FAT32 or NTFS

[yashiro_Andreiz]

which is better for music recording?

[xpine73]

i prefer NTFS,which is more reliable and safe.
but as far as compatibility with win98 is concerned,u d better keep in fat32 if u wanna access the partition from win98.

[MrM]

NTFS has only 1 disadvantage; if a NTFS drive is shared between 2 operation systems (both can acces the NTFS drive, but not at the same time), the files are linked to 1 of the 2 operation systems, which kind of locks it.

But if you do not use a multiboot system with multiple drives, then ignore my posting :)

[cooldrums]

FAT 32

[KX]

I never compared but there was an article about NTFS vs FAT32
at harmony central.
The bottom line was: it's REALLY NOT a concern.

[lpdeluxe]

I found a bunch of articles and forums on the subject when I converted to XP. Here's what I learned:

If you have a dual-boot drive, and one of them only reads FAT32, stick with that. Otherwise, NTFS is better in every way.

So I changed all my drives to NTFS and have had ZERO problems.

Why keep something old just because it's old?

[Joe Hannigan]

I think it will be a non-issue soon enough, so I'm slowly moving towards NTFS on everything, a drive at a time, etc.

Anything new now is automatically NTFS for me. I agree with you Ipdeluxe: assuming Fat32 is old and on the way out with any new OS, why go backwards, if it's a disappearing format? If there's no real practical difference in performance or realiability, I think it's wise to just switch to NTFS and get on with it.

[cooldrums]

Check out what Tascam says about using FAT32 vs. NTFS

"While NTFS offers a number of improvements over FAT32, most of these advantages are
not all that applicable to audio, and you are unlikely to see a major performance
difference between the two. Moreover, defragmenting your drives (something you
should do on a regular basis anyway) is substantially quicker in FAT32."


http://www.tascamgiga.com/pdf/optimizing-xp-and-2k.pdf