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NTFS or FAT

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7 replies

by lhpgauthier

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Partitioning 40 gig hdd , Windows XP home ed. Should I consider switching to FAT 32 ?
I'm the only user, ( security is not my main concern )

7 replies

by true_texan

This is only my opinion, but if you're the only user, I'd say yes to FAT32. NTFS has some wonderful built in security features, but if your not going to use them, FAT32 would probably be a more efficient file system. I personally don't care for NTFS other than the security features. It seems to fragment much more rapidly than FAT32.

Hope this helps!

by tjc

NTFS won't hurt, except if you have any old drive repair programs like an old version of Norton, which may not work right on ntfs, so if you are really thinking or reasons check your utility software and see if they can all do ntfs, if they don't then, if you don't want to upgrade them, you have your reason not to go ntfs.

by thechas

Aside from security and file efficiency, you need to ask yourself do you want backwards compatability to Windows 9X.

If yes, you must use FAT32.
If no, it is your choice.

Keep in mind FAT 32 has a lower capacity limit than NTSF. So your nextdrive may be too big for FAT 32 anyway.

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