PCA Forums

Okay on my new win nt server what format is the best NTFS or FAT16 give me your views this computer will be hardrives for other pcs so they would have to +be recognize the netwoks drives in other words the hardrive on the server will be partiotion into little pieces for each other computer and those partitionswill be assigned thru the network. Thanks for all your help

NTFS

Could somebody briefly describe the difference between NTFS and Fat32? All I really know is that Fat32 is a more advanced way of organizing the files (compared to Fat16), thus creating less cluster overhang so that you gain more hard drive space. Is NTFS more advanced that Fat32? Is it specifically used (and only good for?) WinNT? I only ask hte last question because NTFS only comes up when you're talkin' about WinNT.

TIA

That's because NTFS (New Technology File System) is only used when the OS is NT based (winNT, win2K, winXP).
NTFS is supposed to be more stable and secure. However, the catch when you install using NTFS is that you can see all the NTFS and FAT16/32 volumes if your OS is installed in NTFS, however, you can't see the NTFS volumes if your OS is on a FAT volume. (I believe that's correct - any thoughts Doc).

As a rule of thumb, I always install my OS in NTFS and my apps are in FAT32. If you boot into DOS, you should only be able to see the FAT volumes and not your NTFS volumes.

Here's a good read for yah!

http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodte ... lesyst.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/offic ... 75t3_2.htm

chottoED, it doesn't matter on what filesystem you install NT/2000/XP, it can always see NTFS partitions (and FAT16/32).
Win9x and DOS are limited to see FAT16/32 only, they're blind for NTFS volumes (on that system).

Here's my favourite read on NTFS:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/index.html

I say use NTFS.

partially correct

btw, NT4 and FAT32 is not a good mix cause NT4 can't read/write to FAT32 natively. You would need 3rd party software to read/write to FAT32 partitions under NT4.

FAT32 support came with Win2000 and is certainly included in XP.

okay i have 80gb hardrive i plan on distrubuting over the network and making other computers each use an network hardrive. computers that are formatted into FAT32 will have no problem recognizing NTFS hardrives right

They won't have a problem seeing the drive over the network. If you put the NTFS drive into a Win 9x system, however, you won't see the drives.