Ntfs/fat32

[HarryW]

I'm gonna be installing Win2k as a primary OS for a system. I might want to be able to view the file system using other OSes at some point in the future.

Is there a significant performance difference between NTFS and FAT32 under Win2k?

[peet]

MSDN

Overview of Windows 2000 File Systems
The file system you use with Windows 2000 determines which of the operating system's advanced features are available to you. To use a Windows 2000-based computer to startup in Microsoft® MS-DOS®, Microsoft® Windows® 3.x, or Microsoft® Windows® 95, use FAT16. For a multiple-boot configuration with Microsoft® Windows® 95 OSR2 or Microsoft® Windows® 98 using very large volumes, you might want to use FAT32. If you are concerned with disk security, performance, and efficiency, you might choose NTFS.

[peet]

havent been able to find any "performance comparison report though"

hard to tell how much difference there would be.

[chrisjk]

NTFS is more robust but for small partitions (say under 10GB) it is slower and requires more space than FAT32.

[Iain17]

http://people.msoe.edu/~barnicks/cou...rm%20Paper.pdf

NTFS actually offers better performance on Drives over 400mb, which is everything these days. I would personally go for NTFS, but if you need to have a dual boot, or have networked PCs read the drives as well, FAT32 might be better.

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by Iain17
NTFS actually offers better performance on Drives over 400mb,

really, that small? Didn't know that

[HarryW]

Hey, my title was all-caps and vBulletin changed it. Ah well.

Maybe I'll make an NTFS partition for the OS, applications and swap file, and stick all my data on a FAT32 partition.

[chrisjk]

take a butchers

http://people.msoe.edu/~barnicks/cou...rm%20Paper.pdf

[Gandalf_Grey_]

go for NTFS

[HarryW]

Thanks for the link, Chris.

[JoshT]

NTFS is also a journaled file system (think the way an SQL DB uses transactions), and supports security. Its worth it just to be able to set user permissions on a file by file basis.

[thinktank2]

Harry Said

"I might want to be able to view the file system using other OSes at some point in the future. "

So if the other OS is Windows 98,Linux etc.. You must have to use FAT32 because they can't see a NTFS File System.

The NTFS driver for Linux is slightly buggy and I won't count on it.
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/status.html

[JungleMan]

One problem with NTFS. If your Windows install screws over, you are royally ****ed, since you have to nuke the ENTIRE partition, deleting everything on it, recreate it, reformat it, and reinstall.

[thinktank2]

If you want a recovery option there is always ....

NTFSDOS (Read only access)

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr.../NTFSDOS.shtml

which helped me to get back important files stuck up in a ruined NTFS partition. I just copied this program to my dos boot disk, booted from it and copied all the files in the NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition.

[JoshT]

Yeah, I've used that too. Works great.

And couldn't you have one partition NTFS, another FAT32, another ext3, etc.