The tutorial will explain about the the file systems/formats available in Windows XP:
FAT32 or NTFS. We will not examine the FAT16 file system here.
The main difference between NTFS and FAT32 is the security advantages with the NTFS system.
NTFS is chosen by most windows xp users because of it powerful security advantages which are not there in FAT32 file system.
FAT32:
FAT32 file system improves the overall disk utilization in the windows xp as compared to other systems. That is why it is used or sometimes preferred by your windows troubleshooter person.
If you run windows xp on your computer you can share your computer with other computers on the network. Its doesnt matter what your file system is. You can share your hard disk with all other computer whether your file system is NTFS or FAT32.
The NTFS was introduced with the Windows NT. It provides greater security and even encryption of your files. NTFS is installed by default for WINDOWS XP. You have to make choice while installing windows Xp that whether you want to go with FAT32 or NTFS File system.
There are certain drawbacks / disadvantages of the NTFS File system compared to the other file system. When you boot a computer from a floppy disk, the NTFS is not available. That is why your system administrators have your format as FAT32 or at least one drive as FAT32. This contains some tools and drivers for re installation. This is also handy in case you want to recover in Windows xp.
If you want to make My documents private for you only and dont want to show it by search or other methods to the other users, then your file system must be NTFS. YOU cant do it on a FAT32 file system. You can have a drive as FAT32 and other as NTFS. The data and programs which need to be accessed by other users(also in case of systems with multiple operating systems) must be on a FAT32 drive partition or volume. Any user can view, change, modify or delete the file in the FAT system. So the secret / private files aren’t stored on FAT32 instead they are stored on NTFS file system format. So you know which drives to format with FAT32 and the secret, sensitive data / security related ones (which have to be hidden) with the NTFS File system.
See more windows xp free online interesting Tips Tricks Tutorials and Registry Hacks here for enhancing your Windows Experience.