Re: FAT32 vs. NTFS

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

For 30 and 40 gigabyte multi-partition hard drives, is there any advantage to
using FAT32 vs. NTFS?

The system or boot partition at least should be
FAT32 for future troubleshooting purposes. This
type of sophisticated worm attack for instance:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125798,00.asp
would be much easier to deal with in FAT32 by
booting to a genuine DOS prompt than with NTFS.
You would need a much more complicated boot
CD -- Bart's PE or Linux -- to access the NTFS
hard drive for recovery (although I usually find it
easier to just remove the infected hard drive and
temporarily attach it to another system.)

-BC

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: NTFS and Dos
    ... You know much more about fixing FAT32 than I do. ... write to an NTFS file system. ... >Several utilities and tools can see Long File Names from DOS or DOS ... Three types of LFN support: ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: NTFS and Dos
    ... You know much more about fixing FAT32 than I do. ... write to an NTFS file system. ... >Several utilities and tools can see Long File Names from DOS or DOS ... Three types of LFN support: ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: File Searching, how to speed it up?
    ... If you have more data than FAT32 can hold, use ntfs with a larger cluster ... If the average disk queue length goes over 2 it does terrible things ... Nested, 120 files per folder, 60 of those folders for each parent ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.performance)
  • Re: convert external drive?
    ... >> and D: (NTFS) drives. ... Right now, everything is FAT32, and the external drive is ... So unless you have some special need for a FAT32 partition on your ... All, or virtually all, commercially-available USB external hard drives ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: FAT32 or NTFS on an external USB disk drive???
    ... Converting to NTFS is definitely better - but for those who don't play around ... with computers that much, it may be better to leave it as FAT32. ... FAT & NTFS File Systems in Windows XP ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)