WindowsXP Home Edition (NFTS/FAT32) Filing System

[JOHN]

I am a complete novice, but I recently had to reboot this
machine and I used the manufactures instructions
downloaded from the web. I re-formatted the hard drive
with FAT32 filing system, which I now know was incorrect,
butI have used the machine for some six months with with
no problems except for system restore not working. I am
not to bothered with the system restore, but should I
reboot and format with NFTS or leave it with FAT32 filing
system. What are the advantages OF NFTS if any?. Could
someone out ther please please advise, no computer jargon
please, as my knowledge is very limited

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

First of all, a terminology correction, if you don't mind. ;-}
"Reboot" means to simply shut down and restart the computer. It
doesn't mean formatting and/or reinstalling the operating system.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider using FAT32 when NTFS is an
option. FAT32 has no security capabilities, no compression
capabilities, no fault tolerance, and a lot of wasted hard drive space
on volumes larger than 8 Gb in size. But your computing needs may
vary, and there is no hard and fast answer.

To answer your questions without getting too technical is
difficult, but has been handled quite well by Alex Nichol in the
article here:

FAT & NTFS File Systems in Windows XP
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfs.htm

Somewhat more technical information is here:

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=kb;en-us;Q314463

Choosing Between File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winntas/tips/techrep/filesyst.asp

You can safely convert your hard drive to NTFS whenever desired,
without having to format the partition and reinstall everything. As
always when performing any serious changes, back up any important data
before proceeding, just in case. A little advance preparation is also
strongly recommended, so you can avoid any performance hits caused by
the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm


Bruce Chambers

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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
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[R. C. White]

Hi, John.

NTFS is better than FAT32 in several ways, but they might not matter to you
at this point in your computing career. ;^} If you are happy with FAT32,
then keep it until you become unhappy with it.

The main advantage of NTFS is increased security - and security has at least
a couple of facets. First is security from unauthorized users peeking into
your secrets. NTFS allows you to restrict access to certain files and
folders. If you're a solo user like me, though, that's not very important;
nobody but me uses my computer here in my home.

The other security aspect, though, is for the file system itself. The NT
File System is built on the New Technology architecture, rather than the old
File Allocation Table system, which dates back a couple of decades, at
least. NTFS is a "journaling" file system. That little piece of jargon
means that, when NTFS writes the newest version of your file to disk, it
verifies that it can read that new version before it deletes the old one.
So, if there's a power failure or other glitch in the middle of writing,
your old version is still there, safe and sound. FAT32 would probably lose
both the old and new versions. Other such protections are built into NTFS,
making your data much more secure than with FAT32.

When you are ready to switch to NTFS, just use Convert.exe from the Run
prompt (or the Command line). See Help and Support for details. You may
need to let the conversion happen on the next reboot if you are converting
the drive you boot from. You should not lose any data from this procedure,
although a backup is always a good idea; even convert.exe can't insure
against a power failure.

RC

 

[Tony]

Bruce,
Do you recommend formatting a secondary hard drive to
NTFS also? I have Win98SE installed and running on my
slave hard drive, and can boot to in at times that I need
a Win98 or older operating system for producing certain
boot floppies. I had major problems having that drive
recognized by my XP Home OS on my primary drive, but
found that the problem was a phantom installation of
Roxio's "Go Back 3", which I never installed, and suspect
it is built into the new Ver 2.7 BIOS chip that Award had
sent to me. Once I disabled "Go Back 3", my XP system
could again access my slave FAT32 drive. Something you
might want to spread around to others who are having
problems with XP seeing their secondary drives. I only
keep that drive in FAT32 to preserve the ability to boot
to Win98. Should I abandon Win98 and convert my secondary
drive to NTFS, so as to avoid any further problems using
that drive in XP? I can now see the drive in Disk
Management and do not have to repartition it and lose the
data on it. It now shows up in Windows Explorer as well.
Thanks.

Tony

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

WinXP can read FAT12 (the file system used on 3.5" diskettes),
FAT16, FAT32, CDFS (the file system used on most CDs), and NTFS with
equal facility. The file system on any one disk/partition or
diskette absolutely has absolutely no affect upon the operating
system's ability to read other compatible file systems on other
disks/partitions.

So, if you want to retain the ability to boot into Win98, it won't
cause any problems for you to keep a FAT32 drive/partition. Of
course, you won't have any of NTFS's security or fault-tolerance
features available on that drive, either. If you're not pressed for
storage space, you might leave that FAT32 drive as is for the time
being, to see if you ever really need it. If you haven't found a need
to use Win98 after several months, go ahead and clean it up and
convert it.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH