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size on disk Last modified: Monday, July 25, 2005
Files are stored on the disk in what is called called clusters (a group of disk sectors). Size on disk refers to the amount of cluster allocation a file is taking up, compared to file size which is an actual byte count. The lowest cluster size for FAT32 is 1, so if the actual file only needs a small portion of the cluster, the size on disk for that file will reflect the entire cluster as being used. This is why when you check the properties tab of a file (using Microsoft Windows), you will usually see the size on disk size is larger than the file size. See also cluster and file.
Windows XP Resource Kits Default Cluster Sizes for Volumes with Windows XP Professional File Systems.	Related Categories Disk Drives File Management Related Terms byte cluster disk FAT FAT12 FAT32 file