which is faster fat 32 or ntfs?

[rreinman]

I render photographs mostly at my pc and I use multiple programs at a time.
I have read that ntfs is a slower file system because of the extra security involved.
Also, will an ntfs partition lock out some programs from working properly because they are written for fat?

Thank you for your time.


I hope this information was of help to you. Please feel free at any time to respond back.
Bob

 

[bcastner]

Except for low level disk utilities, I have never seen a program written for FAT32 vs. NTFS.

There are so many aspects to the filestore, the particular hard drive being used, and enormous possibilities to cache, that the least of your worries should be the filestore used.

I write this on a system with two 10,000 rpm hard disk drives, each with an integrated 8mb cache, running on a Promise controller, set as UDMA 133. That was fast when I bought the stuff several years ago. Since that time I have played with SATA and RAID in various forms, and drive rpm can be found over 12,000.

To me you use NTFS because of its features, and likely anything critical in terms of drive performance are due to choices other than the filestore.

 

[cdogg]

I've never seen a benchmark showing any significant difference between FAT32 and NTFS on the same drive.

At most, I've seen a 0.5 - 1% difference in favor of FAT32 on smaller partitions (less than 32GB). Whereas I've seen as much as 2% difference in favor of NTFS on larger volumes (greater than 80GB). When it comes to a file system most of your deciding performance factors stem from the OS, quality of hard drive, and type of data you are working with.

In other words, don't let rumors persuade you one way or the other.



~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[bcastner]

Thanks cdogg,

Forum member rreinman asked a good question, and to me the filestore choice was the least of your worries for fast hard drives.

I guess my focus has been to make them reliable.

I very much appreciate your comments.

Best wishes,
Bill Castner