nfts vs fat32

R

Rune Haarberg

just bought a laptop with fat32. thinking of converting to nfts as most ppl
recommend it. should i go ahead?
 
R

Ramesh, MS-MVP

Rune,

Microsoft Windows XP - Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...n-us/choosing_between_ntfs_fat_and_fat32.mspx

Before starting, go through the guide here.

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows XP:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


just bought a laptop with fat32. thinking of converting to nfts as most ppl
recommend it. should i go ahead?
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Rune said:
just bought a laptop with fat32. thinking of converting to nfts as most ppl
recommend it. should i go ahead?


Personally, I wouldn't even consider using FAT32 when NTFS is an
option. FAT32 has no security capabilities, no compression
capabilities, no fault tolerance, and a lot of wasted hard drive space
on volumes larger than 8 Gb in size. But your computing needs may vary,
and there is no hard and fast answer.

To answer your questions without getting too technical is
difficult, but has been handled quite well by Alex Nichol in the
article here:

FAT & NTFS File Systems in Windows XP
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfs.htm

Somewhat more technical information is here:

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=kb;en-us;Q314463

Choosing Between File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winntas/tips/techrep/filesyst.asp

NTFS file system
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/

You can safely convert your current hard drive to NTFS whenever
desired, without having to format the partition and reinstall
everything. As always when performing any serious changes, back up any
important data before proceeding, just in case. A little advance
preparation is also strongly recommended, so you can avoid any
performance hits caused by the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

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