Question

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  • #2215335

    NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

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    by sunnyimran ·

    I simply have a dekstop with pentium D
    HDD 250 GB,

    I wish to partition it in a nice manner, such that i can keep one ( or two OS ), one of which would be XP PRO. and rest of partitions for my various types of data.

    having read lot about benefits of NTFS, I am still not clear what should be the choice for me?

    one ( or a few ) NTFS partitions for OS’s ?
    All partitions NTFS ?

    Half NTFS and half FAT32?

    I do’nt want to utilize file encryption (if) in NTFS

    in case of bad events of data corruption, are there good utilities to recover/ repair NTFS partitions?

    for FAT32 I know few utilities which directly boot a PC independent of OS and provide recovery/repair environment at very deep level, fat32 file system is easy to understand in those bad days.

    please suggest

All Answers

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    Replies
    • #2958698

      Clarifications

      by sunnyimran ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      Clarifications

    • #2958688

      re: NTFS or FAT32

      by thumbsup2 ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      For the WinXP, you’ll want to use NTFS for performance. However, you don’t want to format it before the install. Let the install do it. Just create the partitions and install it in the first one. After installation, and after you’ve got your anti-virus and all the XP updates/patches installed, let WinXP format the remaining partitions that you want to use for data, again using NTFS for performance. There are plenty of tools available to recover data off of an NTFS partition. Don’t format, or even assign a drive letter, any partition you wish to install other OS’s on.

      • #2440792

        Reponse To Answer

        by michal101 ·

        In reply to re: NTFS or FAT32

        Hey folk,,

        nobody wants to lost the data. But when during the conversion of file system means FAT to NTFS if it corrupts or data be lost then what happened.
        One must apply his logic to repair or get back his data. To get back the data you can use third party repair tool like Stellar Phoenix fat ntfs(http://www.stellarphoenixfatntfs.com) recovery tool. You can use it to recover or get back your file system or get back your loss data.

    • #2958681

      FAT32 Limitations

      by thechas ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      Well, I would make any partition for Windows XP be a NTFS volume.

      First of all, the Microsoft FDISK utility is limited to around 137 GB for a FAT32 volume. If you have the last update that Microsoft sent out for Windows 98.

      If you are formatting your drive with the Windows XP utility, you will be limited to 32 GB per each FAT32 logical drive. You will end up with at least 8 logical drives if you partition a 250 GB drive as FAT32 volumes.

      The only exception would be if you plan to dual boot Linux on this system. Then you need to research the file system for the version of Linux you plan to use.

      One final note: You do need XP Service Pack 1 or higher to have support for large hard drives.

      Chas

    • #2958680

      see here…

      by balge ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      hi
      check here for NTFS vs FAT32 –

      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463

      probably main consideration is partition size, max in FAT32 is 30GB (also max file size is 4GB)

      If you want to run another OS you need the file system to be compatible with that file system and partitioning system

      Most advanced repair software works with NTFS
      anyway

      I use one partition for Windows and programs and another for data
      cheers!

    • #2958544

      hello

      by nensi@nit ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      according my solution you have to take all NTFS partition

    • #2958534

      After

      by raraschek ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      years of using XP PRO, I suggest NTFS. The perfomance is better and you will have no problem with the HD size limit. I think there is no advantage to use FAT32 partition on a harddrive.

    • #2958528

      Choices

      by rob miners ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      You would only need Fat32 if you intended to install Win98 or ME. If that is the case you should install either of them first so that it is set first in the boot priority and on the first Primary Partition. XP will add its Boot files in there as well. Having said that I personally would be installing Win98 or ME into a Virtual Environment………
      If you have the XP or Vista DVD you can use DiskPart to build your Partitions and Format them.
      When setting up a Dual Boot multi Partition drive I use Diskpart to create two Primary Partitions and set the first one Active.
      I like to work in multiples of 4096 so multiply that by 6 or 8 and you have a Primary Partition of 24576 or 32768 depending on what you intend to install on the Primary Partition. The smaller the better as the read and write heads don’t have to travel so far.

      This is an example using DiskPart with a brand new untouched hard drive.
      using DiskPart. For example, from a command prompt, type in these commands and press Enter after each one.
      diskpart
      select disk 0
      clean
      create partition primary size=32768
      active

      Meanings:

      diskpart = runs the DiskPart program
      select disk 0 = selects the first Hard drive
      clean = erases the drive
      create partition primary size=32768 = creats the Primary Partition
      active = marks the Primary Partition as the Active Partition, Bootable

      Now you can format your partition by typing Format FS=Fat32 for Win98, FS=NTFS for XP

      To creat another Primary Partition follow the previous steps omitting a couple.

      diskpart
      select disk 0
      create partition primary size=?

      size=? = Get the calculator out and make your decisions

      Note: type EXIT to exit the diskpart session.

      Tip. To find out the physical size of the Drive to help your calculations type: list disk at the DiskPart command prompt.

      Read up on the documentation that comes with the software.

      Virtual PC 2007 Release Notes

      http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/4/c/44ccd131-67fb-4224-a96e-193be1765b43/relnotes.htm

      Download the full version of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=04D26402-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6&displaylang=en

    • #2958452

      FAT32 vs. NTFS – Depends on end use.

      by charles bundy ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      In your case if it’s just a vanilla desktop WinXP install go with NTFS. Several open source tools exist to work with NTFS file systems (NT Offline Password/Registry editor, SysRescue)

      FAT32 is typically faster than NTFS at the expense of security. Size wise FAT32 supports up to 2TB and some of my media recorders require FAT32 for streaming. I think the folks who are quoting GB limits on partitions might mean there are FDISK limitations on partition creation, not FAT32 limits. 🙂

      • #2958384

        After many replies….

        by sunnyimran ·

        In reply to FAT32 vs. NTFS – Depends on end use.

        First of all thanks to all you guys for peeking in,

        almost all choice go for NTFS here. I am convinced to use NTFS at least for system partition.

        be patient, a long story starts here >>>

        ========================
        previously
        ———–
        one of my PC in last 8 years is Intel P4 1.8Ghz,512MB RAM, two 80GB drives, normally with only winXP PRO, but sometimes install UBUNTU 8.2/MANDRAKE 9/…. on 2nd drive’s ( slave normally)

        it gives me freedom of ‘keeping two lions in separate cages’ ( winxp and ….) there food and messes also become separate

        when i need to taste ubuntu/…, i can easily swap drive 0 and 1 and make little changes, and it is there.

        due to FAT32 all partitions accessible in both situations. I know NTFS is also accessible in LINUX, but LINUX partitions not in XP

        black outs (sometimes) while this system is running XP,on the next boot i always face SCANDISK

        which i never skip, let it work and boot to normal XP again.

        sometimes system fails to boot due to corruption in drive bot areas r registry corrupt, i have various tools to peek in depth ( if neccessary) FAT32
        repair MBR, boot sector, registry, ..and everything is back to normal

        I usually keep some recent work in my XP desktop ( temporarily), if system does’nt boot properly, i have tools to access my desktop outside XP and collect my things.
        ========================

        =======================
        NOW

        on my DELL OPTIPLEX 745, intel P-D 3.0 GHz presler, 1GB RAM, Q965 chipset, …..

        250GB HDD
        ======================

        —please shed some light now ————–>

        I did’nt get two 120GB drives, unlike before, due to price difference much higher in two 120GB then one 250GB.
        I would use new OS choices on this DELL, win 7 , win Vista, UBUNTU but initially XP.

        1- few LARGE parttitions are better ——–OR——– more small partiotns in this case?
        ( currently: one whole primary NTFS partition shows 232GB in winxp on 250GB drive,thinking of roughly 15 partitions of 15 GB each, first two partitions for two OS’s )

        2- Pentium-D is 64bit CPU, so putting winXP 64-bit would be and advantage?

        3- NTFS has more disk accesses than FAT 32?
        (when you access many files in bulk, e.g. aggressive search in whole HDD, NTFS updates its logs too often unlike FAT32.)

        4- does NTFS has some tolerance for HDD corruption on frequent black outs and power fails while system is running ?

        Well thanks for reading this far

        mdimran1

        • #2958382

          NTFS Does not corrupt easily

          by slayer_ ·

          In reply to After many replies….

          NTFS does not write data until it is ready, it won’t start writing and wait for a process, thus locking a file open for an extended time. It will gather all information then in one motion write it.

        • #2758259

          OS Partitions

          by thechas ·

          In reply to After many replies….

          IMHO, 15 GB is too small for an OS partition. I would seriously consider going with 64GB or so for each OS.

          But, if you normally end up with 5 GB or so of free space on a 15GB OS partition, it could work.

          Keep in mind that at least for the OS partition, Windows does need to have a minimum of 4 GB of free space or 20% of the hard drive if the drive is larger than 20GB.

          If you want to be able to do a good post mortum when Windows crashes, your page file or virtual memory on the boot drive MUST be at least as large as physical memory.

          For partitions under 20 GB, I would say the choice is yours for NTFS versus FAT32. You know how you plan to use the drive and what works for that usage.

          As to the 64 bit version of XP. Unless you have 64 bit software that you need to run, I would stick with the 32 bit version.

          I usually find that system crashes are related to running out of memory. Real or virtual. If your OS partition is too small, you may not have enough virtual memory space. Also if you install and uninstall application software a lot, you can create memory leaks.

          Chas

    • #2957178

      RE: After many replies

      by rob miners ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      1- You will end up getting lost with 15 Partitions. I would personally purchase a Hard drive for each Operating System and use a Bootloader to switch between them or Use a Virtual Environment.
      You can have four Primary Partitions.
      By replacing one of the four primary partitions with an extended partition, you can then make an additional 24 logical partitions within the extended one. The table below illustrates this.

      Partition Table
      Primary Partition #1
      Primary Partition #2
      Primary Partition #3
      Primary Partition #4 (Extended Partition)
      Logical Partition #1
      Logical Partition #2 and so on…

      2- Source your software that you will be using before going down this track. There is no sense installing 64bit if you can’t find anything to run.

      3- NTFS file system provides for greatly increased security, file?by?file compression, quotas, and even encryption. Another good reason to choose NTFS over FAT 32 is the stability of the file system. NTFS handles space management much more efficiently than FAT32. Cluster sizes play an important part in how much disk space is wasted storing files. NTFS provides smaller cluster sizes and less disk space waste than FAT32.

      4- Any Operating system on any Hard drive can suffer from a sudden power outage. The answer to that is to use an (UPS) Uninteruptable Power Supply.

      Keep us informed as to your progress if you require further assistance. 😉 😀


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    • #2756763

      NTFS Imaging?

      by sunnyimran ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      Well having had much discussed on NTFS,

      Please suggest some good imaging softwares which works on NTFS

      I am used to GHOST for CREATE <----> RESTORE bootable images of Windows OS with FAT32.

      THANKS

    • #2756498

      NTFS

      by oz_media ·

      In reply to NTFS or FAT what should be the choice?

      Anything from Win2K onward, your best bet is NTFS. FAT is far to limited, I didn’t think anyone still used FAT partitions.

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