NTFS vs. FAT32

[Guest]

I have a single-drive 40 gig hard drive. My filing system is FAT32. I have
to format the hard drive as it is acting erratically. I have backed up my
files.

When I reinstall XP (home), is there a benefit to installing it as NTFS or
FAT32? Am I limited to FAT32 because the backed up files were FAT32?

Thank you.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a single-drive 40 gig hard drive. My filing system is FAT32. I have
to format the hard drive as it is acting erratically. I have backed up my
files.

When I reinstall XP (home), is there a benefit to installing it as NTFS or
FAT32? Am I limited to FAT32 because the backed up files were FAT32?

Thank you.

NTFS is the native file system for WinXP. It is technically superior to
FAT but it can slow down your machine if you keep very large folders
(more than 5000 files per folder). On the other hand it will use your
disk space more efficiently.

You can restore your backed up files to a FAT or an NTFS partition.

 

[Al Dykes]

I have a single-drive 40 gig hard drive. My filing system is FAT32. I have
to format the hard drive as it is acting erratically. I have backed up my
files.

When I reinstall XP (home), is there a benefit to installing it as NTFS or
FAT32? Am I limited to FAT32 because the backed up files were FAT32?

Thank you.

No, you're not limited to FAT32.

If you don't trust your disk do a minimal installation of Windows
and then run some I/O intensive application for a couple hours
or overnight. HDTach comes to mind:
www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

I've been installing WIndows systems with only NTFS for almost 10
years. The only excuse for the continued use of FATxx is when you
need to dual boot with W/98 or Linux and need a partition that both
can read.

NTFS is much much more crash resistant than FAT32 is. (Nothing is
perfect) and if you have to hit the reset button you will almost never
wind up running scandisk, or ever wind up with .CHK files in the root
of your C drive.

There are lots of tools to recover files from an NTFS disk of yoiur OS
is too screwed up to boot, assuming the disk has died.

If you are short on disk space NTFS has built-in file compression that
works great for some things and has no downsides. . You have to turn
it on.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a single-drive 40 gig hard drive. My filing system is FAT32.
I have to format the hard drive as it is acting erratically. I have
backed up my files.

When I reinstall XP (home), is there a benefit to installing it as
NTFS or FAT32? Am I limited to FAT32 because the backed up files
were FAT32?

Thank you.

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/

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

NTFS is basically used for high security, whiich is it's benefit. FAT 32 has
a lower overhead. I have a multiboot system of Windows 98SE, Windows 2000
Professional SP4, and Windows XP Professional SP2, with 3 FAT 32 Partitions.
It is the end users choice as to which system would benefit their usages, I
llike the graphic speed of 98 ( I have yet see any system out perform 98
graphic wise as of yet, and 2000 Professional in my mind is equivalent to XP
performance wise).