PCA Forums

I have Windows XP. It is currently FAT32.

I am still trying to decide if I want to go to NTFS. Here are some remaining questions I have to help me decide.

1. How would you flash a motherboard BIOS with NTFS?
2. I frequently transfer files/folders/zips etc, (for example I may download something on one computer and then put it on a zip and take it to the other computer or export something from one program to take to the other computer which has the same programs, etc) between my home and work computers (both Windows XP) by way of either zip disk or CD. If my home computer is NTFS and my work computer is FAT32, will I still be able to do this?
3. I have heard some programs may not run in NTFS. How would I find out which ones will not?

1. How would you flash a motherboard BIOS with NTFS?

Makes absolutely no difference what you format the drive - you don't even need a drive. You should NEVER flash a BIOS by booting from the hard drive. ALWAYS do it by booting from a boot floppy (make a bootable floppy using Win98).

2. I frequently transfer files/folders/zips etc, (for example I may download something on one computer and then put it on a zip and take it to the other computer or export something from one program to take to the other computer which has the same programs, etc) between my home and work computers (both Windows XP) by way of either zip disk or CD. If my home computer is NTFS and my work computer is FAT32, will I still be able to do this?

Makes no difference.

3. I have heard some programs may not run in NTFS. How would I find out which ones will not?

Not as far as I know, unless it's some utility that's not compatible with XP NTFS. XP introduced a newer version of NTFS so you have to make sure you upgrade any utility that access the hard drive directly (Partition Magic, Norton Utilities, etc). This is not an issue with FAT32, although some of those utilities won't work with XP no matter what the drive format unless you upgrade.


For home users I recommend using FAT32. There's no difference in performance. The major differnce is file security which is not an issue at home.

If you intend on dual booting you should DEFINATELY go with FAT32.

The reason I recommend FAT32 for home users is if the OS installation gets trashed, you can read or copy the files from DOS using a boot floppy. The ONLY way you can read an XP NTFS partition is from within XP. So in order to access files from a trashed NTFS hard drive, you'd need to re-install XP or temporarily connect it to another XP system.