Question About FAT32 vs NTFS

[BRH]

My WD My Book Essential (250 Gigs) external hard drive is formatted in
FAT32 and reports that it has 232 Gigs free. (It comes with some
software on it, which takes up the rest of the space.)

I've read that FAT32 has a 4Gig limit, which seems to contradict what
I'm seeing with this drive. I also have an internal hard drive
partition on my system of approx 60 Gigs that I have formatted under FAT 32.

So what's the truth -- Is there a 4Gig limit under FAT32 or not? If
not, what's the advantage of converting this drive over to NTFS, which
seems to be recommended in some of the online reviews I've read?

If it matters, I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 as my Operating System.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Cohen]

My WD My Book Essential (250 Gigs) external hard drive is formatted in
FAT32 and reports that it has 232 Gigs free. (It comes with some
software on it, which takes up the rest of the space.)

I've read that FAT32 has a 4Gig limit, which seems to contradict what
I'm seeing with this drive. I also have an internal hard drive
partition on my system of approx 60 Gigs that I have formatted under FAT
32.

So what's the truth -- Is there a 4Gig limit under FAT32 or not? If
not, what's the advantage of converting this drive over to NTFS, which
seems to be recommended in some of the online reviews I've read?

If it matters, I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 as my Operating System.

Thanks!

A helped a friend with the 160gb model and got caught on the same
question due to what they say with the unit. Frankly, I don't know what
the WD caution means or why it is there. We are running it as provided
(single fat32 partition). The space discrepancy is probably a
combination of formatting overhead and confusion over the 1000 vs 1024
labeling problem. There is a file size limit with fat32 but that is not
what WD are referring to.
Dave Cohen

 

[Tom Willett]

The largest file size that be *saved* to a hard drive is 4GB. The Fat-32
access table cannot store the file pointers for a file larger than 4GB. If a
file larger than 4GB has to be stored on the drive, Microsoft suggests
changing the file system to NTFS.

<BRH> wrote in message | My WD My Book Essential (250 Gigs) external hard drive is formatted in
| FAT32 and reports that it has 232 Gigs free. (It comes with some
| software on it, which takes up the rest of the space.)
|
| I've read that FAT32 has a 4Gig limit, which seems to contradict what
| I'm seeing with this drive. I also have an internal hard drive
| partition on my system of approx 60 Gigs that I have formatted under FAT
32.
|
| So what's the truth -- Is there a 4Gig limit under FAT32 or not? If
| not, what's the advantage of converting this drive over to NTFS, which
| seems to be recommended in some of the online reviews I've read?
|
| If it matters, I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 as my Operating System.
|
| Thanks!

 

[John Wunderlich]

My WD My Book Essential (250 Gigs) external hard drive is
formatted in FAT32 and reports that it has 232 Gigs free. (It
comes with some software on it, which takes up the rest of the
space.)

I've read that FAT32 has a 4Gig limit, which seems to contradict
what I'm seeing with this drive. I also have an internal hard
drive partition on my system of approx 60 Gigs that I have
formatted under FAT 32.

So what's the truth -- Is there a 4Gig limit under FAT32 or not?
If not, what's the advantage of converting this drive over to
NTFS, which seems to be recommended in some of the online reviews
I've read?

If it matters, I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 as my Operating System.

Thanks!

"Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/en-us>

"Overview of FAT, HPFS, and NTFS File Systems"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100108/en-us>

"New Capabilities and Features of the NTFS 3.1File System"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310749/en-us>

HTH,
John

 

[Yves Leclerc]

This is a limit that Microsoft has placed in XP only. Any versions of Windows
prior to XP, you can store file greater than 4 GB on a FAT32 partition/drive.

Another limit that Microsoft has placed is that XP can only format a FAT32
partition/drive up to 32 GB.

 

[Guest]

The reason WD(and others) format their hard drives in FAT32 is so that users
with Windows 98 can see the drive as well without having to use fdisk to
delete the partition and create a new one. I would definately suggest
converting the disc to NTFS as you will get better performance out of the
drive and not be limited by the 4 gig rule. To do so refer to this link.

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

Good Luck,

Joe

Kemco IT Tech

 

[BRH]

Does that mean that, if I wanted to backup an image of my 80 Gig Hard
Drive, that the WD My Book must be formatted in NTFS? (ie - Is the
image considered one large file?)

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Yes it means exactly that. You would have to set your imaging program to
store in multiple smaller files, I know Norton Ghost has that option. The
best thing to do is to convert it to NTFS.

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

Good Luck,

Joe

Kemco IT Tech

 

[Gary]

Where did you get this mis-information?

FAT32 does not, and never has supported files over 4gb.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

This is a limit that Microsoft has placed in XP only. Any versions
of Windows prior to XP, you can store file greater than 4 GB on a
FAT32 partition/drive.

Not true. The FAT32 limit of 4GB per file has been in existence on all
vserions of Windows that support FAT32.

Another limit that Microsoft has placed is that XP can only format a FAT32
partition/drive up to 32 GB.

Although that is true and it's an artificial limitation, it is also not true
that they placed the limit there just in Windows XP. The same is true of
Windows 2000. The reason is the same for both Windows 2000 and XP: to
encourage you to use NTFS for larger drives/partitions.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I would definately [sic] suggest converting the disc to NTFS as you
will get better performance out of the drive.

Noticeable "better performance" or just a savings of a few nanoseconds
of access time.

Nothing I've read says that NTFS gives any significant performance
increase over FAT32.

NOTHING.

 

[R. McCarty]

MS Tech note on Format verses Speed:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fncc_fil_yula.mspx?mfr=true

I would definately [sic] suggest converting the disc to NTFS as you
will get better performance out of the drive.

Noticeable "better performance" or just a savings of a few nanoseconds
of access time.

Nothing I've read says that NTFS gives any significant performance
increase over FAT32.

NOTHING.

 

[easymike29 via WindowsKB.com]

BRH

Ghost 2003, by default, splits images into 2GB chunks or even smaller if you
set a switch. I use Fat32 on a 200GB HDD with no problems. I have read that
Fat32 becomes a problem as the HDD gets nearly full. My reason for using Fat
is that I like to browse and edit files and foldersin DOS.

Gene

 

[Nat]

You can convert the file systems with Paragon Partition Manager
(www.partition-manager.com) , makes your life easier.

Best,
Natella

 

[Ron Martell]

My WD My Book Essential (250 Gigs) external hard drive is formatted in
FAT32 and reports that it has 232 Gigs free. (It comes with some
software on it, which takes up the rest of the space.)

I've read that FAT32 has a 4Gig limit, which seems to contradict what
I'm seeing with this drive. I also have an internal hard drive
partition on my system of approx 60 Gigs that I have formatted under FAT 32.

So what's the truth -- Is there a 4Gig limit under FAT32 or not? If
not, what's the advantage of converting this drive over to NTFS, which
seems to be recommended in some of the online reviews I've read?

If it matters, I'm using Win XP Pro SP2 as my Operating System.

Thanks!

As others have said, there is a 4 gb limit on the size of any single
file on FAT32 drives. With some application programs this limit may
be only 2 gb. NTFS does not have this file size limit.

There are also practical considerations which make it desirable to
avoid using FAT32 partitions larger than 128 gb. This has to do with
cluster sizes and the total number of clusters. The maximum usable
cluster size with FAT32 is 32KB and there can be problems with some
disk utilities, including third party products, if there are more than
4.1 million total clusters on the drive. FAT32 drives with
partitions larger than 128 gb can be used, but prudence indicates that
this is not a desirable situation and should be avoided (by
repartitioning or by converting to NTFS) whenever possible.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

MS Tech note on Format verses Speed:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fncc_fil_yula.mspx?mfr=true

Negligible difference.

READ: neither of us would be able to detect a difference.