major difference between FAT32 and NTFS.?

Answer 1

http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm

Answer 2

^ NTFS is not "necessarily" slower than FAT32. That's an incomplete statement.

On partitions smaller than 32GB, most benchmarks will show that FAT32 is just a hair faster than NTFS. From 32 to 64GB, both run at almost the same speeds. Once you go over the 64GB partition size, NTFS begins to show an advantage over FAT32.

However, speed shouldn't be a big concern. You're not going to feel the small differences either way. Instead, file security and data parity should be. NTFS easily crushes FAT32 in this respect. When I say "data parity", I'm referring to the way that NTFS writes data to the hard drive. If something happens during a write to a bad sector for example, NTFS has fail-safe protocols to avoid losing that data and write to a different sector. FAT32 fails miserably in this respect.

Just some food for thought...

Answer 3

^ NTFS is not an operating system, it is a file system.

The biggest differences you will care about are:

1) FAT32 has a file size limitation of 4GB. This DOES NOT mean the whole disk cannot exceed 4GB, just that individual files cannot exceed 4GB.
2) NTFS allows you to implement much stronger file and directory security (an important consideration for corporate environments).

I always recommend NTFS if presented a choice.

Answer 4

NTFS is more secure and a little slower than FAT 32. ...

Answer 5

NTFS is a faster operating system.