FAT or NTFS?

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That is the question I am stuck with right now. Just installed Virtual PC and am about to install Win Server 2003 but not sure whether to format in FAT or NTFS...any ideas people? Thanks.

 

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NTFS - Realistically if you want to do anything with server 2003 such as Active Directory or security then it needs to be NTFS.

 

then NTFS it is...lets see how VPC works it magic.....cheers Si..

 

Fat is limited over NTFS in two factors (i believe):

1. Its either FAT16 or FAT32 - meaning that the smallest 'chunk' of storage is either 16 or 32 bits. (correct me if im wrong here guys, its been a while since i considered this).

2. More importantly, Fat doesnt allow file permissions, whereas NTFS does. meaning that with FAT you cant set a file to only be available to a specific group, etc - this is obviously pretty much vital for servers.

Fergal

 

well put Fergal...i like that thanks...

 

On any recent Windows on any normal sized hard disk if you select FAT it will be FAT32.

FAT32 doesn't describe the storage - it describes the size of the integer used to point to files. The minimum storage will always be one sector - 512 bytes, but on most recent disks will actualy be a multiple of this (called a cluster).

USB pen drives are a different matter.

Harry.

 

NTFS, except you wanna test something with multiboot for Win9x and older

 

I'm glad to see this subject came up. It's always confused me why MS used synonyms to describe two different file systems.