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The configuration of my system is as follows: Pentium III, 40 GB hard disk, Samsung CD-RW and D-link external modem. My system is very slow and a lot of applications have expired due to shareware and demo software. I formatted my system about three years ago and would like to reformat it now. I know there are three types of formats: fat, fat32, and ntfs that are possible. Could you explain what they mean and which one I ought to opt for? Also, what operating system should I install?

Srinath Rao

The newer operating systems such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP support three file systems for formatting the hard disk. They are FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems.

Basically, a file system is a system for organising directories and files, generally in terms of how it is implemented in the disk operating system.

FAT: The fat (file allocation table) file system is an old, out-dated file system also called FAT16. Old operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 (prior to OSR2) used FAT file systems. Windows 2000 supports the maximum size of fat file system, 4 GB only. So it is advisable not to use FAT file system.

FAT32: Operating systems such as Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Me, 2000, and Windows XP support fat32 partitions. The fat32 file system is more efficient than fat because it supports larger partition sizes. For example, Windows 2000 will format FAT32 partitions up to 32GB in size. If you would like to use dual boot with Windows 98 or Windows Me with later OS such as Windows 2000/XP/2003, then you will have to use FAT32 instead of NTFS file systems because Windows 98/Me will not support NTFS file systems. You can convert the FAT32 file system to NTFS file system anytime. After converting to NTFS you cannot revert back to the FAT32 file system.

To convert a FAT or FAT32 file system to NTFS, please do the following: click Start - Run - type "convert C: /fs:ntfs" and click ok. Here C refers to the c drive to convert.

NTFS: The Windows NT File System (NTFS) is the latest file system supported by Windows 2000/XP/2003. It is a highly reliable and recoverable file system. The additional features of NTFS file systems are that they support NTFS compression (compression attribute), "Encrypting File System (EFS)" that is Encrypting attribute, Disk quotas, mounting volume as directory, local file and folder security. It formats NTFS partitions up to 2 TB. If you would like to use only one operating system (or dual boot without Windows 98/Me) then it is advisable always to use the NTFS file system.

Regarding the Operating System, Windows 98 is obsolete. Microsoft itself has withdrawn support for Windows 98. You can install either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. If you are installing Windows 2000, please make sure service pack 4 is installed and for Windows XP service pack 2 is essential. It is advisable to use the latest operating system Windows XP with service packs and required Windows updates.

Solution by M. Sampath

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