NTFS or FAT or FAT32?

[RaNeN]

I was trying to format my external hard disk and I saw these options today.
It gave me an option saying File System: NTFS or FAT32 or exFAT.

I saw that the hard drive on my comp is FAT32. What do I change it to?
Whats best and why?

[Templeton Peck]

I would most certainly set an external hard drive to FAT32. FAT will only allow you to use it as a 2GB drive (you may as well get a flash stick if that's all you want) and only Windows XP and Vista can read NTFS. All operating systems can read FAT32 so go with that because that means with FAT32 you can virtually plug it into any computer and read your files.

[RaNeN]

Oh! So its like a language the comp can read? I didnt know that!

FAT, 2gb only? is that a maximum partition can be in FAT? What abt FAT32 and NTFS?

[snooky147]

It all depends what your doing with the drive. If you are watching DVD ISO's through Videolan player I would set it to NTFS, If your not watching large movie files over 2GB set it to FAT32.

[Robert602]

Hi Ranen. exFAT isn't the same as the original (and now obsolete) FAT. On the contrary exFAT is a brand new system, in my opinion too new to be a good idea for an external drive because it will only work on Vista SP1 and later.

The choice is really between NTFS and FAT32. Here are the big differences:

NTFS is more reliable in the sense that it can recover from failed writes much better than FAT32.

NTFS can handle files of any size, FAT32 is limited to 4gb files.

NTFS has in built security which you can use to limit access to certain files or folders to specific users, though it's not strong security. FAT32 has no in-built security at all.

FAT32 is essentially open and well supported by all modern operating systems. NTFS is fully supported only on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista, you can read from it but not write to it (without a little bit of work and/or risk) using a Mac with OSX, or Linux.

In short, NTFS is technically better in nearly every way but it's less well supported, so it depends where you'll be using it. If you're only likely to need to write to it on windows PCs (but not 95/98/ME) then go with NTFS, otherwise go with FAT32. Or you could have the best of both worlds and have part FAT32, part NTFS.

[Templeton Peck]

FAT32 is something like 2000GB so it's not an issue at the moment, and I forget NTFS but it is so large it will never be an issue in our lifetimes. However FAT32 imposes a file size limit of 4GB so if you are storing DVD disk images etc then you will have to use NTFS (which doesn't impose a file size limit). FAT is virtually obsolete now, no-one uses it anymore for hard-drives. I use FAT on my flash memory sticks but that's about it. I think the last o/s to use FAT was Windows 95.

Basically the choices are this: NTFS - your drive is restricted to Windows XP and Vista machines so you can't access your drive on Linux or Macs for example (at least I don't think you can); FAT32 - the size or your files is limited to 4GB which is big enough for most things but not if you store DVD disk images which is something like 4.7GB.

FAT32 file systems can be converted to NTFS at a later date (without losing the data on them), but NTFS can't be converted to FAT32 without re-formating, so it's best to start with FAT32 and if you can always convert it at a later stage.

[Templeton Peck]

Robert beat me to it and summed up the issues very well so sorry to reiterate. Basically it comes down to how you will use it and what you will use it on. If you're not sure go with FAT32 and then convert to NTFS if you need to store files bigger than 4GB.

[RaNeN]

Thanks a ton, Rob & TP. I am only gonna use my hard drive on XP and Vista. I'll have it in NTFS. I believe almost everybody in the world uses XP now a days or Vista so I dont think I'll have probs on any other system.

Just curious, what happens if I have FAT32 and I want to save a file which is larger than 4GB?

What exactly are NTFS and FAT32? Are they partition types? This question could be confusing. For example, Vista and XP are 2 different kinds of OS. So, what is FAT32 OR NTFS?

Another question:
I have a 8GB USB pen drive, when I format this and change it to FAT32 it shows 7.60GB of free space or when I change it to NTFS it shows only around 7.20GB of free space when there is actually nothing in it at all?

[Robert602]

Thanks a ton, Rob & TP. I am only gonna use my hard drive on XP and Vista. I'll have it in NTFS. I believe almost everybody in the world uses XP now a days or Vista so I dont think I'll have probs on any other system.

Well, there's still Mac and Linux but admittedly they're in a small minority, and if you don't know anyone who uses them you don't need to worry about them. And as I say, you can still read NTFS on those, just not write it.

Just curious, what happens if I have FAT32 and I want to save a file which is larger than 4GB?

You can't directly - the OS will just throw an error. If you have the file on an NTFS drive first you can split it up with winzip or similar and then put it on FAT32. Otherwise there's not much you can do.

What exactly are NTFS and FAT32? Are they partition types? This question could be confusing. For example, Vista and XP are 2 different kinds of OS. So, what is FAT32 OR NTFS?

They're called filesystems, but 'partition types' is a good way to describe them. They define different ways of writing, retrieving and organising data within a partition. Every partition is formatted with a particular filesystem, and each partition can use a different filesystem.

Another question:
I have a 8GB USB pen drive, when I format this and change it to FAT32 it shows 7.60GB of free space or when I change it to NTFS it shows only around 7.20GB of free space when there is actually nothing in it at all?

Yeah they both have a bit of overhead and a bit of wasted space which is more noticeable on small drives. FAT32 is a bit more space efficient than NTFS for small drives, it's normal.

FAT32 is something like 2000GB so it's not an issue at the moment.

While that's true I think it's worth pointing out that the OS (and motherboard) need 48-bit LBA support to be able to use a FAT32 (or NTFS, I think) partition bigger than 137gb*, which rules out Win95 and below, 98/ME with fdisk, 2000 before SP2 and XP before SP1. If you're choosing FAT32 for its compatibility then it makes sense not to go over 137gb per partition (you can of course have multiple 137gb partitions). *Edit: This isn't quite right, see my next post

[RaNeN]

Thanks for answering all those questions!

[Templeton Peck]

Just to clarify, maybe Robert can tell me this, is the extended partition also limited to 137GB? I imagine it would be, so the effective usuable size of a partition size restricted FAT32 disk would be be 550GB?

[RaNeN]

I have a small prob here. I thought I would change it to FAT32 on one of the external hard drives. The prob here is while formatting I dont see an option to change it to FAT32. It gives me only 2 options, either NTFS or exFAT. Is there a software that I can download that will help me with this?

[Templeton Peck]

As Robert points out above the maximum partition size is apparently 137GB. That means you need to divide your external hard drive into partitions and format each on individually as FAT32. If you go into control panel there should be something there called "Administrative tools". From there go into "computer management" and then "disk management". Select your external hard drive, delete any partitions on it and then set up some new ones of no more than 137GB. eg. if you have a 250GB drive set up two 125GB partitions, 300GB three 100GB partitions, 400/500GB four 100/125GB partitions, and then format each one individually as FAT32. They don't have to be equal size but it keeps it simple.

[RaNeN]

Ok. I think I got it. Will try that. I hope it works.

[Robert602]

Just to clarify, maybe Robert can tell me this, is the extended partition also limited to 137GB? I imagine it would be, so the effective usuable size of a partition size restricted FAT32 disk would be be 550GB?

Good question. I've just done a bit of reading and it seems I was wrong about this.

LBA is a method for addressing within physical drive, not a partition as I thought. It seems it's not possible to access anything beyond the first 137gb of a larger drive (regardless of partitions or file systems) without 48bit LBA support, which isn't enabled by default on Microsoft OS's until XP SP1, 2000 SP3 or later.

As I now understand it only partitions that lie entirely within the first 137gb will be visible to 28bit systems. Subsequent partitions can be as big as you like.

So a good blend of technology and compatibility, assuming you're mostly using windows, would be a 100gb FAT32 partition at the start of the drive, followed by a single NTFS partition for the rest.

(Should also point out that I'm assuming we don't care about DOS, or other systems of that age. They're a different story.)

I have a small prob here. I thought I would change it to FAT32 on one of the external hard drives. The prob here is while formatting I dont see an option to change it to FAT32. It gives me only 2 options, either NTFS or exFAT. Is there a software that I can download that will help me with this?

I don't use Vista myself but apparently it doesn't like formatting drives to FAT32 whenever they're bigger than 32gb.

I recommend http://www.compuapps.com/Download/sw...swissknife.htm
It's a free partition manager that can create FAT32 or NTFS partitions of any size you like. It works on Vista as long as you're logged in as Administrator.