External hard drive - FAT32 or NTFS?

buyitall

I have ordered an external hard drive which is FAT32 formatted. I keep reading on this forum that NTFS is better. Should I reformat when it arrives? My existing hard drive is FAT32 and I am running Windows xp. I am not much of a techie, so only want to do things that will really make a difference. Hope this makes sense to someone! Thanks

albertross_2

If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Chippy_Minton

The main limitation of FAT32 is its 4 GB maximum file size, so if you'll be using the new drive for files bigger than that - for example video files, drive images, or the single large backup files created by some backup programs - you'll need to reformat it as NTFS.

buyitall

If I leave it as it is to start off, is it too late to reformat at a later date if I find that I need to back up files larger than 4 gb?

Chippy_Minton

No, you can convert it to NTFS at any time without losing any data.

buyitall

Thanks, you're a star! Having spent my ICT life just bungling along, I'm trying to do it right from now on! It's a steep learning curve....

Blacksheep1979

ntfs tends to suffer less from fragmentation issues than fat - for the 3mins it'll take to reformat it you might as well.