I am new to Ext hard drives and just purchased a WD 250 GB portable drive which uses FAT32. I am not too familiar with the differences between FAT32 and NTFS but I think that I remember reading where NTFS is better. I am going to use this to backup 20GB of photos, music and maybe 10 GB of documents. Do I need to convert to NTFS? What are the differences/advantages of the two. Thank you in advance!
Should I convert from FAT32 to NTFS?
- Thread starter Smudge
- Start date
Is this the only drawback to FAT32? All of the photos on one of my computers is 10GB. However, I have them broken down into sub folders which are about 2GB. With the current setup (FAT32) I will not be able to backup the entire folder with 10GB at once and will have to backup individual 2GB folders??? Supposing I have a file that is 5GB can I even divide it so that I can get it on this drive? Also, I do not know if this matters, but I will be using this Ext HD on a computer running Vista and one running XP Media Edition.
I do not use Mac so should I convert, and if so how is this done? Thanks
Last edited:
Vipernitrox
New Member
he's talking about files. The size of folders don't matter it's the files inside of them.
Differences:
Fat 32 can only hold files smaller than 4.2 gb, it's older than ntfs. NTFS is also more secure, you can set more rights and permissions on it, regular users don't really need it. It's more used in enterprise environments. Fat 32 is also a faster than ntfs when handling alot of small different files (you won't really notice that much).
So if you're entirely sure you'll never use a file larger then 4.2 gb take fat32. Otherwise take ntfs.
Differences:
Fat 32 can only hold files smaller than 4.2 gb, it's older than ntfs. NTFS is also more secure, you can set more rights and permissions on it, regular users don't really need it. It's more used in enterprise environments. Fat 32 is also a faster than ntfs when handling alot of small different files (you won't really notice that much).
So if you're entirely sure you'll never use a file larger then 4.2 gb take fat32. Otherwise take ntfs.
Bob Jeffery
New Member
how much faster is fat32????
spikebuck77
New Member
Is your computers partition NTFS or FAT32? I recommend using the same.
Computer HD is NTFS. So then how should I proceed in converting from FAT32 to NTFS? Thanks
Vipernitrox
New Member
has nog effect on what you should be using as file system.
Just make it ntfs and you'll never have an problem.
tlarkin
VIP Member
Use NTFS, FAT32 is crap.
Manauffeuer
New Member
to convert it just plug in the drive right click it and go to format and on the window you'll see a line that says fat 32 ect then click the down arrow and go to NTFS and click format then wait like an hour an there load your files