USB Drive - FAT32 or NTFS?

[kl884347]

I just started gathering up my old HDs to use for file backups. I am running WinXP Home SP2, and have a generic external IDE to USB cable to connect my IDE HDs via USB. I thought I should reformat my old HDs to NTFS instead of the old FAT32, but I have seen some web articles saying that WinXP does not work well with USB NTFS file systems (usually in relation to thumb drives). Is this true? Should I keep my old 8-20GB HDs in FAT32?
TIA

 

[Aikouka]

Well, I can't be specific in this matter, but my external enclosure's HDD is formatted as an NTFS drive and I've never had an issue with it. I believe my friend's external drive that he makes daily back-ups on is also an NTFS drive and he's never had any issues.

 

[Atheus]

Everything but my boot drive is FAT32 because it works in more operating systems than NTFS.

 

[corkyg]

I use about 4 external drives - some USB - some Firewire. All are NTFS. Never an issue. All my USB thumb drives are FAT-32. That is more universally useful for "sneaker net" purposes.

The larger the drive capacity, the more suitable it is for NTFS, in my experience.

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: Atheus
Everything but my boot drive is FAT32 because it works in more operating systems than NTFS.

Exactly. FAT32 can be read by the Win9x series machines, whereas NTFS cannot(natively). You may not have any of these older operating systems, but perhaps some of your relatives or your friends may have some. You might want to be able to do backups or transfers of files on those other machines, so keeping one or two drive in FAT32 would be wise.

 

[RebateMonger]

The only thing that I use USB drives for is for backups. Since these files are always larger than 4GB, I format everything to NTFS. But all my work is with NTFS-based operating systems. YMMV.

 

[kl884347]

All,
Thanks for your advice! I think I'll format my newer larger drive for backup for around the house in NTFS, and keep one or two of the smaller ones in FAT32 for the occasional other stuff. Great advice and words of experience.