optimal ntfs partition size for large raid array

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azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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Let say you have 50TB raid array on a file server, what would be the optimal ntfs partition size when you are using it as a windows 2016 file server ?? Should I go one giant 50TB partition or break it in half size or smaller ?

Thanks,
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Lots of really small files or mostly larger files ?
If large 50tb would be fine.
 

cesmith9999

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2013
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it totally depends on what you are doing. and how many files you have. and how big they are.

I have a tool here that I wish I could share that give me the file size histograms that I use to make that determination.

50 TB uses 16K sector sizes. so if you have large files you can do that. if you have small files, you should brak it up in to 3-4 smaller partitions. also if you need to backup the 50 TB... you need to consider VSS snapshot sizes. if you plan on having a greater than 64TB volume, you should format the volume with 32 or 64K sector size.

If you have a lot of small/medium files. CHKDSK can take days to weeks to complete on a corrupted volume.

You still have the file limitations of NTFS.

NTFS - Wikipedia

Chris

and yes, I have way TOOO much experience with NTFS...
 
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azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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After reading many article and based on the info provided in this thread, I've decided to split the partition into 2 x 25TB with 8K cluster size.
This is a general file server so it will have a mixture of files with different sizes, although 80% of it will probably smaller than 1Gb in size.