NTFS Vs. FAT32

When you want to choose a file system to use on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server2008, Windows 7 can be a difficult task. It is not just a one time decision, hence proper research will have to go into it. There are different factors, which will have to be taken into consideration. Whatever method you adopt, you will always face the NTFS vs. FAT32 dilemma. Whether you upgrade your current installation, or you go in for a new file system, you will have to make this decision early in the process. Later, if you decide to add a drive or repartition an existing drive, you will face the FAT32 vs. NTFS issue all over again.

FAT32 Vs. NTFS

It is commonly seen that, when file system is discussed, only FAT32 and NTFS are considered. However, there is a third option, which is FAT, which also exists. It is true, that FAT32 and NTFS make for the primary choices, but there are times, when a need for FAT volume can arise. The maximum size of FAT volume is 2GB and it supports MS-DOS. It can be used for some dual-boot configurations. However, it is the backward compatibility, due to which the question of its usage arises, other than for floppy diskette. Now that we have seen the shortcomings of FAT volume, we will compare NTFS and FAT32. There are different situations and needs, which will come into play, when we talk about NTFS vs. FAT32. We will take into considerations some of the factors, which will help us to understand the difference between NTFS and FAT32 better.

Security
This is one of the most important point in the NTFS and FAT32 difference. There is very little security in FAT32 file system. If a user has access to a drive, that uses FAT32, then he also has access to all the files on that drive. On the other hand, the NTFS file system has NTFS permissions. It is seldom easy to implement it, but access to folder and files can be controlled individually, even to the extreme degree, when necessary. However, there is a disadvantage of the NTFS permissions. The chance for error and ruining the system is greatly magnified.

Compatibility
There are compatibility issues with NTFS volumes. The NTFS volumes are not recognized by Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME. This becomes a major concern, when the system is set for multi-booting or dual booting. It is necessary that FAT32 is used for any drives, which need to be accessed, when the computer is booted from Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME. Conversion of FAT and FAT32 to NTFS volumes is possible, however NTFS cannot be converted to FAT32 without reformatting.

Space Efficiency
The beauty of NTFS is that, it supports disk quotas, allowing you to control the amount of disk usage for every user. NTFS supports file compression, whereas FAT32 does not. Space management is more efficiently done on NTFS as compared to FAT32. Cluster size has an important role to play in how much disk space is wasted in storing files. Smaller cluster sizes and less disk space is wasted in NTFS as compared FAT32.

Reliability
FAT32 file system are more susceptible to disk errors. In case of errors, NTFS volumes retain the ability to recover from errors, as opposed to similar FAT32 volumes. Log files are created under NTFS, that are used for automatic repair of the file system. Another benefit of NTFS is that it supports dynamic cluster remapping for bad sectors and also prevents these bad clusters from being used in the future.

After having read about NTFS and FAT32, you will have to decide on any one of them, depending on which of the two is well suited to your working condition. An alternative will be to have both the file systems for multi-booting.