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Ntfs?

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Nickynoo, 2005/07/18.

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  1. 2005/07/18
    Nickynoo

    Nickynoo Inactive Thread Starter

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    Is it a good idea to convert my file system to NTFS, I am currently using a FAT32 system? Please someone explain what NTFS is and what advantages and disadvantages it offers. My harddisk is 37 gigabytes.
     
    Nickynoo,
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  2. 2005/07/18
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    NTFS is a more robust file system which is less prone to errors than FAT32. It is also less prone to fragment if the default cluster size is used (4 kB). You get the default size if the partition is formated NTFS using Windows XP and after conversion if the FAT32 file system was formated using Windows XP.

    If the FAT32 file system was formated using FDISK or from within an earlier operating system, then the clusters may not be aligned properly and the result after conversion may be a NTFS file system with 512 bytes clusters which is definitely more prone to fragment. Note that I say may and not will since there is a chance that the clusters are aligned properly.

    Have a look at Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 and How to Convert FAT Disks to NTFS and also Converting Volumes to NTFS

    A quote from the last page to which I linked:

    Since Windows XP can only format FAT32 up to 32 GB, I assume that Your 37 GB were formated using an earlier operating system and that there is a risk of ending up with 512 bytes clusters. Under these circumstances and if You don't need the security features of NTFS, then I would recommend staying with FAT32 and go NTFS if or when You reinstall.

    Christer
     
    Last edited: 2005/07/18
    Christer,
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  4. 2005/07/18
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Steve R Jones,
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  5. 2005/07/18
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello Nickynoo,

    Unless you have a compelling reason to convert to NTFS, I would leave it alone. Outside of the features - such as the security options - you're not going to get any noticably better performance, I say that having two XP installations one running FAT32 and the other NTFS.
    So very much agree with Christer.

    Christer is also correct that the NTFS volume fragments less, but mine was formatted that way from the beggining, so no question about the correctly aligned clusters.

    One more iitem about fragmentation: XP does auto-defragging provided that the Task Schedular Service is running. In that sense, it keeps fragmentation under some control. For me, it works fine and I very seldom manually defrag.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2005/07/18
    charlesvar,
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  6. 2005/07/19
    Nickynoo

    Nickynoo Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks for all the responses

    I think for the time being I'll continue with FAT32.
     
    Nickynoo,
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  7. 2005/07/19
    Top Dog

    Top Dog Inactive

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    Good idea to stay with Fat32 for 'smaller' partitions, in my opinion. I didn't research the potential problems before I used M$'s recomended "convert" program -->
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx
    to change a couple of 100MB fat32 partitions to NTFS. I ended up hosing the registry and had to ultimately reinstall ALL my M$ apps. I was concerned that the M$ product activations would give me problems but somewhat surprised that the 'automatic' internet activations still worked. (Must have been 3 months since I last made a bunch of hardware changes.) The NTFS partitions had much smaller clusters and thus recovered about 10% of the previously used fat32 space.
    I would recommend to all that you use PartitionMagic instead of M$ convert.exe if you consider changing fat32 to NTFS.

    Good Luck
    Top Dog
     
    Top Dog,
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  8. 2005/07/20
    Nickynoo

    Nickynoo Inactive Thread Starter

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    Im going stay with fat32 for the time being - I dont need extra problems in my life at the moment. However if I do decide to convert to ntfs I with follow all advice given.
     
    Nickynoo,
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