External Hard Drive Format...?

Question

I have an external hard-drive (320GB) which is formatted in Fat32, but I thought anything past 4GB had to be in NTFS format. How is that possible and is there any reason for me to change it to NTFS?

Answer 1

The 4GB limit is for one file. For instance, a FAT32 hard drive cannot hold a 5GB file, but it can hold 320 1GB files.

However with FAT32 you waste a lot of space due to the way it allocates disk clusters, so ntfs is definitely the way to go.

To change the hard drive format just do

start > run > cmd and press enter. Then (assuming your external drive is drive h:) enter the command

convert h: /fs:ntfs

and press enter

see below for more info

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

Answer 2

Well it depends on what os you have. If you have xp then simply format the drive using windows own format tool and format it with the ntfs option. It is more stable and has faster access times than fat32.

However if you have an os that is earlier its best to stick with fat32 otherwise your os might not recognise the drive after the format.

Answer 3

if you are running xp ntfs is a much better and faster format, in my computer right click on your external drive and select format and also select ntfs in the drop down box and ok

Answer 4

Based on your question it sounds like you're conflating file size limits with filesystem size limits. FAT32 cannot store a file longer than 4GB (about 4 billion bytes). NTFS can. As for limits on filesystem size, it appears you're limited to 65,527 clusters, which means if you max out your cluster size you can hit about eight terabytes.

If you want to convert, there is a utility with the wildly creative and whimsical name of "CONVERT", which will do the job.

Answer 5

NTFS is safer and faster

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

Answer 6

you dont have to format it, leave it along. all external drive use is to store files in it....