What is the difference between FAT & NTFS?

Asked By Jackson Mic 0 points N/A Posted on - 09/23/2011

At the moment of installation of Windows XP I fond FAT and NTFS system, normally I use the FAT system but I need to know what is the difference between FAT & NTFS so that I can select and use suitable one.

I expect to know the above form experienced person.

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Answered By john.s 0 points N/A #128726

What is the difference between FAT & NTFS?

FAT is the abbreviation of the File Allocation table, it is used on Windows 3. X, FAT being 16 bit and FAT32 32 bit are two different types of file systems. FAT system has some limitations as it can only handle hard drive partitions up to 2 GB and file name is limited to 11 characters. But it was enhanced to 255 character names and much larger disk partitions after the introduction of the FAT 32 file system, an upgrade to FAT.

NTFS is known as a standard file system for windows NT, and later versions of Windows XP, vista etc. This system is an improved one as compared to FAT such as reliability, disk space utilization etc.

New operating systems support NTFS and run better with NTFS as compared to FAT. So it is recommended to use NTFS.

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• Posted on - 09/23/2011
• Question Category: Windows XP

Answered By kimanif 0 points N/A #128727

What is the difference between FAT & NTFS?

FAT gets its name from the use of a kind of database called a File Allocation Table that contains an entry for each cluster on the disk.

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions.

It is a hard decision while installing O.S but I will prefer NTFS reason being the properties that follow. This will guide you more.

Comparisons:

Security:

FAT32 provides very little security. A user with access to a drive using FAT32 has access to the files on that drive.

NTFS allows the use of NTFS Permissions. It's much more difficult to implement, but the folder and file access can be controlled individually, down to an extreme degree if necessary.

Space Efficiency:

NTFS support disk quotas, allowing you to control the amount of disk usage on a per user basis.

NTFS supports file compression. FAT32 does not.

Compatibility:

FAT and FAT32 volumes can be converted to NTFS volumes. NTFS cannot be converted to FAT32 without reformatting.

Reliability:

FAT32 drives are much more susceptible to disk errors.

NTFS volumes have the ability to recover from errors more readily than similar FAT32 volumes.

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• Posted on - 09/24/2011
• Question Category: Windows XP

Answered By Vinson forman 0 points N/A #196960

What is the difference between FAT & NTFS?

Hello Dear,

 

Thanks for sharing your problem with us.

 

Dear NTFS and FAT both are file systems.

 

NTFS is better than FAT in security, efficiency, disk quota system and many other options.

 

FAT does not support more than 200+GB disk space but NTFS can support 2 TB and above.

 

FAT not able to recover bad sectors but NTFS provides a full shield against bad sectors.

 

In NTFS we can bound users to use specific disk space but FAT in unable to do this.

 

NTFS provides 100% data recovery and data backup facilities but FAT provides about 35% accuracy in these tasks.

 

In short, NTFS is 100 times better than FAT.

 

Thanks.

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• Posted on - 12/17/2012
• Question Category: Windows XP