Will Sandisk Extreme 32gb 3.0 USB drive become slower after format?

Hello!

I very recently purcahsed a Sandisk Extreme 32gb USB drive and found it to be formatted at FAT32. I want to reformat it to exFAT to allow large file sizes to be copied. I read on another thread that if you reformat the drive there will be a major performance loss. My question is this: If I reformat my drive to the exFAT format will the read/write speeds be affected. If so, will there be a drastic difference? Also, will I be able to revert back to its original factory format and speeds afterwards?

Thanks!

-Alex

Quick answer is no. It might even be faster after reformatting. It will just be back to factory defaults.

It will just be back to factory defaults.”

Actually no.  The factory configuration is as Super Floppy config.  No MBR, no partition table.  Reformating will not do that.  There is also a question of cluster alignment which probably won’t be able to be reproduced.

Will it be faster, don’t know.  But if you do before and after tests please post the results.

Hi,

I also noticed a little degradation in performance … here are my results first (factory format) and after (fat32 windows formatted).  I tried to play with allocation sizes but didn’t change much


CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 177.039 MB/s
Sequential Write : 97.785 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 132.378 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 31.368 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 11.391 MB/s [2781.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 11.565 MB/s [2823.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 11.145 MB/s [2720.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 12.007 MB/s [2931.3 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [J: 0.1% (0.0/29.2 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2014/02/06 12:16:52
OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)



CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 175.427 MB/s
Sequential Write : 94.353 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 126.334 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 22.255 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 10.863 MB/s [2652.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 5.549 MB/s [1354.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 10.481 MB/s [2558.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 4.851 MB/s [1184.3 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [J: 0.0% (0.0/29.2 GB)] (x1)
Date : 2014/02/06 12:17:49
OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)