Comparison between NTFS and FAT

NTFS Default File system In Windows XP, 2k and NT Support For Drives over 40gb, Files over GB Allows extended file names, foreign characters

FAT 16/32 Fat 16 not compatible with XP, FAT is more compatible with other operating Systems( Windows 95, etc)

FAT 16 has 8.3 character limitation Has better, more and interactive recovery utilities (scandisk)

Has a severely crippled maintenance system in chkdsk

Chkdsk is notoriously slow Increased security with file encryption Smaller file clusters, 4kb Compression to reduce disk space User permissions for files and folders File copies are undone if interrupted, cluster chains is cleaned

Scandisk is very quick Just a space for the OS to read files Faster on drives less than 10gb FAT 16 cluster size is 32kb Cluster chains containing data from interrupted copies are marked as damaged

Master File Table are separate from files

Small files are kept in Master File Table at the beginning of the drive

Not compatible with different operating systems on the same computer

Some Random Facts

Fat 16 was developed in 1981 for dos Fat 16 was designed to handle floppies Fat 32 is an extension of Fat 16 Fat 32 introduced in service pack 2 of Windows 95 Operating systems may recognize Fat16, but not Fat 32 (Win NT)

You can go from FAT to NTFS but not the other way around FAT = File Allocation Table NTFS = New Technology File System For files above 4gb, and hard disks above 32gb, go for NTFS For smaller drives, files and better recovery tools go for FAT But why not go for both, which is the best option in my opinion. Set aside some FAT so that you can run recovery tools, especially scandisk, so that you have something usable when things go awry, instead of the awful Windows System Tools.

Then set the rest to NTFS so that you have better security on personal files, support for large files and drive.

More Detailed Comparison Criteria Operating System NTFS5 Windows 2000 Windows XP NTFS Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP Limitations 2TB Nearly Unlimited Limit Only by Volume Size Nearly Unlimited Up to 255 FAT32 Windows 98 Windows ME Windows 2000 Windows XP 2TB Nearly Unlimited 4GB 268435456 Up to 255 FAT16 DOS All versions of Microsoft Windows 2GB ~65000 2GB 65535 Standard - 8.3 Extended - up to 255 System Character Set

Max Volume Size 2TB Max Files on Volume Nearly Unlimited Limit Only by Max File Size Volume Size Max Clusters Nearly Unlimited Number Max File Name Up to 255 Length

File System Features Unicode Character Unicode Character System Character Unicode File Names Set Set Set

System Records Mirror Boot Sector Location File Attributes Alternate Streams Compression Encryption Object Permissions Disk Quotas Sparse Files Reparse Points Volume Mount Points Built-In Security Recoverability Performance Disk Space Economy Fault Tolerance

MFT Mirror File First and Last Sectors Standard and Custom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Low on small volumes High on Large Max Max

MFT Mirror File First and Last Sectors Standard and Custom Yes Yes No Yes No No No No

Second Copy of FAT First Sector Standard Set No No No No No No No No

Second Copy of FAT First Sector Standard Set No No No No No No No No No No Highest on small volumes Low on large Minimal on large volumes Average

Overall Performance Yes No Yes No Low on small High on small volumes volumes High on Large Low on large Max Max Average Minimal