In a general sense, a cluster is a combined group of homogeneous elements. In this case, the group is considered an independent unit with a set of certain properties. In information technology, the term "cluster" has two meanings.
Instructions
Step 1
For the convenience of placing and searching for data, the hard disk tracks are divided into sectors - physical addressing units. The tracks have electronic markers that indicate the boundaries of the sectors. Sectors are combined into clusters. In this case, a cluster is the minimum amount of hard disk space that the file system can allocate for storing information.
Step 2
The cluster size is set when the hard disk is formatted. This can be entrusted to the system by selecting the automatic mode, or set manually. If you decide to determine the cluster size yourself, you need to consider the following conditions:
Step 3
- the larger the cluster, the higher the performance of the computer. smaller size of FAT (file allocation table) and, accordingly, higher speed of file operations;
- on the other hand, the larger the cluster, the more disk space can be wasted. For example, you are writing a 2KB file to a 32KB cluster. In total, 30 KB of disk space is lost for you, since no other information will be written to this cluster;
- when the cluster size is more than 4 KB, the compression functions built into the file system will not work.
Step 4
To find out the cluster size on your hard disk, right-click on the icon of the required logical disk and select "Properties". Go to the "Service" tab and in the "Defragment …" section, click "Run …". Then activate the buttons "Analysis" and "Output report".
Step 5
Another meaning of the term "cluster" is computers united into a group by high-speed communication channels. From the user's point of view, this group looks like a single apparatus and is a kind of distributed system.
Step 6
Each computer in such a system is a separate node. Adding a new node improves the quality and reliability of the cluster.
