NTFS or FAT?

[Guest]

I'm installing Vista on a second partition on my HDisk using BootIt NG. For
installing multiple OSes, BING recommends using FAT or FAT32, but I want to
ask other Vista users. Is FAT/32 fine, or is NTFS better?

 

[Jason]

I would highly recommend NTFS. Much more secure and with Vista, that is one
of the main advantages is the updated security it has to protect the OS.
Not sure how it would act on a FAT system.

 

[John]

Vista only installs to NTFS.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

FAT is not an option.

I would highly recommend NTFS. Much more secure and with Vista, that is
one of the main advantages is the updated security it has to protect the
OS. Not sure how it would act on a FAT system.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Vista only installs to NTFS.

That's what I'm thinking. Besides, FAT is limited to 2GB (4 if formatted
through an NT-based OS, I believe), so FAT doesn't even support partitions
large enough to install Vista...I think that settles it.

FAT32 though...I still wouldn't recommend it...there goes all your
filesystem-based permissions...not to mention that over the years I've lost
a lot more data because of a corrupted FAT32 partition than NTFS...

 

[Tom Scales]

That's what I'm thinking. Besides, FAT is limited to 2GB (4 if formatted
through an NT-based OS, I believe), so FAT doesn't even support partitions
large enough to install Vista...I think that settles it.

FAT32 though...I still wouldn't recommend it...there goes all your
filesystem-based permissions...not to mention that over the years I've
lost a lot more data because of a corrupted FAT32 partition than NTFS...

Vista will not install on FAT32. It will run on FAT32 if you convert it
after the fact, but why?

 

[Rick]

Where did you find a utility to convert from
NTFS to FAT32?

The only way I have heard of for converting NTFS
to FAT32 was to use a Win98 or WinME boot disk,
delete the NTFS partition, recreate a partition,
and format to FAT32. In the process you would
lose the Vista installation!

 

[Tom Scales]

Partitionmagic

Where did you find a utility to convert from NTFS to FAT32?

The only way I have heard of for converting NTFS to FAT32 was to use a
Win98 or WinME boot disk, delete the NTFS partition, recreate a partition,
and format to FAT32. In the process you would lose the Vista
installation!

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I don't know why FAT32 would ever be a choice for the system volume.
Especially if you want to use Office 2007 (or 2003 for that matter).