when ur installing xp pro you have 4 options :

1.) Format the partition using the NTFS file system <quick>

2.) Format the partition using the NTFS file system

3.) Convert the partion to NTFS

4.) Leave the current file system intact < no changes >

:round: :round: :round: :round:

Which 1 is the best to go 4 and y.

does n e 1 know of a web-site tht explanis this ??

thanx 4 looking :) :)

:mail: :mail:

whitty6210@aol.com

or

whitty_m_w@hotmail.com (msn)

Wrong forum m8 you should have posted in open. But in my opinion go for ntfs rather than fat 32 so choose fornat as ntfs option 2 The reason i recomend ntfs over fat 32 is because basically it is better all round but it increases the computers security also.
You may have some trouble with games though with ntfs so if your using it for gaming mainly use the last option leave file system intact, some games will detect your ntfs file system and they think your using Windows NT (older games pre xp)

I also format with NTFS in XP. It gives you much more control for security purposes. Supposedly NTFS can be a *bit* slower than NTFS on older systems, but I have never seen that for myself to be the case.

I have run many games with NTFS and have not heard of any specific issues being caused by the file system itself.

Anyways, this really belongs in Open All Topics, so I am moving it there.

-Zack-

http://www.mindshatter.com/zack/smanback1.gif

Well I'm gonna disagree with everyone here, now there's a change.http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/r/auskosten.gif

I always format using FAT32 for compatibility issues, strong reason for that especially if you have several partitions on the drive and/or want to dual-boot now or in the future using a 9X O/S. There's a good guide on this by Hoss over at Harry-O's site here:- http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/index.htm Also you might find more here:- http://members.aol.com/AXCEL216/xp1.htm There is a link IIRC on Harry's site to a good M$ knowledge base article on this very issue.

So there's the other angle to the story, whatever you deceide on though use the full format and not the quick format option.


HTH :)

ye but :) if you burn stuff :) pref dvd's NTFS does have a londer word lenth and will deal with like 99% of backups/dvd's/new pc games as the fat32 tho it is compatable with most stuff as time moves on and things get faster and bigger then it will slowly become more of an issue with general soft/hardware :)

Originally posted by Flagg
ye but :) if you burn stuff :) pref dvd's NTFS does have a londer word lenth and will deal with like 99% of backups/dvd's/new pc games as the fat32 tho it is compatable with most stuff as time moves on and things get faster and bigger then it will slowly become more of an issue with general soft/hardware :)
Yep, I agree with you.

There are plus points for both formats, you just have to deceide which ones are important to you the user. :)

ntfs format is better then fat32 with xp but u cannot c that drive in dos made.

in short if you whant security ntfs if you whant speed and daul boot fat32
remember that xp maywell give you more headhacks than you care for with
thing like games whitch needs lots of patches to get them to run and you may have to use the compatabilaty wizard as some will need win 98 or win 95 if you burn games you will have to change your software as some older versions do not work under xp other thing incude updating drivers

Yeah, if you're intending to dual boot with Win 98/ME, you're better off using FAT, as you can access both drives from both OS's if you need to sort out problems. NTFS is more secure, but make sure you're able to specify the cluster size of 4kb, otherwise it will drag on performance. FAT also has the 4gb file size limit, so if you're looking to get a dvd burner you'll need to bear that in mind.

If you're upgrading and not keeping another OS, I'd go for NTFS personally.

I've got four hard drives, the first two with the partitions for Win 98 & Win XP on and a small (1.5 gb) partition solely for My Documents (so these can be accessed by both and are kept away from from the OS's); these are FAT32 so I can access the XP partition in 98 if neccessary, and the other drives are NTFS.

I personally don't agree with the speed issue with NTFS. Have you guys with these issues got your NTFS drives with a 512byte cluster size, or did you specify larger?