Cluster

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When referring to a hard drive, a cluster or file allocation unit is the smallest managed section of a hard drive that holds a file. The size of a hard drive cluster can vary by operating system and size of hard drive.

Because each file and directory takes up one or more clusters depending on their size, earlier versions of FAT had the potential of wasting hard drive space. For example, if the cluster size was 8k and a 2k file is stored on the computer, 6k of that cluster will go to waste.

This issue has been reduced with new versions of FAT have been made available such as FAT32 that help resolve this issue. Additional information about FAT32 can be found on our FAT32 page.

A cluster may also be used to define a group of computers or servers that share the work as one. Making one big computer instead of multiple smaller computers. The picture is an example of cluster of rack mountable computers at the NCSA/University of Illinois.

Also see: Beowulf, FAT, HACMP, Hard drive terms, Lost cluster, MPP, MSCS, Network terms, Render farm, Server farm, Slack space, SMP