Should I reformat my external hard drive?

Factual Questions
1

I just purchased a new external hard drive from Circuit City. It comes peformated in FAT 32. Should I reformat it to NTFS?

My computer runs WinXPHome/SP2. The external drive will initially be used to hold data while I do a clean reinstallation of the OS. After the OS is reinstalled, updated, and running securely, I hope to use the new drive as a set-it-and-forget-it backup. The only time I can imagine transporting this drive to another computer is to bring some huge file to my work computer. The work computer runs WinXPPro/SP2, so NTFS should still work.

So basically, should I go with NTFS or leave it FAT32?

2

“Microsoft highly recommends you choose NTFS.”

Here is a page that discusses the issues. I’d go with NTFS.

http://www.thundercloud.net/information-avenue/ntfs-vs-fat32/

3

While many benefits are negligible for casual use, you should still reformat it if it is new. A quick format should be just that.

4

Yeah, quick format takes about 3 seconds; regular NTFS format takes closer to an hour.

As for file system type: if you want to ever access the drive using Windows 98 or ME, then stick with FAT32. If you don’t care about that, go with NTFS.

5

If you work with large files at all (say DVD image .iso) you’ll definitely want NTFS. One of the limitations of FAT32 is a maximum, single file size of 4GB.