Selection of file system during system installation _windowsxp

Windows can support both FAT32 and NTFS two file systems, FAT32 is longer than compatibility, and NTFS is longer than system security. Under the premise of satisfying the application, how to set up the file system to give full play to the features of Windows? Before discussing this issue, let's take a look at the features of the FAT32 and NTFS two file systems.
　　 FAT32 File System

Prior to the introduction of the FAT32 file system, the file system used by the PC is usually FAT16. The FAT16 file system is used in systems such as Ms-dos,win 95. Under Win 9X, the maximum number of partitions supported by FAT16 is 2GB. We know that computers store information in areas called "clusters" on your hard disk. The smaller the cluster you use, the more efficient it is to save information. In the case of FAT16, the bigger the cluster, the lower the storage efficiency and the waste of storage space. And with the continuous improvement of computer hardware and application, FAT16 file system can not adapt to the requirements of the system well. In this case, an enhanced file system FAT32 is introduced. Compared with FAT16, FAT32 mainly has the following characteristics:

1. The biggest advantage of FAT32 compared to FAT16 is that the disk size that can be supported is 2TB (2047GB), but partitions less than 512MB are not supported. Win 2000, based on FAT32, can support a maximum of 32GB partitions, while the FAT16 win 2000 supports a maximum of 4GB.

2. With smaller clusters, the FAT32 file system can save information more efficiently. If two partitions are 2GB in size, one partition uses the FAT16 file system, and the other partition uses the FAT32 file system. The cluster size of the FAT16 partition is 32KB, and the FAT32 partition is only 4KB in size. This FAT32 is much higher than the FAT16 storage efficiency and typically increases by 15%.

3. The FAT32 file system can reposition the root directory and use a backup copy of fat. In addition, the FAT32 partition's boot record is included in a structure that contains critical data, reducing the likelihood of computer crashes.

　 NTFS file system

The NTFS file system, a security based file system, is a unique file system structure used by Windows NT and is an advanced file system built on protecting file and directory data while taking care of saving storage resources and reducing disk consumption. Using a very wide range of Windows NT 4.0 is the NTFS 4.0 file system, I believe that it brings a strong system security to the vast number of users have left a deep impression. Win 2000 employs a newer version of the NTFS file system,--NTFS 5.0, which enables users to operate and manage computers as quickly and easily as win 9X, while also enjoying the system security that NTFS brings.

　　 the features of NTFS 5.0 are mainly embodied in the following aspects:

1. NTFS can support partitions (if a dynamic disk is called a volume) size can reach 2TB. The maximum size of the FAT32 support partition in Win 2000 is 32GB.

2. NTFS is a recoverable file system. It is rare for a user to run a disk fix on an NTFS partition. NTFS ensures partition consistency by using standard object handling logs and recovery techniques. NTFS uses log files and checkpoint information to automatically restore file system consistency when a system failure event occurs.

3. NTFS supports compression of partitions, folders, and files. Any windows-based application that reads and writes compressed files on an NTFS partition does not need to be uncompressed by other programs, and the files are automatically decompressed when the file is read, and the files are automatically compressed when the file is closed or saved.

4. NTFS uses smaller clusters to manage disk space more efficiently. In the case of the FAT32 file system of Win 2000, the size of the partition at 2GB~8GB is 4KB, the size of the cluster is 8KB when 8GB~16GB, and the cluster size is 16KB when the partition size is 16GB~32GB. The NTFS file system of Win 2000, when the size of the partition below 2GB, the size of the cluster is smaller than the corresponding FAT32 clusters, when the size of the partition is above 2GB (2GB~2TB), the size of the cluster is 4KB. By contrast, NTFS can manage disk space more efficiently than FAT32, minimizing the waste of disk space.

5. On NTFS partitions, you can set access permission permissions for shared resources, folders, and files. Licensing settings include two things: which groups or users are allowed access to folders, files, and shared resources, and what level of access is available to the group or user who has access permission. The settings for access permission permissions apply not only to users of the local computer, but also to network users who access files through shared folders on the network. Security is much higher than accessing folders or files under the FAT32 file system. In addition, in Win 2000 in NTFS format, an audit policy can be applied to audit folders, files, and Active Directory objects, and audit results are recorded in the security log, which allows you to see which groups or users are doing what levels of folders, files, or Active Directory objects through the security log. So that the system may be faced with illegal access, by taking appropriate measures to minimize this security risk. These are not implemented under the FAT32 file system.

6. Disk quota management is available under the NTFS file system of Win 2000. Disk quotas are the amount of disk space that an administrator can use for a user, and each user can only use disk space within the maximum quota range. After you set up disk quotas, you can track and control disk usage for each user, by monitoring to identify users exceeding the quota alert threshold and quota limit, and take appropriate action. The disk quota management function provides the administrator with convenient and reasonable allocation of storage resources to the users, so as to avoid the system crash caused by the uncontrolled use of disk space, and improve the security of the system.

7. NTFS uses a "change" log to track changes that occur in a record file.

　　 Tips (choose FAT32 and NTFS recommendations)

On the security side of the system, the NTFS file system has features that are not available in many FAT32 file systems, and Win 2000 on NTFS runs faster than FAT32 Win 2000, while FAT32 is superior to NTFS in terms of compatibility with win 9X. So when deciding what file system to use in Win 2000, you should start with the following points:

1. The computer is a single Win 2000 system, or the use of multiple-boot win 2000 system;

2. The number and capacity of locally installed disks;

3. Whether there are security considerations.

Based on the above considerations, if you want to use a partition greater than 32GB in Win 2000, you can only select the NTFS format. If the computer is used as a stand-alone, do not need to consider security issues, more attention to the compatibility with win 9X, then FAT32 is the best choice. If your computer is a network workstation or more for the security of the system, and can operate in a single Win 2000 mode, it is strongly recommended that all partitions be formatted with NTFS, and that if you want to be compatible with previous applications, you will need to install win 9X or other operating systems and recommend a multiple boot system. This requires more than two partitions, one for the NTFS format, the other for the FAT32 format, and for the fastest speed, it is recommended that Win 2000 's system files be placed on an NTFS partition, while other personal files are placed in the FAT32 partition

　　 does NTFS fit you ?

Whether you choose to convert FAT32 to NTFS in multiple operating systems should be determined according to your situation. If you are heavy on performance and security, you can convert FAT32 to NTFS, and if you are serious about operability and compatibility, you should keep FAT32 and do not convert because there are more operating systems that support FAT32. NTFS is not compatible with Windows Me and previous versions of Windows. FAT32 is recommended for systems other than Windows xp/2003.

　　 convert FAT32 to NTFS

In Windows 2000/XP, you can type convert e:/fs NTFS at a command prompt (assuming that e disk originally used FAT32), and then automatically convert e disk to the NTFS file system on the next reboot when you enter. It's a good idea to defragment disk fragments to speed up the conversion and back up the data to other not-converted partitions.

　　 convert NTFS to FAT32

Converting NTFS to FAT32 is relatively complex and, without the need for older files, we can use the Windows 2000/xp installation CD to complete the conversion and, when installed, select "format the disk partition with the FAT file system." If you need to save the original file, you can use partition Magic for DOS to convert, but this conversion is slow and data is easily lost, so it is strongly recommended to back up good data before conversion.

　　 Conversion Issues More

If the current disk partition already has an NTFS file system, and a lot of data has been saved, including encrypted files or folders, the conversion to FAT32 will cause the encrypted file to be inaccessible, and the file name will be problematic after the conversion because the two file systems use different naming methods

　　 Should I use the NTFS file system?

Windwos 9X Universal when there are Windows NT system, because Windows NT system for commercial platform, the general home machine is installed Windows 9X, when Windows 2000 launch, Because of its large size and many applications and a different operation than Windows 9X, the average user has not been exposed to Windows 2000 and, of course, has not used the NTFS file system. Of course, NT 3.X and NT 4.X system is very early out, but also very few people, because it is not suitable for home, here is not much to say. The introduction of XP is refreshing, more and more people have installed XP, but also caused them to face a problem, that is the title of this post "should not use the NTFS file system?"

On a computer running Windows 2000/XP, NTFS is the system-recommended file system, and NTFS is the easiest file system to handle large-capacity hard disks, and the NTFS file system provides a variety of new features and other more important security features for the directory. When you format a partition using the NTFS file system, the partitions are less fragmented and performance is higher.

One thing to note is that earlier Windows 9.x systems were unable to access NTFS partitions directly, and heard patches, but not everything. So, if you're not willing to give up Windows 9.X, this article may not be useful to you.

　　 advantages of NTFS partitioning methods

Since Windows2000 began, Microsoft has been recommending the use of NTFS disk format, and then the introduction of XP to match this disk format to play its biggest performance advantage. Not only the Microsoft promotion, the NTFS disk format because of its own technical advantages, with the current hardware, network development trend of the role, is gradually accepted by the majority of users.

　 1, the impact of the large hard drive.

Today's hard disk capacity is growing in multiples, increasing by one or more per annum, and prices are falling. This way, based on the traditional FAT file system partitioning method, will gradually reflect its inherent weakness--let's take a look at Fat32,fat32 is the FAT file system of the enhanced version, available in the 512MB to 2TB Drive, although so, in FAT32 format, If the partition space is too large, because of the relatively large disk clusters, in the storage of multiple small files, will cause a great waste of space utilization.

By contrast, NTFS's disk-formatted clusters are fairly fine-grained, effectively leveraging disk space and not easily fragmented. In addition, the NTFS disk format has advantages over FAT systems when it handles a single large file, such as video capture and editing. With the development of massive hard drives, it is increasingly necessary to use the NTFS partitioning format-you don't want to divide the partition number into 24-letter letters to accommodate partition capacity? Therefore, Microsoft recommends that using NTFS instead of FAT32 file system to format partitions larger than 32GB is justified.

　　 2, the impact of the next generation of Windows operating system

Over time, as the next generation of Windows transitions, Microsoft is likely to take the form of abandoning the DOS-compliant installation and maintenance operating system, that is, a new direct graphical interface to install a few generations of Windows directly after the CD is started, This avoids the negative impact of the DOS-mode memory configuration environment on Windows installation, but also allows many of the programs that break their activation settings to fail (the memory configuration in a DOS environment is more complex for beginners, and many people install XP failures in addition to hardware compatibility issues, for this reason); At the same time, for end users, the new installation mode can better analyze the user's hardware system during the installation, provide more friendly hints and more trouble-solving function. Using the graphical interface to manage the installation tasks directly, based on the 1th narrative, Windows is likely to require users to format a new generation of mass hard disks over 32G in order to continue with the installation. It is also possible to forcibly promote the NTFS disk format by removing support for fat systems in the new operating system.

　 3. User security and management issues caused by networking and multiple PC connections

The future of computer online work and entertainment is irreversible trend, as the internet in the world more popular, online computer security and management problems are increasingly prominent, and many people in the home due to upgrade, already have more than one computer. Only the security performance and manageability of the ntfs,windows system can be truly guaranteed. Whether you're connected to the Internet or a user builds a local area network at home, NTFS makes it more flexible for users to configure and manage computer resources. The advantages of NTFS, such as disk quotas, user rights and personal file encryption, and network applications, have been introduced and are not repeated here.

In addition, NTFS supports the POSIX standard based on UNIX services and is highly portable. This ensures that it is compatible with other network platforms.

Of course, all this is premised on the premise that Windows is still a dominant operating system. From the current situation, it is not a problem for Microsoft to maintain its position as a leading software industry. More than 500G of hard drives are likely to appear at the end of next year or early in the beginning, which is one of the most powerful drivers of the NTFS disk format as a mainstream partitioning format.

As can be seen from the above points, for home PCs, the biggest advantage of using NTFS is that the 1th is that NTFS has better support and leverage for large hard drives, and 3rd is primarily for business users, and I would also like to say to those entry-level users that if you use NTFS and disk quotas on NTFS , user rights and personal file encryption, etc. functions are not very understanding, it is best not to set the permissions of the directory, or may have unintended consequences.

　　 Four advantages of fine-count NTFS

　　 1. File system with false warning

In an NTFS partition, the first 16 sectors are the partition boot sector, which holds the partition boot code, followed by the Master file table (Master files table, hereinafter referred to as the MFT), but if the disk sector where it resides appears to be corrupted, The NTFS file system makes it more intelligent to swap the MFT to other sectors of the hard disk, ensuring the normal use of the file system, which ensures the normal operation of Windows. The previous FAT16 and FAT32 fat (file allocation table) can only be fixed behind the partition boot sector, and once the sector is damaged, the entire file system will be paralyzed.

But this intelligent mobile MFT is certainly not perfect, and if there is an error in the partition boot code pointing to the MFT, the NTFS file system will not know where to look for the MFT, thus reporting an error message like "Disk is not formatted." To avoid such problems, the partition boot code contains a validation program that is specifically responsible for debugging.

　　 2. File read speed more efficient!

I'm afraid a lot of people have heard that the NTFS file system has many new features in security, but do you know that NTFS also has a significantly higher file processing speed than FAT32?

For DOS Inkling readers must be familiar with the various attributes of the file: read-only, hidden, system and so on. These properties are still present in the NTFS file system, but vary greatly. Here, everything is a property, even the file content is a property. The list of these attributes is not fixed and can be incremented at any time, which is why you will see more attributes on the NTFS partition than the file.

File attributes in the NTFS file system can be divided into two types: Resident properties and Non-resident properties, and resident properties are stored directly in the MFT, such as file names and related time information (such as creation time, modification time, etc.) that are permanently resident properties, and very resident properties are kept outside the MFT. However, a complex indexing method is used to indicate this. If the file or folder is less than 1500 bytes (in fact, there are quite a few files or folders of this size in our computer), all of their attributes, including content, reside in the MFT, and the MFT is loaded into memory when Windows starts, so that when you view the files or folders, In fact, their content is already in the cache, naturally greatly improve the file and folder access speed.

　　 Small Tips

　　 why fat is less efficient than NTFS

The file allocation table for the FAT file system lists only the name and the starting cluster of each file and does not indicate whether the file exists, but it needs to be judged by the record of the folder in which it resides, and the folder portal is included in the index of the file allocation table. Therefore, when accessing the file, first read the file allocation table to determine that the file already exists, and then read the file allocation table again to find the first cluster of files, and then through the chain of retrieval to find all the files of the storage cluster, the final confirmation before you can access.

　 3. Disk Self-repair function

NTFS utilizes a "self-healing" system that automatically detects and fixes logical and physical errors on the hard disk. In the FAT16 and FAT32 times, we need to use the ScanDisk program to mark bad sectors on disk, but when errors are found, the data is often written in bad sectors, and the damage is done.

The NTFS file system does not, for each read or write, check that the sector is correct or not. NTFS reports this error when it is read, and errors are found when writing files to disk, and NTFS will store the data intelligently in a good location, and the operation will not be affected. In both cases, NTFS is marked on bad sectors to prevent future use. This mode of operation allows disk errors to be detected earlier and avoid catastrophic accidents.

Some people find it hard to find disk errors when you convert a disk to an NTFS file system, using ScanDisk. After the introduction, do you know why this is?

　　 4. Event log function of "disaster relief"

In the NTFS file system, any operation can be viewed as an "event". For example, copy a file from C to disk D, and the entire replication process is an event. The event log always supervises the entire operation, and when it finds the full file on the target--d disk, it records the next "completed" tag. If a power outage occurs in the middle of the event log, "completed" will not be logged, and NTFS can complete the event just after the call. The function of the event log is not that it can recover the loss, but that it supervises all events, so that the system will always know what tasks have been completed, those tasks have not been completed, to ensure that the system will not be due to power outages and other unexpected events, the greatest degree of reduction of destructive.

　　 5. What additional features do I need?

In fact, NTFS also provides disk compression, data encryption, disk quotas (right-click partitions in My Computer and parallel properties, go to the Quota tab), dynamic Disk Management, and more, these features are introduced in many newspapers and magazines, which are not detailed here.

NTFS provides different access control, privacy, and security management features for different users. If your system is in a stand-alone environment, such as a home computer, these features do not mean a lot to you.

　　 Small Tips

　　 NTFS converted from fat with a discount on performance

If the partition is converted from FAT32 to the NTFS file system (using the command "Convert drive letter/fs:ntfs"), not only will the MFT be prone to disk fragmentation, but, worse, Disk Defragmenter often fails to defragment the MFT in the partitions, seriously impacting system performance. Therefore, it is recommended that you format the partitions directly into the NTFS file system.

　　 7 Excellent questions and answers in NTFS format

　 1, what is NTFS?

To understand NTFS, we should first recognize fat. FAT (file allocation table) is the meaning of the????? For us, its significance lies in the management of the hard disk partition. FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS are the three most common file systems available today.

FAT16: We used the DOS, Windows 95 use FAT16 file system, now commonly used Windows 98/2000/XP and other systems support FAT16 file system. It can manage up to 2GB of partitions up to a maximum, but there can be up to 65,525 clusters per partition (the cluster is the configured unit of disk space). With the increase of hard disk or partition capacity, the space of each cluster will become bigger and larger, which leads to waste of hard disk space.

FAT32: With the advent of high-capacity hard drives, starting with Windows 98, FAT32 is starting to pop. It is an enhanced version of FAT16 that can support partitions up to 2TB (2048GB). FAT32 uses a smaller cluster than FAT16, thus effectively saving hard disk space.

NTFS: A disk format designed specifically for network and disk quotas, file encryption, and other management security features supported by the Microsoft Windows NT kernel's series of operating systems. With the popularization of Windows 2000/XP with NT as the kernel, many individual users begin to use NTFS. NTFS also stores data files in clusters, but the size of the clusters in NTFS does not depend on the size of the disk or partition. The reduction of cluster size not only reduces the waste of disk space, but also reduces the possibility of producing disk fragmentation. NTFS supports file encryption management, which provides users with a higher level of security assurance.

　 2, what system can support the NTFS file system?

Only Windows NT/2000/XP can recognize NTFS systems, and Windows 9x/me and DOS systems do not support and identify NTFS-formatted disks. Since the DOS system does not support NTFS, it is best not to make the C: Disk an NTFS system, which is easy to repair under the DOS system after the system crashes.

Operating systems supported by the file system

FAT16 Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP Unix,linux,dos

FAT32 Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP

NTFS Windows NT/2000/XP

　　 3. Do I need NTFS?

Windows 2000/XP is backward-compatible on file systems, and it supports FAT16/FAT32 and NTFS, where NTFS is a Windows NT/2000/XP dedicated format that makes more efficient use of disk space, supports file-level compression, have better file security. If you are installing only Windows 2000/XP, it is recommended that you select the NTFS file system. If multiple boot systems, the system disk (C disk) must be FAT16 or FAT32, or multiple booting is not supported. Of course, the file system for other partitions can be NTFS.

　　 4. How do I convert a FAT partition to NTFS?

Windows 2000/XP provides the partition format conversion tool "Convert.exe". Convert.exe is a DOS command-line program that comes with Windows 2000 that allows you to convert FAT to NTFS without damaging the FAT file system. Its usage is very simple, first in Windows 2000 environment switch to the DOS command Line window, at the prompt type: D:>convert need to convert the letter/fs:ntfs such as System e disk originally FAT16/32, now need to convert to NTFS, you can use the following format: D : >convert e:/fs:ntfs All conversions will be completed after the system restarts.

In addition, you can use special conversion tools, such as the famous hard disk Lossless partition tool partition Magic, it is very easy to use it to complete the conversion of the disk file format. First select the partition you want to convert in the list of disk partitions in the interface. Select the Convert Partition button from the interface button bar, or select convert from the "Operations" Item drop-down menu in the Interface menu bar. Activates the functional interface. Select the conversion output to "NTFS" in the interface, then click the "OK" button to return to the main interface of the program. Click Apply in the lower-right corner of the interface to add settings. The system then reboots and completes the transformation of the partition format.

　　 5, although the NTFS format zoning is superior, but in this section how to retrieve the accidentally lost files?

You can use specialized software, such as final data for NTFS, or get data back for NTFS. Both of these software have a good file recovery effect, and if there is no file operation after the file is deleted, the recovery rate is close to 100%. So do not wait until the file is deleted before installing the software, preferably with the Windows System installation, and in the case of file mistakenly deleted immediately after the recovery operation, generally can be deleted files back.

　　 6, my Windows

2000/XP installed in the C disk (NTFS format), if you can not enter the C disk in DOS, what happens when Windows crashes? You can use the Windows 2000/xp installation CD to boot to repair windows, or make Windows 2000/ XP installation starts the emergency disk. Note: The installation disk maker for Windows 2000 is in the program's installation CD, and Windows XP emergency disk production is provided independently and needs to be downloaded from Microsoft's website.

　 7, Final data for NTFS or get Data back for

　　 can NTFS repair a hard disk that is accidentally formatted?

OK. Both software can recover the formatted deleted data (except for low-level formatting). The normal format deletes only the data information, the low-level format deletes all data area, when the hard disk technology is not as developed as now, the disk surface is very easy to wear. Hard disk users often use low-level formatting to read errors that often occur. Repair the formatted hard drive, you can only remove the hard drive, install it on another computer, and then perform a file repair operation. Final data can even fix hard drives that are damaged by the CIH virus.