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Formatting the drive
In order to remove data from the hard disk, the partitions must be for-
matted.
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 partitioning using Windows
®
Explorer (right click
on the drive and select format).
Read which formatting options you have in the next section.
Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32
When you use Windows XP/Vista/Windows® 7 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 Directory 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 your partitions used 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 al-
lows 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 convert 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. Earlier versions of Win-
