I like the security of NTFS, but it's a one-way conversion . . . what's the downside?

NOT compatible with Win9x/DOS, so you can't go into DOS when you can't boot and have problems. Other than that, I don't see a lot of downside.

NTFS = Minor performance increase + Brain-frying, soul-eating compatibility issues

[ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: Maradön? ]

i had to go with NTFS (for some odd reason, WinXP wouldnt let me reformat my main drive as FAT32.

Ive seen no problems.

Fal

It's the compatibility issues that scare me.

Which ones have you heard of?

I know there used to be a lot, but . . .

There are no compatibility issues with NTFS as long as you're not dual-booting.

Win95/98/ME can't read NTFS partitions. WinNT/2K/XP can. Programs don't care which you use, it's transparent to them since it's completely in the OS's hands.

You won't notice any difference between the two except that NTFS is a little faster, less prone to filesystem corruption, and it allows you to assign extended security permissions that are useful on a multiuser system.

If you're dual-booting, stick with FAT32. If you're not, use NTFS, without question. Don't worry about not being able to boot to a DOS disk if you can't boot normally or anything since any system recovery utilities you'll need are on the bootable 2K/XP CD, which supports NTFS.

You da man, Drysart!

Hadn't looked into NTFS since I (briefly) ran OS2 back in the day. I liked OS2, but it wasn't compatible with jack.

I believe partition magic will convert from NTFS back to FAT.

I know it does most other conversions.

I tried NTFS.... and my hard drive went insane. Seriously bollocked up my install of Win2K, which had nothing to do with me, since it's automated.

I reformatted my main drive as NTFS when I installed Win2K this past summer. My secondary drive (where I used to have Win98 until catastrophic failure in summer 2000) is still FAT32, and is used for game installations and some data storage. So far, it's been fine.