NTFS vs. FAT32 - Fight!

[ME]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General, Learning,
or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general question. Anyway,
here's the dish... Don't really know what the difference is between NTFS and
FAT32. All I know is every hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every
external has been FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences.
And, two, before I load up my new external with goodness, should I reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General,
Learning, or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general
question. Anyway, here's the dish... Don't really know what the
difference is between NTFS and FAT32. All I know is every
hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every external has been
FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences. And, two,
before I load up my new external with goodness, should I reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

Now is a great time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find
information on problems you may be having and solutions others have found:

Search using Google!
http://www.google.com/
(How-to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

Example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+FAT32+and+NTFS

General things...
- NTFS gives you security options FAT32 will not.
- FAT32 will not accept files over 4GB, NTFS will.
- FAT32 is much more inter-OS compatible than NTFS (thus why most external
drives are formatted that way.)

That help?

 

[JS]

Just to add to Shenan's answer.

If you are using Windows XP, you can not format
a drive or drive partition larger than 32GB with FAT32
(Unless you use a third party utility)

NTFS does not this have 32GB partition size limitation,
which is why you see most large drives formatted NTFS.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Shenan Stanley" <[email protected]>


| Now is a great time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find
| information on problems you may be having and solutions others have found:

| Search using Google!
| http://www.google.com/
(How-to:: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

| Example:
| http://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+FAT32+and+NTFS

| General things...
| - NTFS gives you security options FAT32 will not.
| - FAT32 will not accept files over 4GB, NTFS will.
| - FAT32 is much more inter-OS compatible than NTFS (thus why most external
| drives are formatted that way.)

| That help?

| --
| Shenan Stanley
| MS-MVP
| --
| How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
|


NTFS adds Encryption
NTFS adds native data compression
NTFS uses 4KB blocks vs. FAT which allocates successively larger blocks as the partition
size increases. For example a 1 byte file on NTFS uses 4KB while on FAT a 1 byte file can
consume 16K, 32K or 64K bytes.

 

[ArameFarpado]

Em Quinta, 15 de Janeiro de 2009 11:47, David H. Lipman escreveu:

From: "Shenan Stanley" <[email protected]>


| Now is a great time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find
| information on problems you may be having and solutions others have
| found:

| Search using Google!
| http://www.google.com/
(How-to:: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

| Example:
| http://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+FAT32+and+NTFS

| General things...
| - NTFS gives you security options FAT32 will not.
| - FAT32 will not accept files over 4GB, NTFS will.
| - FAT32 is much more inter-OS compatible than NTFS (thus why most
| external drives are formatted that way.)

| That help?

| --
| Shenan Stanley
| MS-MVP
| --
| How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
|


NTFS adds Encryption
NTFS adds native data compression
NTFS uses 4KB blocks vs. FAT which allocates successively larger blocks as
the partition
size increases. For example a 1 byte file on NTFS uses 4KB while on FAT a
1 byte file can consume 16K, 32K or 64K bytes.

and both of them still fragment files...

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General,
Learning,
or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general question. Anyway,
here's the dish... Don't really know what the difference is between NTFS
and
FAT32. All I know is every hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every
external has been FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences.
And, two, before I load up my new external with goodness, should I
reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

External drives are formatted FAT32 so that they can be recognized by
Windows 9x versions. It is assumed that the external drive 'may' at some
time be connected to an earlier operating system which can't read NTFS
disks.

If your external drive will NEVER be connected to a Win9x operating system,
feel free to format it NTFS and get the benefits as outlined by Shenan and
David..

 

[HeyBub]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General,
Learning, or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general
question. Anyway, here's the dish... Don't really know what the
difference is between NTFS and FAT32. All I know is every hard-drive
I've ever had was NTFS while every external has been FAT32. So, one,
succinctly, what are the differences. And, two, before I load up my
new external with goodness, should I reformat it to NTFS, does it
matter? Thoughts?

1. All the differences cannot be listed in a limited newsgroup post. To do
so requires a multi-page monograph.
2. You should, absent compelling reasons to the contrary, use NTFS wherever
possible: it handles larger capacities, it is self-correcting when errors
are encountered, you can encrypt your data.

 

[Tim Slattery]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General, Learning,
or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general question. Anyway,
here's the dish... Don't really know what the difference is between NTFS and
FAT32. All I know is every hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every
external has been FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences.
And, two, before I load up my new external with goodness, should I reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

NTFS has far larger limits on everything: partition size, files per
directory, maximum file size...

NTFS is far more robust: if you have a sudden loss of power, for
example, your NTFS directory is extremely to come back up with no
problems at all. You may have to sit through a disk scan for a FAT
partition.

NTFS does a MUCH better job on huge partitions. That's why XP and
Vista won't create a FAT partition larger than 32GB, it just doesn't
make sense to use FAT for that when NTFS is available.

On the other hand: NTFS is much more proprietary than FAT. The specs
for FAT are published, but MS holds the NTFS specs much more closely.
I think there is now a way to get Linux systems to read and write NTFS
partitions, but Linux works easily with FAT (and with its own file
system, of course).

 

[Patrick Keenan]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General,
Learning,
or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general question. Anyway,
here's the dish... Don't really know what the difference is between NTFS
and
FAT32. All I know is every hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every
external has been FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences.
And, two, before I load up my new external with goodness, should I
reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

Yes, it does matter.

In addition to the details in other replies, FAT32 systems can't create
files larger than 4gb, so if you were to try to create a large backup of,
say, a 4.7gb DVD movie or a system image on a FAT32 drive, it won't work.

There aren't many reasons to use FAT32 on larger drives anymore.

You can use the convert command to change it to NTFS, and you'll be done in
a few minutes.

HTH
-pk

 

[ArameFarpado]

Em Quinta, 15 de Janeiro de 2009 14:10, Tim Slattery escreveu:

NTFS is far more robust: if you have a sudden loss of power, for
example, your NTFS directory is extremely to come back up with no
problems at all. You may have to sit through a disk scan for a FAT
partition. Bullshit

partitions, but Linux works easily with FAT (and with its own file
system, of course).

Another bullshit, linux have filesystems than windows can't read at all, and
they are 3 decades ahead of microsoft technology... within a lot of
improvements, there is the permissions system that really works and there
is no need for defragmentation ever.

talk about just what you know of, nothing at all.

 

[ArameFarpado]

Em Quinta, 15 de Janeiro de 2009 20:43, Patrick Keenan escreveu:

In addition to the details in other replies, FAT32 systems can't create
files larger than 4gb,

correctin... can't storage!

 

[Unknown]

Aren't you the polite one!

Em Quinta, 15 de Janeiro de 2009 14:10, Tim Slattery escreveu:

Another bullshit, linux have filesystems than windows can't read at all,
and
they are 3 decades ahead of microsoft technology... within a lot of
improvements, there is the permissions system that really works and there
is no need for defragmentation ever.

talk about just what you know of, nothing at all.

 

[ME]

Gotcha. So, any ideas of why my file names are all colored blue? I've seen
this before and never thought that much about it til now. Files I've put on
the drive are now all blue whereas before they were in that all too familiar
black. Strange. Clues?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Gotcha. So, any ideas of why my file names are all colored blue? I've seen
this before and never thought that much about it til now. Files I've put on
the drive are now all blue whereas before they were in that all too familiar
black. Strange. Clues?

If they are blue, they are compressed files.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "ME" <[email protected]>

| Gotcha. So, any ideas of why my file names are all colored blue? I've seen
| this before and never thought that much about it til now. Files I've put on
| the drive are now all blue whereas before they were in that all too familiar
| black. Strange. Clues?
| --
| ME

NOT strange.

Blue -- Compression is applied
Green -- Encryption is applied

 

[Shenan Stanley]

First off, I don't really know where to post this, TechNet General,
Learning, or WindowsXP General? I use XP and this is a general
question. Anyway, here's the dish... Don't really know what the
difference is between NTFS and FAT32. All I know is every
hard-drive I've ever had was NTFS while every external has been
FAT32. So, one, succinctly, what are the differences. And, two,
before I load up my new external with goodness, should I reformat
it to NTFS, does it matter? Thoughts?

External drives are formatted FAT32 so that they can be recognized
by Windows 9x versions. It is assumed that the external drive 'may'
at some time be connected to an earlier operating system which
can't read NTFS disks.

If your external drive will NEVER be connected to a Win9x operating
system, feel free to format it NTFS and get the benefits as
outlined by Shenan and David..

Gotcha. So, any ideas of why my file names are all colored blue?
I've seen this before and never thought that much about it til now.
Files I've put on the drive are now all blue whereas before they
were in that all too familiar black. Strange. Clues?

Sure - you gave the clues.

Now is a great time to point you to one of the easiest ways to find
information on problems you may be having and solutions others have found:

Search using Google!
http://www.google.com/
(How-to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

Using your clues...

NTFS files blue

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=NTFS+files+blue

Which leads you directly to the answer...

"Compressed Files"

 

[ME]

Compressed eh? Cool. So is it okay to leave the files in that state? When
I reformatted the drive to NFTS, it gave two options: 'quick format' - which
I didn't choose because I guess I thought that'd be the quick not so
efficient way to format; and 'allow compression' - which I did choose because
I thought without checking this option, I wouldn't have the option of
compression later. Apparently that compressed all my files huh? So, did I
reformat correctly by not choosing "quick" and by choosing "compression"?
And, is it okay to leave the whole drive compressed as apparently it has been
set to? Thanks!

 

[Tim Slattery]

Compressed eh? Cool. So is it okay to leave the files in that state?

Very much so, yes. You'll have no trouble accessing them. It may take
a bit longer, but I haven't noticed any delay myself.

When
I reformatted the drive to NFTS, it gave two options: 'quick format' - which
I didn't choose because I guess I thought that'd be the quick not so
efficient way to format; and 'allow compression' - which I did choose because
I thought without checking this option, I wouldn't have the option of
compression later. Apparently that compressed all my files huh?

I guess so. You can compress and uncompress files as you wish.
Generally, the OS will compress files that are rarely used.

So, did I
reformat correctly by not choosing "quick" and by choosing "compression"?
And, is it okay to leave the whole drive compressed as apparently it has been
set to? Thanks!

It will most likely be just fine as it is. If there are some files you
use a lot you might want to uncompress them.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Compressed eh? Cool. So is it okay to leave the files in that state? When
I reformatted the drive to NFTS, it gave two options: 'quick format' - which
I didn't choose because I guess I thought that'd be the quick not so
efficient way to format; and 'allow compression' - which I did choose because
I thought without checking this option, I wouldn't have the option of
compression later. Apparently that compressed all my files huh? So, did I
reformat correctly by not choosing "quick" and by choosing "compression"?
And, is it okay to leave the whole drive compressed as apparently it has been
set to? Thanks!

Personally, I don't compress anything, and don't recommend doing so,
unless you are very short of disk space. Compressing may slow down
access to the files.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>



| Personally, I don't compress anything, and don't recommend doing so,
| unless you are very short of disk space. Compressing may slow down
| access to the files.


I haven't seen any real degradation in using compression.