windows xp 2000 home edition

[john]

my brother n law set up my computer. my question is :What
is the difference between "ntfs"file system and "fat 32
file system" ? also ,question #2: can i switch back to
fat 32 and can i save what is on nt without losing
anything that is stored now? thank- you for a
reply.....john

 

[Test Man]

NTFS has proper security, fault-tolerance and stores files a lot better than
FAT32

No you cannot switch back once you have converted. It's a one-way job.
That said, you won't want to go back.

 

[Tim Slattery]

my brother n law set up my computer. my question is :What
is the difference between "ntfs"file system and "fat 32
file system" ? also ,question #2: can i switch back to
fat 32 and can i save what is on nt without losing
anything that is stored now? thank- you for a
reply.....john

NTFS allows MUCH larger files than FAT32, and can handle MUCH larger
partitions more easily and safely than FAT32. It also has facilities
that allow XP's security functions to operate fully. It's also a
journaling file system, which makes it pretty well immune to the
disasters that can befall FAT32. If the power goes off in the middle
of a session, an XP system with NTFS will simply boot up and run
without any problem. If you have FAT32 you'll probably have to run
Scandisk, and you may have some damage.

Once you've converted from FAT32 to NTFS, you can't switch back unless
you use a third-party program (like Partition Magic) to do it.

 

[Alex Nichol]

my brother n law set up my computer. my question is :What
is the difference between "ntfs"file system and "fat 32
file system" ?

See www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm
If you are onto the NTFS system, I'd leave it. To revert means either
starting over, reformatting the disk in FAT 32 and reinstalling all
software, and restoring data from backups, or may be possible using
Partition Magic 8.0 - but that is expensive just for this.