Independant Computer Dealers

[XCorvis]

xcorvis successfully avoids commenting in the Mac vs PC Holy War.

Back to cluster sizes...

It would be funnier if true. While the boot partition cluster size is predetermined by the partition size, any other partitions can be set to whatever cluster size you want (well 512 bytes up to 64 KiB I believe). The person should have made one 2 GiB partition for the system and one 18 GiB partition for data with the cluster size explicitly set to 2 KiB (or whatever).

Your statements about the use of cluster sizes are correct, but when formatting disks in Windows ME (*shudder*) and most other versions of Windows, the default cluster size is automatically determined from the size of the logical volume. A smaller volume has a smaller cluster size. You can't pick it with those tools.

There's another sign of an experienced tech. They flinch when you say "Windows ME."

 

[reanjr]

Your statements about the use of cluster sizes are correct, but when formatting disks in Windows ME (*shudder*) and most other versions of Windows, the default cluster size is automatically determined from the size of the logical volume. A smaller volume has a smaller cluster size. You can't pick it with those tools.

There's another sign of an experienced tech. They flinch when you say "Windows ME."

Very true except for one thing: the 2 GiB number doesn't make sense on those systems for maximizing disk space.

FAT32 uses a 4 KiB cluster size up to partitions of 8 GiB when it will start using 8 KiB cluster sizes. So if they were trying to maximize disk space, they would appropriately use 8 GiB partitions (probably a 4 GiB primary and two 8 GiB logicals) instead of ten 2 GiB partitions.

FAT16 on the other hand was usually limited to 2 GiB per partition (pretty much always when referring to end-user hard disk drives). So splitting it into 2 GiB partitions would have been because there's no other way to do it.

So my presumption is that it was in fact an NTFS partition where the 2 GiB mark is the breaking point between 2 KiB cluster sizes and 4 KiB cluster sizes.

So, somewhere along the line, the tech was misinformed or confused regardless of the sillyness of having 10 partitions (which really is worse of a mistake than any related to cluster size).

Re: WinMe

The one thing I liked about Me was the ability to recover from BSODs about 33% of the time, a feature unmatched in the Windows world. This was beneficial as BSODs ocurred with startling frequency on Me.

Oh, and the introduction on Zip file support, something the NT world had to wait for XP to get.

 

[drothgery]

Your statements about the use of cluster sizes are correct, but when formatting disks in Windows ME (*shudder*) and most other versions of Windows, the default cluster size is automatically determined from the size of the logical volume.

Err... most versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista) use NTFS by default these days, which uses completely different logic for cluster sizes than FAT32 does; they're nothing like 98/ME.

 

[XCorvis]

Err... most versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista) use NTFS by default these days, which uses completely different logic for cluster sizes than FAT32 does; they're nothing like 98/ME.

Yes, but he (my uncle) was running WinME.

 

[Kaodi]

Yeah...

Every time my parents (or more specifically, my Mom), tries to tell me that I am good with computers, I usually reply, " No, I'm not. I'm just better than you are. "

I'm guilty of only ever running Windows and MDOS, using the mouse for navigation (even my sister seems better than me in that respect, though I am better in most other areas), and a host of other crimes against computers. The last five or six months saw my first time opening up a computer (my parents old one) and opening up mine (which I bought a year ago, custom configuration from a small chain with good online site).

Anyway, at this point I think I am going to just keep upgrading my " gaming rig " when I need to. Perhaps also to my detriment, I don't tend to do any tweaking to the settings of my system, like overclocking. A lot of gamers overclock, but something about my computer burning out early just doesn't appeal to me.

So far, I have resisted having it hooked up to the internet (dial-up only) because I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life downloading updates for Windows XP...

In any case, my point is... is... uh... I don't think I have a point. Nothing to see here. This was not a drive by rambling...

 

[ssampier]

Every time my parents (or more specifically, my Mom), tries to tell me that I am good with computers, I usually reply, " No, I'm not. I'm just better than you are. "

I'm guilty of only ever running Windows and MDOS, using the mouse for navigation (even my sister seems better than me in that respect, though I am better in most other areas), and a host of other crimes against computers. The last five or six months saw my first time opening up a computer (my parents old one) and opening up mine (which I bought a year ago, custom configuration from a small chain with good online site).

Keep learning. I was at the same place you were are, probably five or six years ago. I still use the mouse when it's faster (commonly in Windows and web browsing) and the keyboard when it's faster (cut and paste, save). I won't really call myself a "pc tech", more likely an IT professional (entry-level, anyway).

Besides "good with computers" means what exactly? Hardware? Software? Networking? Programming? You can be skilled at at any one of those and not know much about the others.

 

[TheLe]

Is it time to give up on the non-online independant computer store.

It might be. They are getting squeezed pretty bad by the big stores out there, but there are still some gems available if you can find them.

Still, I just ordered a Bare-Bones system from and indy store. They shipped it and everything works great, except that they put in the wrong mother board! Fortunately this new board is slightly better than the one advertised, but I am still very concerned that they did not inform me of this.

Personally I wish there was a Fry's Electronics around here. I love em, and they are great with prices.

~Le