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Thread: FAT32 or NTFS

  1. #1
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    FAT32 or NTFS

    Which file system should I use when I install my XP Pro OS? Not caring about accessing it with other OS. but which runs faster and smoother? I have no experience with NTFS file system yet. Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member trouble's Avatar
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    FAT32 is much easier for when you have probs with the os.much easier to repair.

    from memory I think FAT32 is faster as well.Im sure someone will correct me if that is wrong though.



  3. #3
    Banned Johnny Fist's Avatar
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    In all honesty, for the average home user there is no difference what so ever.

  4. #4
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    Fat 32 is much easier to reapir in case of a nuclear meltdown orsimilardisaster It is also marginally faster.

    However NTFS has many more security features, important if you stare 'volatile' data, and fragments much less than FAT32.

    Remember though you can convert from fat32 to NTFS at any time, but to go the other way around you will need to use a third party uitl

    --Jakk

  5. #5
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    I would recomend NTFS. While FAT 32 is a bit faster, most notibly on older hardware, NTFS is much more bullet proof. You have very, very few problems with file system errors, I have been running NTFS on my XP box for well over a year and only have I had once had to run check disk because of any discrepences in the FS and those were easly fixed.

  6. #6
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    FAT32 is an enhanced version of the FAT file system that can be used on drives from 512 megabytes (MB) to 2 TB in size. The partition size limit is approximately 128GB. FAT and FAT32 offer compatibility with operating systems other than Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Also, FAT32 can be accessed by Win95B (OSR2, OSR2.1), Win95C (OSR2.5), Win98, Win98SE, WinME, Win2K and WinXP. It cannot be accessed by DOS (prior to version 7.0), Windows 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 (without the use of third party utilities).


    NTFS (New Technologies File System) has all of the basic capabilities of FAT, and it provides the following advantages over the FAT and FAT 32 file systems: File security. Access rights can be assigned to files and directories, allowing users full access, partial access or no access at all to data on your hard disk. Disk compression. File and directory compression can be performed directly without the need for third party utilities, saving space, while allowing for transparent access and operation to the user. Support for large hard disks, with a theoretical limit of 16 ExaBytes, and up to 2 TeraBytes (TB). NTFS supports Unicode, and natively supports long file names. Disk quotas can be assigned, limiting the amount of disk space users can access on a partition. Encryption. The NTFS 5.0 file system can automatically encrypt and decrypt file data as it is read and written to the disk. NTFS can be accessed by Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. So, as you can see...NTFS is far superior to FAT32 as far as reliablilty and security, but FAT32 outperforms it by a small margin because NTFS has a slight overhead to do all those cool things. For basic home use, go for FAT32....you'll get best compatibility and performance....but if security is an issue, or encryption etc...go with NTFS.

  7. #7
    Member Dark_Raver's Avatar
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    I am not a 100% sure of this because i haven't done any major tests but have noticed that...

    With WindowsXP, when you install it on FAT32 it still writes the folders like on NTFS. So each folder is a file with whatever info which is what allows you to do many cool things. The isue is that when you go FAT32 defragmenters don't seem to move those around which as you can imagine can leave your drive a little messy and difficult to defrag completely.

    Being a home user and not caring about security all that much, this is one aspect that made me choose NTFS.

    If someone knows that it is not so than please correct me, it is just what i have noticed and didn't like very much.


    DR

  8. #8
    Ultimate Member Swordfish's Avatar
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    if you are not on network and you are the only user...use fat32 its fast and simple..better to recover.

    think of NTFS otherwise.

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