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Formatting the Drive
In order to remove data from the hard disk, the partitions must be formatted.
Caution!
You must be totally sure about which drive letter to enter so that you don’t format a
drive that contains data you wish to keep.
You can carry out the formatting using Windows® Explorer (right click on the drive and select
format).
The following section outlines the various options available when formatting your hard drive.
Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32
When you use Windows XP and Windows 2000 you can choose between three file systems for
disk partitions: NTFS, FAT, and FAT32. Use the information below to compare the file systems.
NTFS is the recommended file system for the following reasons:
NTFS is more powerful than FAT or FAT32, and includes features required for hosting Active Di-
rectory as well as other important security features. You can use features such as Active Directory
and domain-based security only by choosing NTFS as your file system.
It is easy to convert partitions to NTFS. The Setup program makes conversion easy, whether you
use partitions FAT, FAT32, or the older version of NTFS. This kind of conversion keeps your files
intact (unlike formatting a partition). If you do not need to keep your files intact and you have a
FAT or FAT32 partition, it is recommended that you format the partition with NTFS rather than
convert from FAT or FAT32. Formatting a partition erases all data on the partition and allows you
to start with a clean drive.
Whether a partition is formatted with NTFS or converted using the convert command, NTFS is the
better choice of file system. (For more information about Convert.exe, after completing Setup,
click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER. In the command window, type help con-
vert and then press ENTER.)
In order to maintain access control on files and folders and support limited accounts, you must
use NTFS. If you use FAT32, all users will have access to all files on your hard drive, regardless of
their account type (administrator, limited, or standard.)
NTFS is the file system that works best with large disks. (The next best file system for large disks is
FAT32.)
There is one situation in which you might want to choose FAT or FAT32 as your file system. If it is
necessary to have a computer that will sometimes run an earlier version of Windows and other
times run Windows XP, you will need to have a FAT or FAT32 partition as the primary (or startup)
partition on the hard disk. Most earlier versions of Windows cannot access a partition if it uses the
latest version of NTFS. The two exceptions are Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 with Service
Pack 4 or later. Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later has access to partitions with the latest
version of NTFS, but with some limitations: It cannot access files that have been stored using
NTFS features that did not exist when Windows NT 4.0 was released.
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