NTFS vs. FAT

[mohs...@gmail.com]

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=== NTFS vs. FAT ===
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To NTFS or not to NTFS-that is the question. But unlike the
deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to
answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice.
It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the
other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files
systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially
three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for
File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

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FAT16
========
The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS-DOS in
1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle
files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years
so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the
original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common
denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible
across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me,
OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is
that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as
hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get
larger. In a 2-GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning
that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of
space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced
security using access control lists.

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FAT32
========
The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service
Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system
that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As
such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to
a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations
of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation-many operating
systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32-most
notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a
problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing
your drive out to other computers on your network-they don't need to
know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system
is.

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The Advantages of NTFS
========================
The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows
NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for
greatly increased security, file-by-file compression, quotas, and
even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of
Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of
Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file
systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP
and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert
FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you
can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or
partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other
operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available
when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many
system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users
format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard
disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency
recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a
mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But
with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on
that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to
create that initial FAT partition.

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When to Use FAT or FAT32
===========================
If you're running more than one operating system on a
single computer, you will definitely need to format some of your
volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more
than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16
or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security
for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume-any one with access to the
computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a
FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a
network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions
formatted with FAT file systems.
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