Fat32 vs. NTFS?

Discussion in 'Software' started by suesman, Jul 11, 2003.

  1. suesman

    suesman First Sergeant

    What would be best. I am currently running XP Pro with the Fat32. Is NTFS better or what?
     
    suesman, Jul 11, 2003
    #1
  2. Kodo

    Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

    NTFS is more efficient. FAT 32 was never meant for drive sizes like your 120G. Aside from that, NTFS offers file level security which is nice.
     
    Kodo, Jul 11, 2003
    #2
  3. da chicken

    da chicken MajorGeek

    The only real advantage of FAT32 is that you can boot a Win98 floppy and read your HDD without 3rd party software. NTFS drives also don't always like being moved from PC to PC, but most people don't have that trouble.

    There are programs that run on FAT32 and not NTFS, but you should not have any. Those went away after about 1995.
     
    da chicken, Jul 11, 2003
    #3
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    NTFS is the way to go......


    I will give you a few plus points of NTFS

    1. Better Security of files
    2. Better Disk Compression
    3. Support for large HDD's, the maximum drive size for NTFS is greater than that of FAT32 & as HDD size increases the performance with NTFS doesn't degrade as much as it does with FAT32.
    4. Less defragmentation of files ( well thats what I have noticed anyway )

    SPEED
    NTFS & FAT32 are very similar in speed ( hardly noticable!! ) but as the size of the HD increases the gap widens, as NTFS stores small files in the Master File Table to increase performance.

    JOURNALING
    NTFS is a journaled file system, meaning that it keeps a record of all changes made, if you were to lose power or a crash in the middle of writing data, it dosn't mean you won't lose some data but if part of the MFT was corrupted it can be fixed. NOW if the same thing was to happen to FAT32 and part of the FAT was corrupted the partition would be Unmountable ( unreadable ) & you would lose everything on the HD.

    SECURITY
    Any of your files can be secured with NTFS, you can specify who can read, write and change files.



    BUT dont use the convert command line to make your HD NTFS as you wont see all of the benefits of using NTFS as it will still retain the 512kb clusters of FAT32 rather than the 4kb clusters NTFS uses.
     
    DavidGP, Jul 11, 2003
    #4
  5. snakefoot

    snakefoot Sergeant Major

    This feature is especially important for the system drive where the registry is kept. With FAT32 the chance of getting a corrupt registry is much higher with effect of rendering the system useless (Or at least requires several steps to recover).
     
    snakefoot, Jul 11, 2003
    #5
  6. suesman

    suesman First Sergeant

    Thnx guys. I was considering going that route, I just wanted some opinions before actually doing it. Not having any problems, just wanting to get rid of a whole bunch of crap that comes from having a large drive & broadband. :D You know invalid registry stuff. I've used jv16 Power Tools ( wonderous proggy ) & unless I'm missing the entries, they aren't showing up. :confused: Again thnx for the comments.

    Chris
     
    suesman, Jul 11, 2003
    #6
  7. Undesirable

    Undesirable Private E-2

    I've heard that the NTFS file system is self-repairing. Is this true? I've definately noticed that windows never boots up with the drive-scanning screen after an improper shutdown since I switched to NTFS. I have not noticed any slower performance with regard to the file system either.
     
    Undesirable, Jul 13, 2003
    #7
  8. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I've heard this too, but don't know to what degree. Let me check my resources.
     
    Adrynalyne, Jul 13, 2003
    #8
  9. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Ok, from Windows XP Inside Out (EXCELLENT book)

     
    Adrynalyne, Jul 13, 2003
    #9
  10. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Hope that helped Undesirable :)
     
    Adrynalyne, Jul 13, 2003
    #10
  11. †T-Rex †

    †T-Rex † Specialist

    Does FAT32 support long file names like NTFS? The name of a file can be up to 256 characters with NTFS... wasn't sure if FAT32 was capable of that or not since I have never used it... (well... years ago I did... back in Windows 3.1).
     
    †T-Rex †, Jul 13, 2003
    #11
  12. snakefoot

    snakefoot Sergeant Major

    If you used FAT in the Win31 days, then it was FAT16 you used.
    FAT32 was first introduced with Win95 OSR2. (Widely spread with Win98)

    FAT16 was extended with VFAT when Win95 first arrived, which allowed long filenames inside Win95, though it requires an extra entry in the FAT as both the short and long version of the filename had to be saved. There are comparisons of FAT16,32 and NTFS to be found:

    http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm
    http://snakefoot.fateback.com/tweak/windows/tweak.html#CLUSTER
     
    snakefoot, Jul 13, 2003
    #12
  13. Undesirable

    Undesirable Private E-2

    Yes, thanks. It was an interesting piece of information. :)
     
    Undesirable, Dec 20, 2004
    #13

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