Comparison between NTFS and FAT

NTFS FAT 16/32

 Default File system In Windows XP, 2k and
NT
 Support For Drives over 40gb, Files over GB
 Allows extended file names, foreign
characters
 Has a severely crippled maintenance system
in chkdsk
 Chkdsk is notoriously slow
 Increased security with file encryption
 Smaller file clusters, 4kb
 Compression to reduce disk space
 User permissions for files and folders
 File copies are “undone” if interrupted, cluster
chains is cleaned
 Small files are kept in Master File Table at the
beginning of the drive
 Not compatible with different operating
systems on the same computer
 Fat 16 not compatible with XP, FAT is more
compatible with other operating
Systems( Windows 95, etc)
 FAT 16 has 8.3 character limitation
 Has better, more and interactive recovery
utilities (scandisk)
 Scandisk is very quick
 Just a space for the OS to read files
 Faster on drives less than 10gb
 FAT 16 cluster size is 32kb
 Cluster chains containing data from
interrupted copies are marked as damaged
 Master File Table are separate from files

Some Random Facts

 Fat 16 was developed in 1981 for dos
 Fat 16 was designed to handle floppies
 Fat 32 is an extension of Fat 16
 Fat 32 introduced in service pack 2 of Windows 95
 Operating systems may recognise Fat16, but not Fat 32 (Win NT)
 You can go from FAT to NTFS but not the other way around
 FAT = File Allocation Table
 NTFS = New Technology File System
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Well, Which One Should I Choose?

If you really only want to choose one way or another, here are two very important considerations:
 For files above 4gb, and hard disks above 32gb, go for NTFS
 For smaller drives, files and better recovery tools go for FAT
 But why not go for both, which is the best option in my opinion.
 Set aside some FAT so that you can run recovery tools, especially scandisk, so that you have
something usable when things go awry, instead of the awful Windows System Tools.
  Then set the rest to NTFS so that you have better security on personal files, support for large
files and drive.
 

More Detailed Comparison

Criteria NTFS5 NTFS FAT32 FAT16

Windows 98
Windows NT DOS
Windows 2000 Windows ME
Operating System Windows 2000 All versions of
Windows XP Windows 2000
Windows XP Microsoft Windows
Windows XP

Limitations

Max Volume Size 2TB 2TB 2TB 2GB

Max Files on
Nearly Unlimited Nearly Unlimited Nearly Unlimited ~65000
Volume

Limit Only by Limit Only by

Max File Size 4GB 2GB
Volume Size Volume Size

Max Clusters
Nearly Unlimited Nearly Unlimited 268435456 65535
Number

Max File Name Standard - 8.3

Up to 255 Up to 255 Up to 255
Length Extended - up to 255

File System Features

Unicode Character Unicode Character System Character

Unicode File Names System Character Set
Set Set Set

System Records Second Copy of

MFT Mirror File MFT Mirror File Second Copy of  FAT
Mirror FAT

Boot Sector Location First and Last First and Last First Sector First Sector
 Sectors Sectors

Standard and Standard and

File Attributes Standard Set Standard Set
Custom Custom

Alternate Streams Yes Yes No No

Compression Yes Yes No No

Encryption Yes No No No

Object Permissions Yes Yes No No

Disk Quotas Yes No No No

Sparse Files Yes No No No

Reparse Points Yes No No No

Volume Mount
Yes No No No
Points

Overall Performance

Built-In Security Yes Yes No No

Recoverability Yes Yes No No

Low on small Low on small High on small Highest on small

Performance volumes volumes  volumes volumes
High on Large High on Large Low on large Low on large

Disk Space Minimal on large

Max Max Average
Economy volumes

Fault Tolerance Max Max Minimal Average

         

         
FAT OVERVIEW
FAT is by far the most simplistic of the file systems supported by Windows NT. The FAT file system is
characterized by the file allocation table (FAT), which is really a table that resides at the very "top" of
the volume. To protect the volume, two copies of the FAT are kept in case one becomes damaged. In
addition, the FAT tables and the root directory must be stored in a fixed location so that the system's
boot files can be correctly located.

A disk formatted with FAT is allocated in clusters, whose size are determined by the size of the volume.
When a file is created, an entry is created in the directory and the first cluster number containing data is
established. This entry in the FAT table either indicates that this is the last cluster of the file, or points to
the next cluster.

Updating the FAT table is very important as well as time consuming. If the FAT table is not regularly
updated, it can lead to data loss. It is time consuming because the disk read heads must be repositioned
to the drive's logical track zero each time the FAT table is updated.

There is no organization to the FAT directory structure, and files are given the first open location on the
drive. In addition, FAT supports only read-only, hidden, system, and archive file attributes.

NTFS OVERVIEW
From a user's point of view, NTFS continues to organize files into directories, which, like HPFS, are
sorted. However, unlike FAT or HPFS, there are no "special" objects on the disk and there is no
dependence on the underlying hardware, such as 512 byte sectors. In addition, there are no special
locations on the disk, such as FAT tables or HPFS Super Blocks.

The goals of NTFS are to provide:

 Reliability, which is especially desirable for high end systems and file servers
 A platform for added functionality
 Support POSIX requirements
 Removal of the limitations of the FAT and HPFS file systems

Reliability
To ensure reliability of NTFS, three major areas were addressed: recoverability, removal of fatal single
sector failures, and hot fixing.

NTFS is a recoverable file system because it keeps track of transactions against the file system. When a
CHKDSK is performed on FAT or HPFS, the consistency of pointers within the directory, allocation,
and file tables is being checked. Under NTFS, a log of transactions against these components is
maintained so that CHKDSK need only roll back transactions to the last commit point in order to
recover consistency within the file system.

NTFS Overview
The Windows NT file system (NTFS) provides a combination of performance, reliability, and
compatibility not found in the FAT file system.
It is designed to quickly perform standard file operations such as read, write, and search — and even
advanced operations such as file-system recovery — on very large hard disks.
Formatting a volume with the NTFS file system results in the creation of several system (metadata)
files such as $MFT — Master File Table, $Bitmap, $LogFile and others, which contains information
about all the files and folders on the NTFS volume.
The first information on an NTFS volume is the Partition Boot Sector ($Boot metadata file), which
starts at sector 0 and can be up to 16 sectors long. This file describes the basic NTFS volume
information and a location of the main metadata file — $MFT.
The following figure illustrates the layout of an NTFS volume when formatting has finished.

Formatted NTFS Volume

The NTFS file system includes security features required for file servers and high-end personal
computers in a corporate environment.
The NTFS file system also supports data access control and ownership privileges that are important for
the integrity of critical data. While folders shared on a Windows NT computer are assigned particular
permissions, NTFS files and folders can have permissions assigned whether they are shared or not.
NTFS is the only file system on Windows NT that allows you to assign permissions to individual files.
The NTFS file system has a simple, yet very powerful design. Basically, everything on the volume is a
file and everything in a file is an attribute, from the data attribute, to the security attribute, to the file
name attribute. Every sector on an NTFS volume that is allocated belongs to some file. Even the file
system metadata (information that describes the file system itself) is part of a file.
What's New in NTFS ver. 3.0 (introduced in Windows 2000)
Encryption The Encrypting File System (EFS) provides the core file encryption technology used to
store encrypted files on NTFS volumes. EFS keeps files safe from intruders who might gain
unauthorized physical access to sensitive, stored data (for example, by stealing a portable computer or
external disk drive).

Disk Quotas
Windows 2000 supports disk quotas for NTFS volumes. You can use disk quotas to monitor and limit
disk-space use.

Reparse Points
Reparse points are new file system objects in NTFS that can be applied to NTFS files or folders. A file
or folder that contains a reparse point acquires additional behavior not present in the underlying file
system. Reparse points are used by many of the new storage features in Windows 2000, including
volume mount points.

Volume Mount Points

Volume mount points are new to NTFS. Based on reparse points, volume mount points allow
administrators to graft access to the root of one local volume onto the folder structure of another local
volume.

Sparse Files
Sparse files allow programs to create very large files but consume disk space only as needed.

Distributed Link Tracking

NTFS provides a link-tracking service that maintains the integrity of shortcuts to files as well as OLE
links within compound documents.

What's New in NTFS ver. 3.1 (introduced in Windows 2000)

Spare MFT record number added in MFT record for recovery purposes.

NTFS and FAT32 File System

Last Updated on Thu, 08 Aug 2019 | Operating Systems
Windows XP and Windows 2000 use FAT32 and NTFS file systems. Security is one of the most
important differences between these file systems. NTFS can support more and larger files than FAT32
and provides more flexible security features for files and folders. Figure 519 shows the file permission
properties of NTFS.
Figure 5-19 NTFS Permissions

You can convert partitions from FAT32 to NTFS using the convert.exe utility. Doing this will provide
the extra security advantages of NTFS. To restore an NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition, reformat the
partition and restore the data from a backup.
To perform the conversion process, choose Start > Run and type cmd. At the command prompt, type
convert[driveletter]:/FS:NTFS, where the driveletter is the drive that you want to convert from FAT or
FAT32 to NTFS.
Caution
Before converting a file system, remember to back up the data.
Worksheet 5.4.9: Answer NTFS and FAT32 Questions
In this worksheet, you will answer questions about NTFS and FAT32, which are file systems used by
the Windows XP operating system and provide different file system features. Refer to the worksheet in
IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software Labs and Study Guide, Third Edition (ISBN 1-58713-198-6).
You can complete this worksheet now or wait to do so until the end of the chapter.

Please refer link more info

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/new-technology-file-system