when to use what files system

[Byan]

I know that NTFS is slower on smaller partitions and faster on larger ones..
this is the opposite for FAT32

is there any site that tells you when that is for each file system, what the optimal size is and when it is a bad idea to use it, ect.?

[Platypus]

I think in most cases the speed differences would be small enough to really be a non-issue these days. There will be more variation with position on the hard drive than between the two file systems.

There can be a severe speed penalty for a partition that has been converted to NTFS from a FAT32 partition that was created on an older Windows/DOS platform that used incompatable cluster alignment. The NTFS conversion is forced to use 512 byte clusters, resulting in file tables that are enormous and easily fragmented. NTFS is much the best created from scratch.

Unless we're talking about a really small partition, it's best to judge on other features of the file systems, for example using FAT32 where compatability with non-NTFS aware OSs is necessary or simple file recovery and universal virus scan procedures are sought, and NTFS where its extra features like ruggedness, security, native compression or encryption are desirable.

[Byan]

well, let me give a hypothetical question then
someone has windows 2000, windows XP, and windows XP 64 all on the same computer installed on different paritions
he uses windows XP 32 most of the time, so that is a 30GB partion NTFS
he has windows 2000 on a 4 (or maybe smaller)gig partition and windows XP 64 on a 4 gig (or maybe smaller)..
I would think that it would be best to use FAT32 on the 4 gigs rather then NTFS because of the size...
would I be correct?

[Train]

I have had W2k abd XP sp1 on 3 GB partitions and could see no difference is speed, etc. Now the 5200 rpm or slower hdd, well that is a different thing.