There are some mistakes here I would like to correct.

A>> FAT
>A general name given by Microsoft to the tables at the beginning of a logical
>disk which tell the OS where to look for the files, what attributes have been
>set for them, etc.

It is not a general name.
FAT = File Allocation Tables.FAT is the part of the file system that keeps
track of where data is stored on disk.


> >> FAT 16
>A version of FAT which MS seems to be phasing out, starting with later
>versions of Win95.  These let you choose between FAT 16 and FAT 32.

FAT 16 = 16 bit. this was the original offering because DOS is a 16 bit
operating system. It is still the one FAT that is accessible to any OS and
I don't see it be phased out any time soon. However it does have some major
limitations....such as a 2 GB partition size. and cluster size increases
with partition size. A 200 meg partition has a 4k cluster size but a 2GB
partition has  a 32k cluster size. This means that every file, no matter
how small is written in 32k clusters. That is a lot of waste. It is not
unusual to be wasting 700 megs on a 2 GB FAT partition. This is the space
that compression programs like DriveSpace use to recapture hard drive space.


> >> FAT 32
>A newer version of FAT which uses larger clusters, thus wasting less disk
>space.

FAT 32 is 32-bit and was added to Win95b but only in the OEM
version.   FAT32 supports hard disks up to 2TB  instead of 2GB.  It is able
to relocate the root directory on the disk and use the backup copy of the
FAT table, providing more safeguards in the event of disk
failure.   Cluster size is 4k.

> >> NTFS
>One of the Windows NT/2000 file systems.  It is more secure and handles files
>more efficiently than FAT.  The NT series can also handle FAT 32.
>Thank you.
>David Jonathan Justman.

NTFS = NT File system.A file system used in Windows NT which uses the
Unicode character set and allows file names up to 255 characters in
length.  The NTFS is designed to recover on the fly from hard disk
crashes.  NTFS is most known for security. NT or Win2k running NTFS can
provide lock down security at the file level.

However using NTFS causes a performance hit. Every time the OS accesses the
hard drive it must perform two extra steps for security purposes. Those
extra steps take time and that is where the performance hit comes from.

Another result of the heightened security is that NTFS can NOT be accessed
from a boot floppy and if you loose your administrative password then you
have lost the data.

If you are running a real server or a workstation in a real multi user
environment then you want to be using NTFS. However if you are running a
workstation or a server in a home environment it is probably not worth the
performance hit. At least it isn't to me.


Mark Rode
The NOSPIN Group

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com