Backup File System - FAT32 or NTFS

Graham:

The file system that you are backing up can be any supported type - FAT32, NTFS, ext3, Linux swap, etc. It does not matter that the backup is saved on a FAT32 partition; it will be restored as its original type. If you create a new backup location you should make it NTFS.

The decision by Acronis to use FAT32 for the Secure Zone partition type is flawed, in my opinion. FAT32 is outdated and not very tolerant of errors. NTFS is a much more robust file system and would have been a better choice. You would be better off saving your image files to an internal or external disk that is formatted as NTFS instead of saving them to the Secure Zone. I wouldn't trust FAT32 with my archived data.

Mark,

Thank You for that advice...I will make my "alternate" backup partition location NTFS.

Thanks Again

Graham

I certainly agree that NTFS is better than FAT32 without any doubt but not trusting FAT32 seems a bit extreme. There has been and still is lots of data stored on FAT32 partitions without any systemic trouble.

Perhaps the most annoying feature of FAT32 for Acronis users is the 4GB maximum filesize which causes the archive to be automatically broken into 4GB chunks. This doesn't cause any problems for TI since it is well aware of this and treats the archive as a whole without any intervention by the user. For people saving their own larger than 4GB files from other applications or copying from NTFS to FAT32 the 4GB maximum is a problem because it will likely return a "disk full" message even though there is lots of space.

For interchange of files between OSs, FAT32 is much more a standard than NTFS which is why preformatted USB external drives tend to come formatted as FAT32. Macs, Win98, etc can use FAT32 but not NTFS natively.

Interchange of files used to be a bigger issue than it is today. NTFS is now so commonplace and the NTFS-3G implementation works well on Mac OS and Linux.

To me the biggest problem with FAT32 is what happens when the power fails. Since FAT32 is not a journaling file system, a power failure during a disk write will almost always damage the file system. NTFS will almost always survive a power failure, even while a disk is being written to.

Perhaps my comment was a tad extreme, but I got pretty tired of running chkdsk to fix FAT32 file systems.

I don't think the SZ is really FAT32. I think it's a proprietary format and looks to the Win files system like Fat32, which means it can live with it, but, as you know, you need ATI to be able to address it or deal with it.

I've always argued, if you just want a convenient place to store backups, a spare hdisk is a great way to go; they're terribly cheap for tons of space. And, if you really want security, put your backups on an external drive and keep the drive in a safe physical location under lock and keep. the SZ is like putting a nice lock on your door to protect the savings stored inside you mattress, which should really be in an actual vault somewhere -- the savings, that is, not the mattress ;) .

Of course, when you have the option, choose a modern file system rather than any of the old FAT systems. Those lean and fragile files systems were designed for economy, not safety, in days when a megabyte was a terribly large amount of memory and a 10 MB harddisk was considered huge. ;)

Mark,

Is it possible to convert a fat32 drive to ntfs without having to remove the data files and then pu them back?

Cliff

Cliff:

Yes, it's possible. Microsoft describes the procedure here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

Make a backup before converting in case something goes wrong.

Thank you very much Mark. I will do that tomorrow. I expected the answer to come back "no".

Cliff

This should be a painless process. Just follow the instructions given above or go into windows help and search for convert and you'll get the instructions. I've done this with lots of drives.

Thanks Scott,

I backed up the data today and will do the convert tonight.

Cliff