NTFS or FAT32?
- Thread starter Lac3y
- Start date
jac006
Golden Master
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- 5,810
Ok, well, (NT File System) An optional file system for Windows NT, 2000 and XP operating systems. NTFS is the more advanced file system, compared to FAT32. It improves performance and is required in order to implement numerous security and administrative features in the OS. For example, NTFS supports Active Directory domain names and provides file encryption. Permissions can be set at the file level rather than by folder, and individual users can be assigned disk space quotas. NTFS is designed to log activity and recover on the fly from hard disk crashes. It also supports the Unicode character set and allows file names up to 255 characters in length.
FAT32
The 32-bit version of the FAT file system. In wide use on most PCs, FAT32 was introduced with the OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) version of Windows 95 in 1996. It supports larger disk partitions and file sizes and has more safeguards than the earlier FAT16. In the event of disk failure, it can relocate the root directory on the disk and use the backup copy of the FAT table. FAT32 also reduced cluster waste.
Although there are tricks to get around it, in order to encourage users to migrate to the more advanced NTFS file system, Microsoft limited the user's ability to format FAT32 partitions on Windows 2000/XP machines to 32GB.
FAT16 FAT32 NTFS
Maximum 4GB 2TB 2TB+
Partition 32GB on
Size Win2K/WinXP
Maximum Size of
File size 2GB 4GB Drive
OS DOS
Support OS/2
Win3x
Win95 Win95(OSR2)
Win98 Win98
WinNT WinNT WinNT(SP4)
Win2K Win2K Win2K
WinXP WinXP WinXP
Indeed, NTFS my friend. I hope this helps.
FAT32
The 32-bit version of the FAT file system. In wide use on most PCs, FAT32 was introduced with the OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) version of Windows 95 in 1996. It supports larger disk partitions and file sizes and has more safeguards than the earlier FAT16. In the event of disk failure, it can relocate the root directory on the disk and use the backup copy of the FAT table. FAT32 also reduced cluster waste.
Although there are tricks to get around it, in order to encourage users to migrate to the more advanced NTFS file system, Microsoft limited the user's ability to format FAT32 partitions on Windows 2000/XP machines to 32GB.
FAT16 FAT32 NTFS
Maximum 4GB 2TB 2TB+
Partition 32GB on
Size Win2K/WinXP
Maximum Size of
File size 2GB 4GB Drive
OS DOS
Support OS/2
Win3x
Win95 Win95(OSR2)
Win98 Win98
WinNT WinNT WinNT(SP4)
Win2K Win2K Win2K
WinXP WinXP WinXP
Indeed, NTFS my friend. I hope this helps.
