Your PC's Hard Drive may still be in FAT32 disk format. I encourage you to migrate to the more advance NTFS file system to boost your PC performance.
FAT32 [File Allocation Table 32-bit] format is the 32-bit version of the FAT file system which is introduced on Windows 95 and still used in Windows XP today. Obviously, it is already an obsolete file system to use in Windows XP since it is limited maximum partition size and file size compared to that of NTFS Format.
NTFS [New Technology File System] format is the more advance file system, compared to FAT32 and was developed to compensate the poor features of FAT32 format. It improves performance and is required in order to implement numerous security and administrative features in the OS. For example, NTFS supports Active Directory domain names and provides file encryption. Permissions can be set at the file level rather than by folder, and individual users can be assigned disk space quotas. NTFS is designed to log activity and recover on the fly from hard disk crashes. It also supports the Unicode character set and allows file names up to 255 characters in length.
FAT32 [File Allocation Table 32-bit] format is the 32-bit version of the FAT file system which is introduced on Windows 95 and still used in Windows XP today. Obviously, it is already an obsolete file system to use in Windows XP since it is limited maximum partition size and file size compared to that of NTFS Format.
NTFS [New Technology File System] format is the more advance file system, compared to FAT32 and was developed to compensate the poor features of FAT32 format. It improves performance and is required in order to implement numerous security and administrative features in the OS. For example, NTFS supports Active Directory domain names and provides file encryption. Permissions can be set at the file level rather than by folder, and individual users can be assigned disk space quotas. NTFS is designed to log activity and recover on the fly from hard disk crashes. It also supports the Unicode character set and allows file names up to 255 characters in length.
Comparison of FAT32 and NTFS
> Maximum Partition Size: 32Gb[FAT32] vs. 2Tb+[NTFS]
> Maximum File Size: 4Gb[FAT32] vs. Size of Drive[NTFS]
How to quickly convert your Local Disk Drive?
1. Open Run and type:
"cmd.exe or cmd" and press [Enter].
2. In the Cmd.Exe window, type:
"convert (Drive Letter): /fs: NTFS" and press [Enter].
3. Reboot your PC.
2 comments:
i've installed two hardisk on my pc 1st is 80GB as a primary, 2nd is 20GB as a secondary, i've got the problem on 20 GB hardrive, it has 2 partition 15GB for drive D and 5 GB for drive J, i dont really understand after i installed the computer the second 20GB hardrive partition are lied in drive D and J, well my problem is in 15GB which is drive D only has 5 GB(it lost about 10 GB and i've lost so many data there) and after i checked after read your article mydrive D has filesystem:FAT32 and drive J filesystem is NTFS, so would it be that i lost my data because in drive D is FAT32 if i switch it to NTFS would be normal again and restore the data? thanks plz 4 reply have a nice day
The only time you would want to use FAT32 is if you are dual booting with an older OS such as Windows 98 that cannot access NTFS. Network access will not be effected. But be warned, conversion to NTFS is a one way operation. Windows offers no method of converting from NTFS to FAT32, although some third party utlities do allow this.
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA
Post a Comment