FAT or NTFS or WinFS

[cyclonmaster]

Hi guys, which file system would you like to use in your computer? Is it FAT, NTFS or the new WinFS? Well, I'm using FAT right now

[FrostyTheSnowman]

NTFS for my Windows XP Professional, and ReiserFS for my SuSE Linux 10.

BTW, you should've also added Ext2, and ReiserFS to your list.

[KillerShots]

I use UFS (FreeBSD server), NTFS (WinXP), Ext3 (Gentoo desktop), ReiserFS (Gentoo desktop code partition), and FAT32 (external hard drive). It will likely be quite a while (if ever) before I switch to WinFS (though I'll grant that from a technology point of view it's greatly superior to NTFS... just not as good as ext3 or reiser or UFS).

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by FrostyTheSnowman

BTW, you should've also added Ext2, and ReiserFS to your list.

@poller: Should have specified FAT32. Consider a conversion to NTFS. Many partitionning tools allow conversion without formats.

ext3, better than ext2.
Reiser4 is more recent than ReiserFS, allows journalling.

[darth sephiroth]

I think he means for your average winXP computer. I doubt winXP supports anything else than fat/ntfs (and maby winFS, if some security update adds support) (these are a.k.a. Microsoft formats).

[Hard core Rikki]

I think he means for your average winXP computer. I doubt winXP supports anything else than fat/ntfs (and maby winFS, if some security update adds support) (these are a.k.a. Microsoft formats).

Fear not, I could tell from his first post.

For Windows, he could've added StorNext FS (great/fast for large networks, reduces need to make duplicate copies of files). There's also SFS and CXFS.
All of those are very adapted for SAN-attached computers, companies and schools. All work with Windows/Linux/MacOS...

In case he's looking into a more serious comparison between those, look HERE. And in case you deal with BIG files, or do media editiong like AMVs, NTFS will be the only way.

What file system is more efficient, FAT32 or NT file system(NTFS)?

NTFS or FAT32 ?

The decision isn't really all that difficult and here's why. If you're using the latest Windows operating systems (Windows 2000, Windows XP), use NTFS. Here are just some of the qualities of NTFS that FAT32 and FAT16 lack:

File security: Access rights can be assigned to files and directories, allowing users full access, partial access or no access at all to data on the hard disk.

Encryption: NTFS can automatically encrypt and decrypt file data as it is read and written to the disk

Disk compression (very important,activating it is likely to give you significantly more available disk space): File and directory compression can be performed without using any third party software, which saves space, while still allowing for transparent access and operation to the user.

Support for large hard disks: We're talking very large. Try a theoretical limit of 16 Exabytes, and up to 2 Terabytes.

File names: Native support of long file names and a 16-bit character standard called Unicode :guitar:

Storage quotas: Disk quotas can be assigned that limit the amount of disk space users can access on a partition.

Sparse files: Let the user assign and reserve hard disk space to specific files.

File streams: Support for multiple data streams. Kaspersky uses ADS for security.

Fault tolerance (most important): An enhanced ability to seamlessly respond to unexpected hardware and software errors.

- If you want to make the computer a multi-boot system, you might want to consider FAT32, but you don't have to go with it.

- If you're concerned about being able to see files across partitions, you should make the shared partitions FAT32.

For more details about the difference between NTFS and Fat32, you could read these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q100108
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q314463

A long post indeed :guitar:

[darth sephiroth]

Oh well, i've made my decision. I just remembered how older windows never got patches/service packs to support NTFS which seriously screwed things over. And i love my older games, and since programs like dosbox/vdmsound are slower in emulating than pcsx2 i'm installing win98 again next time i completely format everything.

[Betamax]

Erm Correct me if I'm wrong here, but last I heard winfs had been effectively cancelled.

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by Betamax

Erm Correct me if I'm wrong here, but last I heard winfs had been effectively cancelled.

Still on the road. But because of the christmas deadline, they decided to slip it into Vista as an upgrade (SP1 probably). It will be made available for XP too, of course as soon as it is 'ready to ship'.

[darth sephiroth]

Yeah but you'll probably have to buy an entirely new copy (hundreds of dollars worth) just to get it... definately not worth it

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by darth sephiroth

you'll probably have to buy an entirely new copy (hundreds of dollars worth) just to get it... definately not worth it

Indeed, they're likely to do it EA style, charging people more for what they've been expecting all along in the original product. Hell, they're already charging for betas of Office!! Betas!!

[Quatro]

NTFS for me...

[Shendo]

NTFS here, stopped using FAT long ago.

[refraction]

Originally Posted by Shendo

NTFS here, stopped using FAT long ago.

im with him on that one, i thought FAT was the bee's knees (oh how little i knew) then i got NTFS and i got rid of the need for regular scandisks to correct errors and truncated files, cross references etc.

[darth sephiroth]

Yeah i've thought a little more about it. I'l partition my old harddrive back into one single piece (80gb) and make it FAT (100% lard ), and keep win98 and old games on it (none of 'em will consume too much disk space ). then the other ntfs.

btw, what does FAT/NTFS mean? I'm guessing:
FAT = Forever Almighty Trouble
NTFS = NinTendo File System.

[Hard core Rikki]

File Allocation Table
New Technology File System

or loosely:

Never Tested File System
Not Trusted For Servers
Not This File System...
Not Too F***ing Secure

Frustrated, Angry, and Tired
Fabulous And Trendy

[darth sephiroth]

Hehe, more
NTFS:
New Terrorist Fall-out Shelter
Not that freaking song!!!

FAT:
Fat And Tiresome

[Esturk]

WinFS isn't even finished yet and shouldn't be an option.. But for now, I use NTFS because I see no reason to use anything else on an NT based computer.

[Nameless]

definately NTFS but if you have to use macs then external drives and shared partitions need to be NTFS. a program called MacDrive that enables macs to write to NTFS drives IIRC.