NTFS vs. FAT32

[Hugo 0]

I have a WD 18GB drive currently using FAT32 under build2195, what advantages is there to converting the drive to NTFS?

 

Thanks a lot

[ByronT 0]

Personally, I have found that NTFS performs a little snappier than FAT32 on a win2k system.

 

As for the official differences (from MS):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/partbook/win98dh/fatfat32ntfsfilesystems.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q211/2/49.asp

 

and FAT32 info: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q154/9/97.ASP

 

Hope this helps.

 

------------------

J. Byron Todd

Computer Consultant

byron@toddcomp.com

Todd Computer Solutions

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by ByronT (edited 12 January 2000).]

[foxman98 0]

NTFS will allow for permissions to be set on files. In FAT32 (I believe) one cannont restrict the access on the files to specific users or groups. NTFS has a little bit more overhead, which is why floppies will not format to it. NTFS seems a little bit faster in Win2k. Also keep in mind that if you are dual booting, Windows95/98 will not be able to natively read the ntfs partition, although 3rd party solutions do exist, although in limited form (read only I believe). With that in mind, if you are dual booting, leave it FAT32, if you are runnign purely 2k then I'd recomend going with NTFS, it is after all the file system designed for the OS.

[Streak 0]

NTFS:

If you want to have a reliable and secure platform use NTFS. The reason is that NTFS allows for much higher security for both local and network resources.

In NTFS you can set permissions for creating files in a folder, changing their contents, deleting them etc be it for someone who connects from a remote computer or even a person who sits down at that computer and logs in locally. Permissions can be set on both folders and individual files.

 

Also NTFS supports software fault tolerance (software RAID implementation) where drives can be mirrored and turned into stripe sets so that if data on one disk is destroyed it will be recovered by the other disks. Volume sets are also possible in which the capacity of a partition can grow and shrink depending on the amount of data that is stored in it.

 

Also, if you are doing any file transfer or similar and there is a power failure or other event that would normally corrupt data then under NTFS this would not affect the data as a log is kept for every transaction and is only flagged as successfull when completed.

 

FAT32:

NTFS does not really contain any security other than for shared folders. There is also no software fault tolerance.

Fat32 is best used if you have a dual boot system and you would like to be able to access data on the Win2k partition from Win98 as Win98 is not able to read NTFS.

I would also recommend using Fat32 if you are installing games on that partition as I have come accross a few that simply do not like NTFS, how or why they do not work has baffled me, I simply do not know.

 

The only wau to set read and write permission in Fat32 is by using a folder and setting either read or write access to that folder with a password and create a share. This way anyone accessing it remotely will require the password however anyone sitting down in front of the computer can simply view all data on Fat32.

 

Since you have plenty of capacity I would recommend making both a Fat32 and an NTFS partition. If you are dual booting then don't forget to store any information relevant to both OS's on fat32 otherwise Win98 will not be able to read it and you will have to boot back into Win2k.

 

I hope this has helped somewhat.

[Hugo 0]

wow, thanks for the info.

i'll definately go NTFS once i get the final installed.

 

thanks again