Format GPT ?

Hi Guys,

I have 4 external hard drives.. ranging from 1 terabyte to 4! .. I also have an internal SSD and a miniSSD (supercache2 64Gig)

When I format my external hard drives I usually open command prompt, diskpart and then type "clean" the hard drive.. I then type "convert GPT" and it makes them GPT partitions..

Do I need my external hard drives for storage of movies/pictures etc.. to be GPT?

I know my main SSD is supposed to be GPT because of the UEFI bios and etc.. but do I format my external harddrives to GPT? is there any speed benefit?

I have been doing testing on changing cluster sizing while formatting to see how speed differences are with different cluster sizes.. 4k , 8k , and 16k.. Dont have any results yet of which is faster..

I've also turned off my "write buffer flush cache" off in my policy settings for the SSD.. (not the External HDD)

I've been running crystal disk mark to test results.. I'm looking for the max performance of all my harddrives..

thanks

edit- (found from partition program website)
[h=3]GPT vs. MBR[/h] Compared with MBR disk, A GPT disk can support larger than 2 TB volumes where MBR cannot. A GPT disk can be basic or dynamic, just like an MBR disk can be basic or dynamic. GPT disks also support up to 128 partitions rather than the 4 primary partitions limited to MBR. Also, GPT keeps a backup of the partition table at the end of the disk. Furthermore, GPT disk provides greater reliability due to replication and cyclical redundancy check (CRC) protection of the partition table. It can be used as a storage volume on all x64-based platforms, including platforms running Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Windows Server 2003 SP1 also enables support for GPT in x86 versions of the Windows Server 2003 family.

Do I need my external hard drives for storage of movies/pictures etc.. to be GPT?

Click to expand...

You've already got the answer.

I know my main SSD is supposed to be GPT because of the UEFI bios and etc.. but do I format my external harddrives to GPT? is there any speed benefit?

Click to expand...

There's no speed benefit except MBR is more compatitble with the old Windows OS

I have been doing testing on changing cluster sizing while formatting to see how speed differences are with different cluster sizes.. 4k , 8k , and 16k.. Dont have any results yet of which is faster..

Click to expand...

Small cluster size will save space and slower due to fragmentation, larger cluster size will waste more space but faster. However, I don't think you can really tell the difference.

For example (4K vs 16K): if you have a 1 byte file size, it will occupy 4K for 1 byte file while it will occupy 16K for the same file with 16K cluster size. Let's say you have a 6K file size then it will take two 4K cluster size to store the file and the clusters might not be continuous resulting with fragmentation.

well.. it's probably not the best option but I've just been formatting my external harddrives to NTFS and 8k cluster size