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What is a file system? You might've noticed it in your drives' properties. A file system is an operating

system's overall structure in which files are named, stored, and organized. If you're a Windows XP user,

you've got 3 choices for a file system: NTFS, FAT, and FAT32. But what's the difference between them?

Read on as I give you a detailed review of the file systems and tell you (what I think is) your best choice.

Following are Microsoft's Windows Glossary definitions for each of the 3 file systems:

1. File Allocation Table (FAT): A file system used by MS-DOS and other Windows-basedoperating systems to organize and manage files. The file allocation table (FAT) is a data structure

that Windows creates when you format a volume by using the FAT or FAT32 file systems.

Windows stores information about each file in the FAT so that it can retrieve the file later.

2. FAT32: A derivative of the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system. FAT32 supportssmaller cluster sizes and larger volumes than FAT, which results in more efficient space

allocation on FAT32 volumes.

3. NTFS: An advanced file system that provides performance, security, reliability, andadvanced features that are not found in any version of FAT. For example, NTFS guarantees

volume consistency by using standard transaction logging and recovery techniques. If a system

fails, NTFS uses its log file and checkpoint information to restore the consistency of the file

system. In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, NTFS also provides advanced features such as file

and folder permissions, encryption, disk quotas, and compression.As it might seem obvious from the definitions, NTFS is your best option. Wait for my sequel where I'll

demonstrate more in-depth info that will assure you whether NTFS is apt for you.

NTFS supports filenames up to 256 characters in length (including spaces)with multiple extensions; FAT supports 8-character filenames with 3-character

extensions, except when using VFAT.

NTFS provides robust system security whether on a workstation or server;FAT does not.

NTFS preserves mixed case filenames (although it does not distinguish

between upper and lowercase when searching for files or folders); FAT does

not. NTFS keeps a log of activities, in order to be able to restore the disk after a

power failure or other interruptions.

NTFS supports RAID configurations, whereas DOS is not equipped to readstripe sets, volume sets, and mirror sets. Any such NTFS partitions would be

invisible to anyone trying to read them from DOS.

NTFS supports files and partitions up to 16 exabytes in length (an exabyte is

about 16 quintillion bytes).

NTFS provides real-time file compression on a file-by-file basis.

NTFS supports POSIX standard network naming conventions such as case

sensitivity, last-access-time stamping, and hard links. Caution: While NTFSsupports POSIX naming, NT's utilities do not. Do not manage POSIX files with

Explorer. NT implements a B-tree directory structure rather than the linked list

directory structure used by the FAT file system. This speeds up file searches

and reduces the possibility of a missing link resulting in data loss.

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FAT is nearly a universal file system. It is accessible by many operating

systems, including MS-DOS, Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2, MacOS, andmany variants of the UNIX family of operating systems.

Using the FAT file systems allows you to boot up using a DOS boot disk and

access files. You can not access (or even see) files stored in an NTFSpartition if you boot up in DOS.

FAT has the least file system overhead of any modern file system, whichmakes it suitable for small partitions (less than 50MB).

FAT is the only PC-compatible file system that is used on floppy disks.

FAT is an alternative for removable hard disks since many are too small totake advantage of NTFS.

FAT supports files and partitions as large as 4GB.