External Drive Ntfs Or Fat

[Daffy D]

I have an USB external hard drive enclosure which I used as an extra drive in FAT configuration.

The instructions that came with the external enclosure says “before connecting USB enclosure please partition and format your HDD to FAT16 or FAT32” so everything was fine.

Recently I bought a new hard drive to use as “C” and put the old “C” in the in the external enclosure to copy some files to my new setup should I need them. I sort of forgot that the old “C” was NTFS but is seems to work OK.

I now want to use the old drive as for storage so as it seems to work fine with NTFS does it really matter or should I reformat to FAT?

Why would the instructions specifically say format to FAT if it made no difference?

Thank'yall

Daffy.

[RKASA]

If the only OS you use is win xp and > then ntfs is best. If you are going to connect to older OS's may want to stay with fat. If you share with linux the ntfs can work so no worries. It may be the instruction are dated.

[Guest Reimar]

I have an USB external hard drive enclosure which I used as an extra drive in FAT configuration.

The instructions that came with the external enclosure says "before connecting USB enclosure please partition and format your HDD to FAT16 or FAT32" so everything was fine.

Recently I bought a new hard drive to use as "C" and put the old "C" in the in the external enclosure to copy some files to my new setup should I need them. I sort of forgot that the old "C" was NTFS but is seems to work OK.

I now want to use the old drive as for storage so as it seems to work fine with NTFS does it really matter or should I reformat to FAT?

Why would the instructions specifically say format to FAT if it made no difference?

Thank'yall

Daffy.

Daffy,

the limitation for FAT 16 is 2.1 GByte, for FAT 32 is 4.1 GByte! If you use one of this formats, the filessize is limitedt to tha limit, either 2.1 or 4.1 GByet.

In NTFS format the filesize is limited to 32 GByte.

So thet's the main difference. The USB device will work with all of that formats.

But if you use an case like the Digimate III with buildin Cardreader and want to use that external drive without computer (you can because it has a battery and you can copy the pics from Camera cards to the device) ypou should consider to use a FAT 32 format otherwise you can't copy the pics without computer to that drive.

Cheers.

[bkkperson]

the limitation for FAT 16 is 2.1 GByte, for FAT 32 is 4.1 GByte! If you use one of this formats, the filessize is limitedt to tha limit, either 2.1 or 4.1 GByet.

In NTFS format the filesize is limited to 32 GByte.

You know what reimar you are so quick to jump down people's throats on this forum when they are wrong so why dont you check your facts before posting then you wont keep geting egg on your face when you are indeed WRONG

NTFS has a 2TB limit

[gharknes]

If I was you I would leave the drive as FAT32, then it will be compatable with everything you connect it too, with NTFS you are limited to XP or other OS that use same, I guess it really depends on usage.

[Guest Reimar]

the limitation for FAT 16 is 2.1 GByte, for FAT 32 is 4.1 GByte! If you use one of this formats, the filessize is limitedt to tha limit, either 2.1 or 4.1 GByet.

In NTFS format the filesize is limited to 32 GByte.

You know what reimar you are so quick to jump down people's throats on this forum when they are wrong so why dont you check your facts before posting then you wont keep geting egg on your face when you are indeed WRONG

NTFS has a 2TB limit

As you like to state your knowledge so well on the forum, I would keep an eye on your comments for the future, it's NOT because of your knowledge but because of the Word's you're using. If you want to tell something personell you better use the PM system. Take this a an friendly advice and if you want to submit some more such comments write an PM and you'll receive a clear answer.

But here and now, I admit that my comment about the fact of the NTFS max. Filesize was wrong. But and that may you also remember the NTFS filesize was limited until NT 3.51.

As an very imperfect human, I do some mistakes every day but I can even confess if I had done so.

For anybody who want a clear explanation of the todays existing File Systems take a look at the following website: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

If I was you I would leave the drive as FAT32, then it will be compatable with everything you connect it too, with NTFS you are limited to XP or other OS that use same, I guess it really depends on usage.

That's right but the filesize is limited to 4 GByte minus 2 bytes (1 GB= 1000 x 1,048 x 4 = 4,192.000)

Please check with this website: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

Cheers.

[Daffy D]

Thank y’all for your replies – seems that it does not make any difference what format is used unless the file size is an issue (who uses these huge file sizes ) or I want to use the external drive on a non XP system. “gharkness”

“Reimar” - The external enclosure is just ordinary without a cardreader so that is not an issue either.

Guess I will keep to NTFS as there are advantages and will be same as my other drives. Still wonder why the instructions say it must be FAT, it even goes on to say “if your HDD is NTFS please let your HDD be FAT16 or FAT32" so it’s not like the instructions were printed before NTFS was invented. Maybe it’s for people who do not have XP, so why not say FAT only for non XP users?

Oh! The mysteries of the universe.

Daffy.

[Cuban]

(who uses these huge file sizes )

...er, anyone that backs up their computer files?

We went through the 4gbbarrier long ago.

[Daffy D]

(who uses these huge file sizes )

...er, anyone that backs up their computer files?

We went through the 4gbbarrier long ago.

I use Ghost for back up and it splits it all into neat 1.99gb pieces is this not normal?

Daffy.

[JetsetBkk]

(who uses these huge file sizes )

...er, anyone that backs up their computer files?

We went through the 4gbbarrier long ago.

I use Ghost for back up and it splits it all into neat 1.99gb pieces is this not normal?

Daffy.

That's neat, but I use Acronis True Image and have had single backup files as big as 15 GB. I don't know if there's an option to split into a set of smaller files.

I thought it had been agreed a few posts ago that the drive formatting limit was in Terabytes, not Gigabytes, but I'm not clear what the file size limit is for the two formats.

As far as NTFS vs. FAT goes, I thought that FAT allowed smaller cluster sizes meaning less wasted space if you have a lot of small files.

Edit:

Just checked - my internal drive is FAT32 (C: and D:), the external USB drives are NTFS.

Edited February 1, 2008 by JetsetBkk

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

@Reimar

You wrote that FAT16 is limited to 2.1 GB..... i have to disagree on that one. I have a mobile phone type "Sony-Ericsson K750i" which, so SE says, supports memory cards "up to 2 GB". I guessed (after earlier reading that there is indeed such a limit) that is because the phone does not read FAT32-formatted cards (it really doesn't, it will state "memory not formatted").

However being the bold one that i am, i bought a 4GB "Sony Memory Stick" (a genuine one) and stuck it in there - let the phone format it and voila, i got some 3,960 MB (or a figure similar to that, i can't remember exactly) of usable memory. Now putting that into the memory card reader on my PC it clearly shows that this is indeed FAT16! So it should work, no? I have used well over half of that memory (about 2.6 GB used) and it works just excellent.

Now those Memory Sticks are available in sizes up to 16 GB, to be used for digital cameras and PSP and the like (i doubt my phone would take such a big one). Now do you know if for example a camera would format in NTFS or rather in FAT (16 or 32)? I believe it would be FAT32 (my boyfriend's new camera, a Sony T200, does so on a 2 GB stick). So that format has to support 16 GB at least as well.......

Maybe the limits that you mentioned only apply to actual hard drives, but not to solid-state memory....... or maybe it's only Sony that have an exception there? As i do have another phone, a Samsung, with a 2 GB "Micro SD" card in it. That phone too is supposed to support only 1 GB but it works just fine. However when i hook it up to my Vista machine, it complains (the PC) that "the card is not formatted". If i pull the card out of the phone and use the reader in the PC, it shows up fine as FAT32 (that phone does read FAT32 and formatted it that way by itself, while it did a 512 MB card in FAT16). And when i hook up the phone (which then works as a card reader) to an XP machine, it works fine, too!

Back on topic, i use external drives (one regular IDE drive with 120 GB and one regular SATA drive with 500 GB) in external enclosures to backup identically sized drives in my PC, and both those are formatted in NTFS and they both work excellent in XP and Vista (i dual-boot those two systems on the same PC).

With best regards......

Thanh

[gharknes]

If I was you I would leave the drive as FAT32, then it will be compatable with everything you connect it too, with NTFS you are limited to XP or other OS that use same, I guess it really depends on usage.

That's right but the filesize is limited to 4 GByte minus 2 bytes (1 GB= 1000 x 1,048 x 4 = 4,192.000)

Please check with this website: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

Cheers.

can't think of any file that I use that would be over 4gb except for XP system files or mail files which won't be on an external drive., like I said already it depends on what he wants it for, even full DVD movie's are are split into several files, granted certain backup programs create large files.

Edited February 1, 2008 by gharknes

[Guest Reimar]

If I was you I would leave the drive as FAT32, then it will be compatable with everything you connect it too, with NTFS you are limited to XP or other OS that use same, I guess it really depends on usage.

That's right but the filesize is limited to 4 GByte minus 2 bytes (1 GB= 1000 x 1,048 x 4 = 4,192.000)

Please check with this website: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

Cheers.

can't think of any file that I use that would be over 4gb except for XP system files or mail files which won't be on an external drive., like I said already it depends on what he wants it for, even full DVD movie's are are split into several files, granted certain backup programs create large files.

If you came across DVD Images, you most likely exceed 4 GByte! In an private Computer Enviroment is mainly just that file or if you use "special" Backups!

Cheers.