Posts

Showing posts with the label exFAT

Best AI Tools for Small Business in 2026 Free Picks, Marketing, Productivity, Google AI and Claude

Image
Screenshots: Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and Canva official pages I have worked in IT for about twenty years, and every few weeks a small business owner asks me the same thing: which AI tools are actually worth the money? My answer never starts with a tool. It starts with one job that eats your week, such as answering the same emails, making social graphics, or copying data between apps. This guide follows the searches people run next on Google (free tools, marketing, productivity, Google AI and Claude) and gives a straight answer for each, based on the vendors' own pages and a few dated guides. Quick answer One assistant to start with: ChatGPT or Claude , both of which have free plans on their pricing pages. If your team lives in Google apps: Gemini in Google Workspace . If your team lives in Word, Excel and Outlook: Microsoft Copilot . Design and social posts: Canva . Automation: Zapier . Notes and team knowledge: Notion . Sales and customer service: HubSpot . Jump to: ...

How to Format an External SSD: exFAT vs NTFS vs APFS and the Right Allocation Unit Size (2026)

Image
Quick answer Use the default allocation unit size. How-To Geek notes you probably will not notice a difference in speed with a modern drive, and the default is tuned to the drive size. Pick the file system by where you use the drive: exFAT for Windows and Mac, NTFS for Windows only, APFS for Mac only. Formatting erases everything on the drive. Back up first. You may have seen advice to set an exact allocation unit size, such as 4KB for small files or 32KB for media, to speed up an external SSD . In practice, the file system you choose matters much more than the cluster size, and for most people the default is right. This guide explains what allocation unit size is, when changing it makes sense, and how to format an external SSD in Windows 11 or on a Mac. 1. What Allocation Unit Size Means Allocation unit size, also called cluster size, is the smallest chunk of space the file system uses to store a file. A bigger unit wastes more space on small files, but needs fewer lookups for ve...