ARCHIVED: When installing Windows NT, which file system should I choose?

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Note: UITS recommends that you use a current version of Windows on computers connected to the Indiana University network; see Recommended Windows operating systems at IU.

Windows NT 4.0 will not support HPFS; it only supports FAT and NTFS. Windows NT 3.51 supports FAT, HPFS, and NTFS. Here are the characteristics of the three file systems:

FAT (File Allocation Table)

This is the most basic of the file systems. DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95, in addition to Windows NT 3.51, all support the FAT file system.

A FAT file system requires very little overhead and supports long filenames when used by Windows NT and Windows 95. The system converts long filenames to short filenames when accessed by DOS, Windows 3.x, or 16-bit Windows applications running under Windows 95 or Windows NT. FAT file systems do not support the NT security model, so you cannot protect your files from other users.

HPFS (High Performance File System)

HPFS is the native file system used on IBM OS/2. Windows NT supports HPFS for the purposes of backward compatibility, so that OS/2 users can easily convert to Windows NT. It can use long filenames, but DOS and Windows 3.x cannot access files that use these long filenames, since HPFS does not generate the necessary corresponding short filenames.

NTFS (New Technology File System)

NTFS is the native file system used in Windows NT. It supports long filenames, and will generate short filenames for use with DOS and 16-bit Windows applications. NTFS implements the full NT security model, and it supports per-file compression.

Issues

DOS and Windows 95 cannot read NTFS partitions. If you are setting up a computer to dual boot using DOS, Windows 3.x, or Windows 95 in addition to Windows NT, you should use FAT on at least the primary partition. FAT is inefficient when drive sizes get large, since cluster size (and therefore minimum file size) increases with drive size.

You should only use HPFS as a migration tool, or if you are going to dual boot the computer using OS/2 and Windows NT. In most cases, when you install Windows NT, it converts the file system to NTFS. HPFS also does not scale well, and so it is best to use it on partitions of between 200-400MB.

Since NTFS has a large overhead, it is best to use it on very large hard drives or partitions. The minimum efficient size for an NTFS partition is about 200MB.