Do you folks think it is really worth using a 64k NTFS cluster size for video processing?

Is it stable under XP Pro SP2? And would using the drive via an external enclosure - USB2 affect this?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Now you got me.
I don't really know what is 64K NTFS.
I just know regular WinNT/2k/XP/2k3 NTFS.
Are you asking FAT32 vs NTFS?
If that's what you're asking and if your harddrive is at least >10GB and >PIII 500 with >=256MB I would always go for NTFS, period.
Remember the maximum allowed space for a single file under FAT32 is either 2 or 4GB.
And NTFS is supposed to autodefrag on the fly.
IMHO, FAT32 should only be used in less powered PCs.
Cheers

__________________
Rui

He is talking about the cluster size on a NTFS partition.
I prefer to have the smallest cluster that give me the lesser waste space. In my cases they are 4K. I'm not convince about the gain to have big clusters even when manipulating big files that's why I did not answered to the question.

Urban legend. NTFS is more fragmented than FAT32 as it supports sparse file allocation. Yesterday I finished to DL a 3.7GB rar file on emule (with sparse option activated) and it was in... 28710 fragments ! Fortunaly sysinternals have a great tool to defragment a single file (I even recommand that before to burn something at high speed).

No, I'm not asking about FAT32.
I'm asking about formatting a partition as NTFS with 64k cluster sizes rather than the default (4k).

It does seem to cause directory corruption on my new hard disk, though. On the other hand I have for some months run a 64k cluster NTFS partition on another smaller external HD.
I suspect the size is the problem.

I'm beginning to think the same like you. I tried to time TMPGENC encoding a video (KDVD) - well the time was practically the same. If there was any improvement with 64k, it was under a minute in time. So there is almost no gain at all.
I will, for the reasons that I don't wish to lose data, go back to default cluster sizes under NTFS! That means reformat of course.

No need. You can change the cluster size without loosing the data on your disc. Use Partition Magiq for instance, or download "Ultimate bootCD" where you will find free tools that can do that.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/