NTFS vs. FAT32??

DaRuSsIaMaN

DaRuSsIaMaN

Geek Comrade
Okay, my new laptop has WinXP Home on it, but for some reason both the partitions (C & D) are in FAT32 format... I thought NTFS is the way to go, is it not? Is there a big difference? I don't know if this is good or bad, really. Also, if anyone knows any links to a nice article answering my question i'd appreciate that too. Thanks.
 
FAT is a horrible FS. Fragments like there's no tomorrow. Unless you want a cross compatible file system between Linux and Windows, you'll be much better off with NTFS.

Edit: you can also convert the FAT32 partitions to NTFS without losing data. My Acer laptop came with 2 partitions like yours, and I converted to NTFS. Check here: How to Convert FAT Disks to NTFS
 
It's not possible to set user account permissions using FAT32. This makes your computer very insecure
 
NTFS is much better (more stable & more secure) MS products generally have a lot of flaws & bugs but NTFS is one thing they've got right (can't believe i'm actually praising MS)

EDIT: convert to NTFS ASAP XP acrually comes with a FAT32 to NTFS converter, but i can't remember where it is, type "convert FAT32 to NTFS" in help (you never know Help might actually BE helpful for once)

EDIT: [ot]i thought it was possile to set user account permissions on FAT32 it just a very very bad idea[/ot]
 
im not sure about it but i fink its in your accessories > system tools in start menu (im on vista so i cant remember) i think there's a program in there to convert your drive or you might find it in:

Control Panel > Admin Tools > Disk Maintenance (or something)


Your file system needs for conversion should be in there.
 
[ot]Help? Useful? Ever tried typing in "driver conflict" ? It comes up with 3, none of which are relevant results. Type in "linux" and it comes up with 15! :confused:[/ot]
 
Actually, despite what we say about NTFS being much better than FAT32, it does not mean it is a good file system. It still fragments, while advanced file systems like ext3 or the more popular ReiserFS (available only in Linux) are muchy more efficient and perform better. But I guess its all relative.
 
Addis said:
Actually, despite what we say about NTFS being much better than FAT32, it does not mean it is a good file system. It still fragments, while advanced file systems like ext3 or the more popular ReiserFS (available only in Linux) are muchy more efficient and perform better.
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That was exactly what i was going to say, but probably with even more bias towards Linux :)
 
[ot]
megamaced said:
That was exactly what i was going to say, but probably with even more bias towards Linux :)
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Lol. Alright, megamaced needs a gag rule that he can't bash windows in every single thread, especially not in the windows section of the forums :P [/ot]


newpaws said:
i personally go ntfs coz imo you get more space and it's much more efficient for XP+ but accordin to MS site FAT32 is best for gaming, unless i'm reading wrong
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I think you are reading it wrong, haha. At the end just before the table of the results they basically conclude that it makes no difference. But I found both articles quite useful so thanks a lot =).
 
[ot]
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
Lol. Alright, megamaced needs a gag rule that he can't bash windows in every single thread, especially not in the windows section of the forums :P
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LOL, point taken :)[/ot]
 
thomas234 said:
Help? Useful? Ever tried typing in "driver conflict" ? It comes up with 3, none of which are relevant results. Type in "linux" and it comes up with 15! :confused:
Click to expand...

well that just goes to show that Help in win is officially "useless"
 
Addis said:
Actually, despite what we say about NTFS being much better than FAT32, it does not mean it is a good file system. It still fragments, while advanced file systems like ext3 or the more popular ReiserFS (available only in Linux) are muchy more efficient and perform better. But I guess its all relative.
Click to expand...

well i'm no expert with linux, i usually only use FAT, FAT32 & NTFS, NTFS is the best partition type for a win user
 
Addis said:
My Acer laptop came with 2 partitions like yours, and I converted to NTFS.
Click to expand...

Say, my recover utility will not format the drive into FAT32 again if I use it, will it? The manual doesn't say. I'm considering just formatting the HD into NTFS rather than using the convert.exe thing. The article you linked does recommend formatting, after all. So I'm thinking I could format it and then use the recover utility to reinstall windows. But it's all automated, I think, so maybe it'll just revert to FAT32 again?? That sounds pretty stupid to me but I dunno, I really don't know anything about how those automatic recover things work.

See, my laptop works like this: some section of the hardrive has all the windows and the other software sitting in it. When it's booting, there's a brief moment when a message appears, saying "press f10 to recover." And then it's supposed to do it all automatically to restore it to the exact same way it was when i got it. There's also a program which automatically burns that HD sector to 4 blank cd-s (only allows u to do it once ... supposedly, anyway). I have done this so now I can do the same recovery procedure off my cd's instead of the HD and thus don't need to keep the recover stuff safe on the hard drive anymore. Which means I'm free to format it all. That way I'd get that additional hard drive space too.

But do you think it's a big deal at all whether I format or use the convert.exe method? The article recommends formatting rather than converting but I don't know how seriously to take that recommendation. After all, pretty much any windows software recommends closing all other programs before beginning installation, yet I've never had anything go wrong even when I disregarded that recommendation completely. Just an example of a seemingly useless recommendation. Is this one like that too?
 
What happens is that because the Windows partition is the one you're converting, it sets it as a task on boot up. When you boot into Windows next time, it converts it before any critical files need the disk.

I've not experienced problems with converting. My recovery thing was the same as yours, so I'm suspecting that you won't be able to recover if its been formatted as NTFS.
 
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