NTFS vs FAT32

P

p.strommen

New Member
Hi there,

I just bought a WD Elements, 1TB external drive and I have some questions. It hasn't arrived in the mail yet, but as far as I've understood, it comes formatted as FAT32. After being a loyal PC user for well over a decade, I just changed to using Mac. I try to use OSX as much as possible, but I'm using windows with bootcamp in order to play games. The main reason for buying this drive, is to collect everything I had on my old computer (spread over about 6 HDs) on to one disk.

So my question is, is there some major advantage to using NTFS over FAT32? I heard its more reliable and you're less likely to lose clusters, but FAT32 can be read by both windows and OSX. I'd really like this, since most of my friends use Windows, and its very convenient to get stuff from them by just plugging the drive into their comps.. Obviously I can't do this easily with the OSX format, and on the other hand OSX doesn't read NTFS.

Any thoughts?

(PS: I apologize if a similar thread has been done before. I was unable to find one)
 
I believe FAT slows down when the partition goes bigger in size. I could be wrong though.
 
FAT32 partitions takes too few items for all the space it requires, if I'm right. If you're talking OS, I've read that Windows NT and below use FAT32. I can't say I know much about OSX, so I can't help there. But from what I've read, there really isn't a reason to format a hard drive to FAT32 besides using an OS that "requires" FAT32.

Why not format one partition to NTFS and another FAT32?
 
NTFS is a better file system, but the available maintenance tools and options suck.

Either choice, you will win some and lose some.

Detail

FATxx is an old file system that is simple, well-documented, readable from a large number of OSs, and supported by a wide range of tools.

NTFS is a newer file system that is feature-rich, proprietary, undocumented at the raw bytes level, and subject to change - even within Service Packs of the same OS version.

Keeping NTFS proprietary allows Microsoft to root NT's security features deep within the file system itself, but it does cast doubts about the reliability and version-compatibility of third-party support. Without an official maintenance OS from Microsoft, one is forced to look to 3rd-party solutions, and the high stakes involved make FUD about accuracy of NTFS support a serious issue.

You are obliged to use FATxx if you need access from DOS mode or Win9x, e.g. in a dual-boot scenario.

You are obliged to use NTFS if you need support for files over 4G in size, hard drives over 137G in size, and/or you need to implement some of NT's security management that devolves down to NTFS.

Else, weigh up the pros and cons, and remember you can use multiple volumes, with different file systems for each. Even FAT16 has niche strengths (small FAT, large cluster size, easier data recovery) that may make it attractive for certain types of content.

More detail

NTFS may be faster...
- smaller RAM footprint as avoids large FAT held in RAM
- indexed design more efficient for many files per directory
- small file data embedded in dir level, avoids seek to data chain
- above factors make fragmentation less onerous than for FATxx
- 4k cluster size matches processor's natural paging size
...or slower...
- extra overhead of security checks, compression, encryption
- small clusters may fragment data cluster chains

NTFS may be safer...
- transaction rollback cleanly undoes interrupted operations
- file-level permissions can protect data against malware etc.
- automatically "fixes" failing clusters on the fly (controversial)
...or more at risk...
- no interactive file system checker (a la Scandisk) for NTFS
- no maintenance OS for NTFS
- malware can drill right through NTFS protection, e.g. Witty
- transaction rollback does not preserve user data
- transaction rollback does not help other causes of corruption
- more limited range of maintenance tools
- automatically "fixes" failing clusters on the fly (controversial)

NTFS may be more space-efficient...
- smaller cluster size than FAT32 above 8G
- may include data of small files within the directory level
- NTFS's bitmap structure is smaller than FAT32's dual FAT
- sparse files and compression can reduce data space usage
...or less so...
- NTFS has large MFT structure
- larger per-file directory metadata space

I would use NTFS where:

Users have professional-grade IT admin, including backup
Users need to hide data more than they need to salvage it
Applications require files over 4G in size
Hard drive exceeds the 137G barrier
But while NTFS has no maintenance OS from which...

Data can easily be recovered
File system structure can be manually checked and repaired
Malware can be scanned for and cleaned
...I would avoid the use of NTFS in consumer PCs.

i think you have your answer
 
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