NTFS or Fat32 which is right?

"JS" @ wrote in message ...

"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in
size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says "File
System: FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and
click "Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti


Most external USB drives come pre-formatted as exFAT
which is a newer version of FAT32.

Not true, I have recently purchase both a 1TB & a 1.5TB drive (both Seagate)
and they both came formatted in NTFS.
Regards Mike.

When you talk about the "security" of a removable drive, you are not considering it's
most valuable attribute - that it IS removable and therefore *could* be used to
transport files to other systems.

Once formatted NTFS, the drive loses it's near universal compatibility with other
hardware...

Consideration is the issue here. What will the drive be primarily used for?

If it will only be used as a backup drive for the system it is connected to - then -
by all means format to NTFS

However, if you have any thought of slipping the drive into your pocket to share all
those holiday snaps and videos with your colleagues at work or with your elderly
aunt - think again before changing from FAT32

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"philo" wrote in message
...

"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says "File System:
FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and click
"Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti



You were presented with the option to format the drive as NTFS

I'd do so

XP was designed not to allow you to format a partition as fat32 any larger then 32
gigs...
it's a totally artificial limit imposed by Microsoft.

However...due to the poor cluster size (wasted space) and inferior fault tolerance
and security (as opposed to NTFS) I would *not* leave the drive as fat32

When you talk about the "security" of a removable drive, you are not considering it's
most valuable attribute - that it IS removable and therefore *could* be used to
transport files to other systems.

Once formatted NTFS, the drive loses it's near universal compatibility with other
hardware...

Consideration is the issue here. What will the drive be primarily used for?

If it will only be used as a backup drive for the system it is connected to - then -
by all means format to NTFS

However, if you have any thought of slipping the drive into your pocket to share all
those holiday snaps and videos with your colleagues at work or with your elderly
aunt - think again before changing from FAT32

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"philo" wrote in message
...

"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says "File System:
FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and click
"Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti



You were presented with the option to format the drive as NTFS

I'd do so

XP was designed not to allow you to format a partition as fat32 any larger then 32
gigs...
it's a totally artificial limit imposed by Microsoft.

However...due to the poor cluster size (wasted space) and inferior fault tolerance
and security (as opposed to NTFS) I would *not* leave the drive as fat32

"Mike" wrote in message
...
"JS" @ wrote in message ...

"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in
size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says
"File System: FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and
click "Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti


Most external USB drives come pre-formatted as exFAT
which is a newer version of FAT32.

Not true, I have recently purchase both a 1TB & a 1.5TB drive (both
Seagate) and they both came formatted in NTFS.
Regards Mike.



Mike, I said "Most" and not "All".

My 1TB external drive was original formatted FAT32.
I changed it to a combination of several NTFS partitions and one 32GB FAT32
partition.

Why multiple NTFS partition:
Well I use it to Image backup multiple computers,
so each PC has it's own dedicated partition to store the image files.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

"Mike" wrote in message
...
"JS" @ wrote in message ...

"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in
size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says
"File System: FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and
click "Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti


Most external USB drives come pre-formatted as exFAT
which is a newer version of FAT32.

Not true, I have recently purchase both a 1TB & a 1.5TB drive (both
Seagate) and they both came formatted in NTFS.
Regards Mike.



Mike, I said "Most" and not "All".

My 1TB external drive was original formatted FAT32.
I changed it to a combination of several NTFS partitions and one 32GB FAT32
partition.

Why multiple NTFS partition:
Well I use it to Image backup multiple computers,
so each PC has it's own dedicated partition to store the image files.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
...
Patti,
If you KNOW that the two reasons that you cite are going to be the
ONLY functions this drive will be needed for - then, you could format it
as NTFS (saving you from getting any third-party software)

All this would mean that you would not be able to take it to a friend's
house and share stuff on it - if their PC was running old Win98 (an
increasingly rare situation).

But you would be fine transferring files from any NT-based system (like
XP) to another - PROVIDING THAT : - straight AFTER formatting (while the
drive is still blank) right-click in explorer and select "Properties"
"Security" and give the user "Everyone" "Full Control"

Tim, when you say "right-click on explorer" , where do you mean?

You may need to create the user "Everyone" by clicking on the "Add" button
and entering the user-name "Everyone" - then chackmark the box marked
"Full Control".

Setting the security "permissions" in the "root" of an empty drive -
ensures that all sub-folders and files carry the same level of security.

The two sentences above, over my head. I have never set up a admistrator
accourt or
user names. I have looked at Computer Management but still confused. I am
afraid of
locking myself out of external hard drive if I need it in case of current
computer disk
failure or use it on another computer.
Patti



==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Thank you Tim and all the others who answered my plea.
Formatting my external hard disk in NTFS has been puzzling me for exactly
the reason you site. The reason for purchasing the external hard disk was
to avoid losing all my data, emails, etc. in case of a complete computer
failure as had happened to me recently. Also, I had hoped to be able to
put this copy of my computer's hard disk on a new computer, should I need
one.

So from what you say it would be more sensible to keep the external disk
in AT32? -The instruction manual says "FAT32 is possible up to 2TB. In
Windows XP, you can format a FAT 32 volume up to 32GB only. Does not
support domains." However, I already have 71GB on my computer so it
sounds like FAT 32 would not handle this size?

Note - I just read Ken Blake "Sorry, that's not correct. It's true that
Windows XP can not create a
FAT32 partition greater than 32GB, but external utilities can, and
Windows XP can use such partitions just fine."

Patti

"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
...
There is a reason why removable drives are nearly always formatted FAT -
because one
of the big advantages of a removable drive is that you can remove it!!

Having it kept formatted as FAT, you would be able to connect it to
nearly any other
PC which would be able to identify and browse it's contents. It's
compatibility with
other computers would be virtually universal.

This would include PCs with other operating systems like Win98 or
LINUX-based and
MACs as well.

If you changed it's format to NTFS and did not set file and folder
permissions to
include "Everyone" as read-only - then your removable drive would only
be accessible
on your own machine (and possibly other NT-based OSs under
'Administrator')

Plus, if you need to gain access to your backup after your own PC has
permanently broken, then you may well find, again, you have problems
"seeing" the drive when connected to in another computer...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in
size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says
"File System: FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and
click "Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti

"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
...
Patti,
If you KNOW that the two reasons that you cite are going to be the
ONLY functions this drive will be needed for - then, you could format it
as NTFS (saving you from getting any third-party software)

All this would mean that you would not be able to take it to a friend's
house and share stuff on it - if their PC was running old Win98 (an
increasingly rare situation).

But you would be fine transferring files from any NT-based system (like
XP) to another - PROVIDING THAT : - straight AFTER formatting (while the
drive is still blank) right-click in explorer and select "Properties"
"Security" and give the user "Everyone" "Full Control"

Tim, when you say "right-click on explorer" , where do you mean?

You may need to create the user "Everyone" by clicking on the "Add" button
and entering the user-name "Everyone" - then chackmark the box marked
"Full Control".

Setting the security "permissions" in the "root" of an empty drive -
ensures that all sub-folders and files carry the same level of security.

The two sentences above, over my head. I have never set up a admistrator
accourt or
user names. I have looked at Computer Management but still confused. I am
afraid of
locking myself out of external hard drive if I need it in case of current
computer disk
failure or use it on another computer.
Patti



==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Thank you Tim and all the others who answered my plea.
Formatting my external hard disk in NTFS has been puzzling me for exactly
the reason you site. The reason for purchasing the external hard disk was
to avoid losing all my data, emails, etc. in case of a complete computer
failure as had happened to me recently. Also, I had hoped to be able to
put this copy of my computer's hard disk on a new computer, should I need
one.

So from what you say it would be more sensible to keep the external disk
in AT32? -The instruction manual says "FAT32 is possible up to 2TB. In
Windows XP, you can format a FAT 32 volume up to 32GB only. Does not
support domains." However, I already have 71GB on my computer so it
sounds like FAT 32 would not handle this size?

Note - I just read Ken Blake "Sorry, that's not correct. It's true that
Windows XP can not create a
FAT32 partition greater than 32GB, but external utilities can, and
Windows XP can use such partitions just fine."

Patti

"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
...
There is a reason why removable drives are nearly always formatted FAT -
because one
of the big advantages of a removable drive is that you can remove it!!

Having it kept formatted as FAT, you would be able to connect it to
nearly any other
PC which would be able to identify and browse it's contents. It's
compatibility with
other computers would be virtually universal.

This would include PCs with other operating systems like Win98 or
LINUX-based and
MACs as well.

If you changed it's format to NTFS and did not set file and folder
permissions to
include "Everyone" as read-only - then your removable drive would only
be accessible
on your own machine (and possibly other NT-based OSs under
'Administrator')

Plus, if you need to gain access to your backup after your own PC has
permanently broken, then you may well find, again, you have problems
"seeing" the drive when connected to in another computer...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Hi
I have purchased an External Hard Disk Drive, usb2 & main power, 1TB in
size.
The very limited instruction manual says it is best to run it in NTFS.

When I go to MyComputer, on the left column under "Details" it says
"File System: FAT32"
yet when I right click on the external hard disk drive letter (F) and
click "Format" it says "File System NTFS".

Which is right?
Patti