W

indows XP Home gives users the

option of formatting their hard
drives using FAT32 (file allocation table;
32-bit version) or the more sophisticated
NTFS (New Technology File System),
but before making that decision, it helps
to know more about how the two for-
mats work.
The example below shows how the
same 20GB hard drive is affected by using
FAT32 and NTFS. With a contiguous
20GB partition, FAT32 uses 32KB clusters,
while NTFS uses 4KB clusters. Taking a
closer look at a 1MB portion of the drive
(1,024KB), we see that 32 FAT32 clusters
fit in that space, while 256 NTFS clusters
fit in the same area.
How FAT32 & NTFS Work
FAT32
The smallest amount of
data FAT32 can address is
32KB. Storing a 16KB file
(represented by the shaded
cells) takes up only half the
available space in the cluster,
and the other half is wasted.
Storing an additional 16KB file
would require a separate clus-
ter, wasting twice as much
space, making FAT32 a rela-
tively wasteful format in terms
of capacity.
]
32KB cluster
[
NTFS
NTFS addresses data in
4KB chunks, meaning the
same 16KB file completely fills
four clusters, leaving the other
four free to store more files.
No space is wasted.
4KB cluster [
[
]
1KB cell
[
1KB cell