ntfs vs. fat32

[tater1969]

I know ntfs doesnt have 4 gig limit,is there any drawbacks?

[KoalaBear]

Yeah. A lot of the software out there can't work with files larger than 2Gb, so you'll have to segment your captures anyway.

[JHebert]

Also if you ever want to dual-boot with another OS like DOS, Win9x or WinMe you will not be able to boot them from an NTFS partition or access other NTFS drives (although there is third-party utility for this). And the version of NTFS in WinNT is older than in Win2K and so WinNT cannot read Win2K partitions. This is important for users who like to boot other OS for different purposes.

[sommersby]

Or you can go with ntfs and get better performance and a much safer file system. But you are pretty much stuck in the os you are running ntfs in.

[todd-alaska]

THe difference definitely in performance, Ive tried both of them on a a dual raid setup absolutely no difference in overall performance.
Fat 32 can be made a little faster with different formatting options but is a pain in the ass and not worth the trouble and you lose room that way, it pretty much comes down to security and compatibility.

[gNOMEintheRedHat]

If you are a compleat G33K like gNOME is you can do cool stuff with NTFS that you will never be able to do with FATxx

NTFS will allow up to 255 attributes to a file.
wow woohoo that's realy great....
Those attributes can be ANY data, not just "hidden, read-only, system"

There are some file browsers in the works that will save ANY data to a file atribute. File is text of aperson's name, one attribute is the persons picture, another is their phone# another is their e-mail address, etc.

These are trivial examples, but there are SO MANY possabilities. The file system can be used as a mini database.

These are all ideas directly coppied by M$ from BeOS

[homerpez]

BTW: Should be noted, that with Windows XP (I assume Home, Pro, or Corporate doesn't matter), you can run probably 99.99% of all your old software using XP. So you can use Win-95 or 98 software even on an NTFS partition. Not positive about DOS without looking. (That's in "Compatability Mode", of course).

Out of all the software I use, however, I've only come across 1 program that refuses to install and work on XP.

No, I'm NOT trying to sell XP, it's just kind of a neat thing.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-12-11 15:41:05 ]</font>

[gNOMEintheRedHat]

some EARLY 95 apps and games will have trouble because the programs try to write DIRECTLY to the FAT. Many of them have been updated to Win32 standards or have been replaced with different software.

If you are hanging on to OLD DOS, Win3.1 or EARLY Win95 programs they "MAY" have problems weriing to NTFS. ANY app written for the Win32 API will send calls to the FileSystem driver instead of writing directly to the FAT.

So far I have not found a program that doesn't work in Win2k & WinXP except stuff that was forcably broken by M$. Such as hard disk utilities.

I have a FEW old DOS games that still work in 2000 & XP.
They are not advanced graphics, only bitmapped still images in a few adventure games.