At the moment of installation of Windows XP I fond FAT and NTFS system, normally I use the FAT system but I need to know what is the difference between FAT & NTFS so that I can select and use suitable one.
I expect to know the above form experienced person.
FAT is the abbreviation of the File Allocation table, it is used on Windows 3. X, FAT being 16 bit and FAT32 32 bit are two different types of file systems. FAT system has some limitations as it can only handle hard drive partitions up to 2 GB and file name is limited to 11 characters. But it was enhanced to 255 character names and much larger disk partitions after the introduction of the FAT 32 file system, an upgrade to FAT.
NTFSÂ is known as a standard file system for windows NT, and later versions of Windows XP, vista etc. This system is an improved one as compared to FAT such as reliability, disk space utilization etc.
New operating systems support NTFS and run better with NTFS as compared to FAT. So it is recommended to use NTFS.
FAT gets its name from the use of a kind of database called a File Allocation Table that contains an entry for each cluster on the disk.
NTFSÂ (New Technology File System) is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions.
It is a hard decision while installing O.S but I will prefer NTFS reason being the properties that follow. This will guide you more.
Comparisons:
Security:
FAT32 provides very little security. A user with access to a drive using FAT32 has access to the files on that drive.
NTFS allows the use of NTFS Permissions. It's much more difficult to implement, but the folder and file access can be controlled individually, down to an extreme degree if necessary.
Space Efficiency:
NTFS support disk quotas, allowing you to control the amount of disk usage on a per user basis.
NTFS supports file compression. FAT32 does not.
Compatibility:
FAT and FAT32 volumes can be converted to NTFS volumes. NTFS cannot be converted to FAT32 without reformatting.
Reliability:
FAT32Â drives are much more susceptible to disk errors.
NTFS volumes have the ability to recover from errors more readily than similar FAT32 volumes.
