What is NTFS AND FAT HARDDRIVES?
2006-12-27 05:36:38 · 16 answers · asked by battledog50 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
NTFS stands for (Win)NT File System and
FAT stands for File Allocation Table(s)
A harddrive which is formatted as NTFS can read a FAT partition, but not the other way around.
The hard drive is formatted with specific sectors (kind of like mailing addresses in a city), and you can imagine that these different file systems are trained like postal employees to find addresses to pick up and deliver mail (your data).
Imagine that the NTFS mailperson knows how to find addresses in both the US and Europe.
Imagine that the FAT mailperson only knows how to find addresses in the US, and so if your harddrive is formatted with European addresses, the FAT guy gets lost and can't pickup or deliver mail.
Naturally, this is only an analogy to illustrate why NTFS and FAT are only compatible in very limited form.
Typically these days, harddrives are formatted in NTFS (Windows XP, Windows 2000 etc.) while the older Windows versions depended on FAT.
2006-12-27 05:44:09 · answer #1 · answered by flywho 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
These are file systems. NTFS is New Technology File System that first came into use with WinNt and continued with Win2k and WinXp. FAT is File Allocation Table. Originally used in DOS (remember that?) as Fat16. Newer machines were capable of Fat32 which used less space to store the same stuff. Yes there were also earler versions of FAT.
2006-12-27 05:40:58 · answer #2 · answered by smgray99 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
FAT32:
A derivative of the file allocation table (FAT) file system. FAT32 supports smaller cluster sizes and larger volumes than FAT, which results in more efficient space allocation on FAT32 volumes.
NTFS:
An advanced file system that provides performance, security, reliability, and advanced 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.
In a nutshell NTFS is more secure than FAT32
2006-12-27 05:39:00 · answer #3 · answered by afox1998 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
NTFS stands for New Technology File System and FAT stands for File Allocation Table. These are hard drive formats using by Microsoft Windows operating sytems and other operatoring systesm that use it for an operating sytem. It is a system of organization of data on hard drives. CDs have a similar system called TOC, which stands for Table of Contents. NTFS is used by differerent versions of Microsoft Windows NT and Windows XP. FAT32 is similiar to FAT with with added features. Windows ME XP, can also read harddrives formated as FAT. To get more information on go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100108/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154997/
2006-12-27 05:49:30 · answer #4 · answered by Wesley H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NTFS and FAT are file systems which your hard drive can use to store data. FAT (which includes FAT16, FAT32, etc.) is somewhat older (Used by Windows 95 & 98 primarily). NTFS is the Windows NT files system, used by NT-based systems such as 2000 & XP. It has enhanced security, compression & encryption capabilities, but is not always supported by older machines.
2006-12-27 05:44:48 · answer #5 · answered by Akayus 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NTFS and FAT are two ways to format a hard drive. FAT is older, designed for older operating systems. NTFS is newer and more reliable. If your computer is anything near recent, it most likely uses NTFS.
2006-12-27 05:42:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
NTFS or New Technology File System is the standard file system of Windows NT and its descendants Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista.
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a partially patented file system developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and is the primary file system for consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me.
2006-12-27 05:45:51 · answer #7 · answered by Desotex 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
fat 16 is an previous record equipment utilized in DOS and three.x. A fat 16 partition can be a optimal of 4GB. fat 32 is a revised version of fat 16 and may be utilized in larger walls. fat 32 replaced into utilized in residing house windows ninety 8. both fat 16 and fat 32 has susceptible mistakes fix and record safe practices. NTFS is extra take care of and is utilized with the help of residing house windows 2000, residing house windows XP, residing house windows 2003 Server, and residing house windows Vista. you'd be more beneficial off with NTFS until eventually you want backwards compatibility with older OSes like residing house windows ninety 5 or ninety 8.
2016-12-01 05:41:55 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
FAT is usually for windows 98.NTFS is for 2000 and xp.
2006-12-27 05:38:51 · answer #9 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There Are already enough answers, i suggest to you ntfs. It is much more faster en safer then FAT
2006-12-27 05:44:03 · answer #10 · answered by Taci 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋