Best to use FAT32 or NTFS on Seagate external HD?

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I bought a new Seagate 300 gig External HD. It comes formatted as FAT32. I
want to use it on two computers, both of which are NTFS. Should I (must I)
reformat the new drive as NTFS? Should I partition the new drive? Two related
issues:

1. Tne HD on one of the computers is partitioned into C:\ which is NTFS and
F:\ which is FAT32. It's embarassing but I don't know where this partition
came from. It must have been set up by the vendor, Dell. The F:\ partition is
small in size and contains Dell stuff and MS DOS stuff.

2. The Seagate set up instructions state that if I reformat to NTFS I must
use their software, BounceBack Express, to access backed up files. Does that
mean I can't use native backup or drag-and-drop, etc? I've searched the
Seagate Web site for answers to this last question but could find no help.

Any help will be much appreciated
 
FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, so if you have large files that exceed
this limit then you need to reformat to NTFS.
If the above is not a problem then FAT32 is OK, but as most will tell you
NTFS is the better choice.
Note: Fat has the advantage of being more universal as far as operating
systems go.

For the info on FAT32 see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/en-us
Formatting/Partitions see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/en-us
Comparisons:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/expert/durham_fs.mspx

JS
 
Thanks for the reply, JS. If I reformat to NTFS, will that cause any problems
with the F:\ partition that is FAT32 on the computer HD?
 
No it will not, just be absolutely certain that you select the correct drive
before you reformat.
Bounce Back is a backup software utility (I have never used it but), if you
have files on the external drives and:
1) You have never used Bounce Back, then I suspect that you can simply copy
the files to your main (internal drive) as long as there are not so many as
to completely fill up the internal drive. Then just use Windows Disk
Management utility to reformat to NTFS.
Alternately you can convert FAT to NTFS as a means of saving the files
already on the drive.
2) If you have made backups using Bounce Back then follow the manufacturer's
instruction before reformatting.
3) If you have not placed any files on the external drive yet, just
reformat. Here I would delete the partition and then recreate it and format.
You may want to consider creating a small (32GB) fat partition for
portability to other Operating Systems (Win98, Linux, Etc.) and then use the
remaining drive space for a large NTFS partition.
Note: If you plan to use Bounce Back make certain you have the CD for it or
that it is installed on your internal drive as reformatting will erase all
data.

Note: To format a drive go to Disk Management on your Windows PC, (right
click on the My Computer
icon, then select the Manage option, then in the Computer Management window
select Disk Management).

For more details on formatting see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000/en-us

JS
 
JCIrish said:
I bought a new Seagate 300 gig External HD. It comes formatted as FAT32. I
want to use it on two computers, both of which are NTFS. Should I (must I)
reformat the new drive as NTFS? Should I partition the new drive? Two related
issues:

1. Tne HD on one of the computers is partitioned into C:\ which is NTFS and
F:\ which is FAT32. It's embarassing but I don't know where this partition
came from. It must have been set up by the vendor, Dell. The F:\ partition is
small in size and contains Dell stuff and MS DOS stuff.

2. The Seagate set up instructions state that if I reformat to NTFS I must
use their software, BounceBack Express, to access backed up files. Does that
mean I can't use native backup or drag-and-drop, etc? I've searched the
Seagate Web site for answers to this last question but could find no help.

Any help will be much appreciated
Click to expand...
There are only two reasons that I can think of to use NTFS 1) if you
have security concerns, and 2) if you have very large files FAT32 might
be a problem.

Rick
 
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