Fat32 and NTFS

postaled

Senior member
Feb 20, 2007
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one thing is I think the cluster size (is it called a file allocation unit in windows?) they are smaller on an NTFS partition so... think of it like this, you make a call on your phone for 29 seconds, if it were fat32 you would be billed a minute, and if it were NTFS it would be more like 30 seconds, less wasted space on your disk. Not sure if what I am saying is correct but I believe it is one of the differences. ALSO directory/file permissions are more... secure? on NTFS, only problem is if you make it so only one user cna access the data, you basically are screwed if you lose that account.

may help, may not
 

NetWareHead

THAT guy
Aug 10, 2002
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Originally posted by: postaled
ALSO directory/file permissions are more... secure? on NTFS, only problem is if you make it so only one user cna access the data, you basically are screwed if you lose that account.


Not exactly true. You may be locked out, but in this circumstance, the administrator can always take ownership of the folder and "unlock" it.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Originally posted by: postaled
ALSO directory/file permissions are more... secure? on NTFS, only problem is if you make it so only one user cna access the data, you basically are screwed if you lose that account.

Not exactly true. You may be locked out, but in this circumstance, the administrator can always take ownership of the folder and "unlock" it.

Someone may have confused this with NTFS encryption. If you have encrypted files, and you lose or corrupt the encryption certificate (the 'key' you need to decrypt the files), you are screwed.
 

NetWareHead

THAT guy
Aug 10, 2002
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Originally posted by: Matthias99
Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Originally posted by: postaled
ALSO directory/file permissions are more... secure? on NTFS, only problem is if you make it so only one user cna access the data, you basically are screwed if you lose that account.

Not exactly true. You may be locked out, but in this circumstance, the administrator can always take ownership of the folder and "unlock" it.

Someone may have confused this with NTFS encryption. If you have encrypted files, and you lose or corrupt the encryption certificate (the 'key' you need to decrypt the files), you are screwed.

True...NTFS offers an encryption recovery agent...so if the employee holding the key quits or the key is lost, the admin (acting as the recovery agent) can still open the files.
 

lyssword

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2005
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One thing I know is that ntfs allows single files larger than 4 gb to be stored on hard drive.
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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NTFS has 'streams' - this allows data to be stored in a 'secondary' part of the file, away from the main data. This is similar to how Apple files have two 'forks'.

This is how, if you bring up the 'properties' page for a file in Windows explorer, you can add loads of information and comments to any file - even a text file. All the comments are stored in a seperate stream, and will be ignored unless a program specifically looks for them.