file type

three quick questions

amd 64 3000
1024 3200 kingston
9800 pro 128mb
40gb maxtor hd NON sata or raid, connected through i believe is IDE? ribbon cables.
when i install a fresh copy of XP it asks me what file system or type i want to format in, fat32 or ntfs (i think). now with specs listed above which one should i choose? running normal xp not 64bit xp

second question, whats the difference between them two? and 3rd is can choosing the wrong file system cause errors with applications, games etc etc? because i get lots of game crashes and such and was wandering if this could be the cause?

 

NTFS is better file system.
Fat32 is more vulnerable to fragmentation.
Go for ntfs if you dont plan to install win98 on the same system.

 

Kadavill is right on this one, NTFS is the file system of choise for NT based OSes. The major differences between the 2 file systems are as follows:

1) Fat32 is more prone to file fragmentation (with NTFS, defrag is a thing of the past)

2) NTFS supports file encryption and compression natevly, wheras Fat32 is much mroe complicated to setup

3) NTFS partitions are way more reliable than Fat32

Keep in mind that Win 95/98/me does NOT recognize NTFS. A beautiful forum website has answered this question beautifully. Follow the link to read up! And yes, older games and older drivers sometimes do not play well with NTFS.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm