unit size is 2 MB, which provides better performance for users storing large files like games, 3D movies, or significant video editing files.

2. What should my allocation unit size be?

Your system's default allocation unit size is 4KB. However, you can manually change it to improve performance and maximize storage space. Refer to the recommended allocation unit sizes below based on the types of files on your disk:

• For game files: 64K
• For video editing files: 4K
• For large videos and high-resolution images: 64K

3. What is the 4K cluster size?

Your drive's clusters are usually set to 4K, or 4 kilobytes in size, when formatted with the NTFS file system. This means your drive has 4KB clusters it uses to store files. However, you can manually change this to improve speed and increase storage capacity.