Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Fat32 vs NTFS partition
- Thread starter Freyqq
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
NTFS is much safer than FAT32, it's less likely that NTFS gets corrupted.
Here's a comparison: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm
If you're using Windows, there's no reason to use FAT32. If you're using a Mac, it's more problematic. Unless you want to make sure that other OSs can read your harddisk, you should use HFS+. However, if you really want a file-system that can be read by most OSs, then you'll have to go for FAT32 or EXT2 (even though if you don't use Linux - it's one of the few "modern" file systems for which you will find Mac OS as well as Windows drivers).
Well what the other guy said there's a less likely chance for the disk to get corrupted if u used NTFS on your windows partition.
Within the first week of running Windows XP SP2 on a FAT32 I got the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) because it got corrupted, I then reinstalled Windows and so far I've only had to run check disk once under Win XP within the past 2 months to repair a problem.
The reason I use Fat32 for windows is sometimes for example I'll be working on a project in MAC OS X and I want to test it in windows, I can just drag the file into the Windows partition and run bootcamp to test it under windows.
If you don't need that kind of accessibility I suggest you stick with NTFS, much safer to run windows under.
Within the first week of running Windows XP SP2 on a FAT32 I got the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) because it got corrupted, I then reinstalled Windows and so far I've only had to run check disk once under Win XP within the past 2 months to repair a problem.
The reason I use Fat32 for windows is sometimes for example I'll be working on a project in MAC OS X and I want to test it in windows, I can just drag the file into the Windows partition and run bootcamp to test it under windows.
If you don't need that kind of accessibility I suggest you stick with NTFS, much safer to run windows under.
I do have a 1 gig flash drive. I'm thinking I might to NTFS and use that to transfer files. Any thoughts on that? To bad osx can't write to NTFS =\
If I was in your situation, that's what I would do. Make your Bootcamp partition NTFS and use the flash drive to transfer stuff back and forth.
This is solely a preference type of thing, the only thing I didn't like when I did NTFS was that bootcamp left a hard drive icon with the name UNTITLED on my desktop. Since it was NTFS I couldn't change the icon or anything, but I'm sure there is probably a work around to make it disappear under OS X.
Now that you mention it with the extra 1gig flash drive, it does seem like a more practical solution to transfer files between the two partitions!
Well I've got good news for you. Here are drivers for OS X that will allow you to read and write to NTFS partitions. I've been using it for about a week or two now and it works great. I, like you, was unsure of which way to go. After a little thought I figured I'd just go NTFS and found that driver a few months after the fact, which turned out to make it the best decision. Just follow the first few steps in bold on the first post and you'll be all set. Hope you enjoy it.
Also, as nateDEEZY pointed out, you weren't allowed to change the name or the icon of your NTFS partition previously. With macFUSE, you can now change the icon and the name of the partition.
Well well well!! You changed my plans for this weekend! I'm definitely going to make the switch to NTFS and use the drivers!
I'm definitely going to give this a try, now I don't have to be so stingy on what I install on the Windows Partition!
Thanks.
wow awesome!
this is legit right? not breaking some microsoftish terms of agreement or something?
it's the ntfs-3g ntfs support for linux fuse that amit singh ported to macosx. there shouldn't be any problems using it.
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/