FAT32 Partitioning Questions...

[Playmaker]

I am planning on installing win98se onto a 40gig hard drive. It will be the only OS on the comp. I've heard having too large a partition cause performance reductions in FAT32. Is this true? If so, how large of a partition can FAT32 comfortably handle? Thanks.

 

[SoyBoy004]

i think fat32 only supports up to or around 35gb. NTFS supports all sizes up to 144gbs.

 

[Psychoholic]

FAT32 will support Drives up to 2 terabytes.

More Information on FAT32

The same limitation applies to NTFS 5.0 except you can span multiple volumes.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I think the important consideration is the size of the FAT table as the size of the partition goes up. When does it hit a critical (performance hampering) size? There are going to be many factors that determine this critical point: Cluster size first off, system RAM, and then the overall beefiness of the system (CPU etc.). When I want to I can never find one of those nifty tables that show the size of the FAT table based on partition size and cluster size. I would say 40GB is still small enough that you won't see much impact on performance. UNLESS you don't have much system RAM.

My $0.02.

 

[rbV5]

It would still be smart to have at least 2 partitions, 1 smaller partition for your OS, and 1 for everything else. Then you can ghost your OS partition, or at least you would just have to reformat that partition if you have to. I myself use at least 3 in case I want to try a different OS.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Here we go: FAT32 stuffs

 

[Playmaker]

Reading over that site now. My system specs are Epox 8K7A mobo, 512mb PC2100 DRR SDRAM, 1.2gig T-Bird C-Core, GeForce2 Pro, 40GB IBM Deskstar 60GXP. I keep all my current drivers on a CDRW and back up MP3s to another comp on my network, so no need to have extra partitions for reinstalling, I'd rather reinstall everything anyway when I do. With this setup, would I see any performance reduction in going with one large 40gig partition over 2 20gigs or 4 10gigs or something like that?

 

[rseraji]

<< FAT32 will support Drives up to 2 terabytes.

More Information on FAT32

The same limitation applies to NTFS 5.0 except you can span multiple volumes. >>



if you have a huge drive like that or anything over 100gbs i suggest you run NTFS instead of Fat32

note that NTFS for windows 2000 and NTFS for windows NT 4.0 are different.

rseraji, mcp 2001