NTFS file systems have many advantages over FAT32 file systems that's why I would suggest to convert existing FAT32 partitions to NTFS. Let me first explain how you can find out which file system is used by a partition / hard drive in Windows. Click on My Computer and right-click the hard drive or partition that you want to check. A window should pop up displaying the File System of the selected drive.
If it states Fat32 you should consider changing this to NTFS. Let me explain why it might be advantageous to do that. Generally speaking one could say that NTFS improves performance, reliability (Fat32 are more susceptible to disk errors), security and disk space usage if you have been using FAT32 file systems previously.
There are some exceptions to this rule which should be noted here. First, if the size of your hard drive is below 8 Gigabytes Fat32 might be the better choice disk space wise. It is definitely the better choice if you have a dual boot system with an older Microsoft operating system such as Windows 98.
It is possible to convert a FAT32 to NTFS without data loss. I would still advise to make backups of the important data before starting the conversion in case something goes wrong. (Power failure anyone ?) Please note that this is a one way process, you can't convert the file system back to FAT32 easily.
Press Windows R, write cmd and hit enter. You only need to write down one command: convert c: /fs:ntfs where c: is the drive that you want to convert. Just change c to whatever drive you want to convert. The conversion will start after rebooting the machine. All data on that drive will still be available after the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS.
Still running Fat32 ? Time to convert to NTFS
If it states Fat32 you should consider changing this to NTFS. Let me explain why it might be advantageous to do that. Generally speaking one could say that NTFS improves performance, reliability (Fat32 are more susceptible to disk errors), security and disk space usage if you have been using FAT32 file systems previously.
There are some exceptions to this rule which should be noted here. First, if the size of your hard drive is below 8 Gigabytes Fat32 might be the better choice disk space wise. It is definitely the better choice if you have a dual boot system with an older Microsoft operating system such as Windows 98.
It is possible to convert a FAT32 to NTFS without data loss. I would still advise to make backups of the important data before starting the conversion in case something goes wrong. (Power failure anyone ?) Please note that this is a one way process, you can't convert the file system back to FAT32 easily.
Press Windows R, write cmd and hit enter. You only need to write down one command: convert c: /fs:ntfs where c: is the drive that you want to convert. Just change c to whatever drive you want to convert. The conversion will start after rebooting the machine. All data on that drive will still be available after the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS.
Still running Fat32 ? Time to convert to NTFS