I don't think it makes much difference what the host installation is on What does matter of course is the destination. Fresh Installing Windows 10 and before downloading file, I was thinking if I should format my drive to Fat32 OR NTFS OR exFAT? Does it make any difference? - Plz Guide me. You can choose between three file systems (NTFS, FAT, and FAT32) for disk partitions on a computer running Windows 2000 or XP. UITS strongly recommends NTFS over FAT32. So does Microsoft; in fact, Microsoft says you should only use FAT32 in situations where there's no other choice, and recommends you place limits on how it's used (e.g., don't store sensitive files on a FAT32 partition). During Setup, Windows XP gives you the choice of the Windows NT file system (NTFS) or one of the file allocation table file systems (FAT or FAT32). NTFS is the recommended file system with Windows XP. It offers better reliability, security, and support for hard disks over 32 gigabytes.

• Windows Xp Fat32 Or Ntfs

Whether you’re formatting an internal drive, external drive, USB flash drive, or SD card, Windows gives you the choice of using three different file systems: NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT. The Format dialog in Windows doesn’t explain the difference, so we will.

RELATED:What Is a File System, and Why Are There So Many of Them?

A file system provides a way of organizing a drive. It specifies how data is stored on the drive and what types of information can be attached to files—filenames, permissions, and other attributes. Windows supports three different file systems. NTFS is the most modern file system. Windows uses NTFS for its system drive and, by default, for most non-removable drives. FAT32 is an older file system that’s not as efficient as NTFS and doesn’t support as big a feature set, but does offer greater compatibility with other operating systems. exFAT is a modern replacement for FAT32—and more devices and operating systems support it than NTFS—but it’s not nearly as widespread as FAT32.

NT File System (NTFS)

NTFS is the modern file system Windows likes to use by default. When you install Windows, it formats your system drive with the NTFS file system. NTFS has file size and partition size limits that are so theoretically huge you won’t run up against them. NTFS first appeared in consumer versions of Windows with Windows XP, though it originally debuted with Windows NT.

NTFS is packed with modern features not available to FAT32 and exFAT. NTFS supports file permissions for security, a change journal that can help quickly recover errors if your computer crashes, shadow copies for backups, encryption, disk quota limits, hard links, and various other features. Many of these are crucial for an operating system drive—especially file permissions.

Your Windows system partition must be NTFS. If you have a secondary drive alongside Windows and you plan on installing programs to it, you should probably go ahead and make it NTFS, too. And, if you have any drives where compatibility isn’t really an issue—because you know you’ll just be using them on Windows systems—go ahead and choose NTFS.

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Despite its advantages, where NTFS lacks is compatibility. It’ll work with all recent versions of Windows—all the way back to Windows XP—but it has limited compatibility with other operating systems. By default, Mac OS X can only read NTFS drives, not write to them. Some Linux distributions may enable NTFS-writing support, but some may be read-only. None of Sony’s PlayStation consoles support NTFS. Even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 can’t read NTFS drives, although the new Xbox One can. Other devices are even less likely to support NTFS.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default, and may be read-only by default with some Linux distributions. Other devices—with the exception of Microsoft’s Xbox One—probably won’t support NTFS.

Limits: No realistic file-size or partition size limits.

Ideal Use: Use it for your Windows system drive and other internal drives that will just be used with Windows.

File Allocation Table 32 (FAT32)

FAT32 is the oldest of the three file systems available to Windows. It was introduced all the way back in Windows 95 to replace the older FAT16 file system used in MS-DOS and Windows 3.

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

The FAT32 file system’s age has advantages and disadvantages. The big advantages is that because it’s so old, FAT32 is the de-facto standard. Flash drives you purchase will often come formatted with FAT32 for maximum compatibility across not just modern computers, but other devices like game consoles and anything with a USB port.

Limitations come with that age, however. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size—that’s the maximum. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which admittedly is less of a limitation unless you’re using super-high-capacity drives.

While FAT32 is okay for USB flash drives and other external media—especially if you know you’ll be using them on anything other than Windows PCs—you won’t want to FAT32 for an internal drive. It lacks the permissions and other security features built into the more modern NTFS file system. Also, modern versions of Windows can no longer be installed to a drive formatted with FAT32; they must be installed to drives formatted with NTFS.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, and practically anything with a USB port.

Windows Xp Fat32 Or Ntfs

Limits: 4 GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size.

Ideal Use: Use it on removable drives where you need maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you don’t have any files 4 GB or larger in size.

Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT)

RELATED:What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?

The exFAT file system was introduced in 2006 and was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista. exFAT is optimized for flash drives—designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32, but without the extra features and over head of NTFS and without the limitations of FAT32.

Like NTFS, exFAT has very large limits on file and partition sizes., allowing you to store files much larger than the 4 GB allowed by FAT32.

While exFAT doesn’t quite match FAT32’s compatibility, it is more widely-compatible than NTFS. While Mac OS X includes only read-only support for NTFS, Macs offer full read-write support for exFAT. exFAT drives can be accessed on Linux by installing the appropriate software. Devices can be a bit of a mixed bag. The PlayStation 4 supports exFAT; the PlayStation 3 does not. The Xbox One supports it, but the Xbox 360 does not.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X, but requires additional software on Linux. More devices support exFAT than support NTFS, but some—particularly older ones—may only support FAT32.

Limits: No realistic file-size or partition-size limits.

Ideal Use: Use it when you need bigger file size and partition limits than FAT32 offers and when you need more compatibility than NTFS offers. Assuming that every device you want to use the drive with supports exFAT, you should format your device with exFAT instead of FAT32.

NTFS is ideal for internal drives, while exFAT is generally ideal for flash drives. However, you may sometimes need to format an external drive with FAT32 if exFAT isn’t supported on a device you need to use it with.

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When you have a new hard drive, or when you're reinstalling Windows, the OS may ask you to format the drive. If given a choice, the two common modes are NTFS and FAT32. But what are those, and why would you choose one over the other? We break down the differences between FAT32 vs. NTFS.

What They Mean
FAT32 is the older of the two drive formats. FAT32 is the most common version of the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system created back in 1977 by Microsoft. It eventually found its way on the IBM PC's PC-DOS in 1981, and carried over to MS-DOS when that became a standalone product. FAT had been the standard format for floppy disks and hard drives all through the DOS years, and versions of Windows up to and including Windows 8.

NTFS (New Technology Files System) is the newer drive format. Microsoft introduced NTFS in 1993, as a component of the corporate-oriented Windows NT 3.1 and then Windows 2000, though it didn't become common on consumer PCs until Windows XP in 2001. Windows 7 and 8 default to NTFS format on new PCs.

Compatibility
FAT32 is read/write compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including DOS, most flavors of Windows (up to and including 8), Mac OS X, and many flavors of UNIX-descended operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD.

NTFS, on the other hand, is fully read/write compatible with Windows from Windows NT 3.1 and Windows XP up to and including Windows 8. Mac OS X 10.3 and beyond have NFTS read capabilities, but writing to a NTFS volume requires a third party software utility like Paragon NTFS for Mac. There are other hacks and workarounds for NTFS on the Mac, but in any case NTFS is only semi-compatible with OS X. NTFS on Linux systems is spotty for both read and write operations. Look for NTFS-3G driver support on your Linux support page to see if it's built in.

File Size Matters
FAT32 file size support tops out at 4GB and volume size tops out at 2TB. This means that you're limited to 2TB FAT32 partitions if you want to use a 4TB drive. It also means that you are limited to 4GB files. This is a concern with uncompressed high-definition movie files, where 30GB files are not unheard of. Theoretically, NTFS is limited by design to 16EB (Exabytes). One Exabyte is the equivalent of one billion Gigabytes, so we're quite a ways away from maxing out NTFS. In practice, 2 to 4TB volumes are the limit at this time. Larger volumes will require a 64-bit OS and compatible hardware.

Which is Faster?
While file transfer speed and maximum throughput is limited by the slowest link (usually the hard drive interface to the PC like SATA or a network interface like 3G WWAN), NTFS formatted hard drives have tested faster on benchmark tests than FAT32 formatted drives. Other factors will be in play, however, including drive technology (HDD vs. SDD, Flash vs. non-Flash, etc.) and file fragmentation (on spinning drives).

While your OS usually makes the choice of hard drive format for you ahead of time, you can choose which format when you're re-formatting a drive, particularly an external drive. If you need the drive for a Windows-only environment, NTFS is the best choice. If you need to exchange files (even occasionally) with a non-Windows system like a Mac or Linux box, then FAT32 will give you less agita, as long as your file sizes are smaller than 4GB.