NTFS vs FAT

[ivica178]

Why is NTFS faster than FAT, or isn't?

[neverlate2day]

did u try googling before posting

[monaco]

To know these please go to http://www.wikipedia.org/, type NTFS then FAT. You will know more...

[alexandgruntz]

NTFS is more efficient than FAT(32), as NTFS's cluster sizes are smaller, resulting in less wasted space. It also supports compression and encryption. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS.

[Smith6612]

FAT is suppored by basically any operating system and is the least trouble free when it comes down to Linux and such. However NTFS is very flexible and a well done File System. Yeah it may be a pain in the butt to get working in Linux in some cases, but it's certainly much more efficient. Think of NTFS as Windows NT Kernel and FAT32 as DOS (which is actually what each File System is built for I believe). DOS is a bit more unstable than the NT Kernel.

[Livewire]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that FAT cannot handle a single file larger than 4gb.

Granted theres very few LEGAL reasons to want a filesize larger than that, but there are some (DVD backups, game disc backups, etc).

So if you're trying to make a backup of your Crysis DVD, or of your favorite movie, you're dead in the water on FAT (assuming you're backing it up into an iso or other non-compressed format), whereas NTFS will simply say yes if theres enough space left.

[vol7ron]

FAT16 = Ancient
FAT32 = Legacy
NTFS = New compression/encryption and smaller clusters


NTFS is not backwards migratable, but FAT32 is forward migratable. I think I got that right. That is, if you installed your OS to FAT32, you can make it NTFS without losing any data. However, once you're NTFS, you cannot go back to FAT32, without reformatting and reinstalling your OS.

I heard from a Microsoft rep that NTFS is soon to be replaced as well.

[nirajkum]

FAT is like windows 98 very basic but very user frndly. NTFS is more sofisticated . The data is stored in NTFS is well organised as compared to FAT so it is fast .FAT cant handle file with more than 4GB.

To support NTFS on Linux yoc ana refer http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php

[Sharky]

NTFS is not backwards migratable, but FAT32 is forward migratable. I think I got that right. That is, if you installed your OS to FAT32, you can make it NTFS without losing any data. However, once you're NTFS, you cannot go back to FAT32, without reformatting and reinstalling your OS.

Not quite true... PartitionMagic should be able to do this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PartitionMagic

[Nathan H]

This is true, Partition magic does allow the transition between ANY file systems with no loss of data.