Bootcamp : Winxp : FAT vs NTSC format

Bootcamp : Winxp : FAT vs NTFS format

hi Guys..
Tiday i was installing WinXp...
I was confused at one point to continue with FAT or NTFS format ....
I use Winxp in my Macbook to purely play games ...

So, can u advice which one to proceed with?

I think XP will only install on NTFS partitions, but I could be wrong.

XP will install on FAT32 and NTFS no problem. If you use FAT32 then you can write files to windows partition form OS X. I would suggest NTFS anyway, cause it's a lot better in many ways. Only use FAT32 if you need to write files to windows partition using OS X.

No , it ca be installed as i did it

I proceeded with FAT32 ... when i restarted holding Options buuton i didnt find Windows drive ... to Boot with Winxp i had to come to disk utilities in OS X and restart ?
Had anyone had similar problem?

Hey, I learned something new today!

well..basically the decision factors are as the following.
if you need to have native write access to your bootcamp partition go with fat...but if you purely use windows to play games I suggest going with ntfs.
and if you still need to write some files from OS X on your bootcamp partition you may find this helpful (mafuse ntfs3g imountit)

baggss said:

Hey, I learned something new today!

Click to expand...

XP will install on FAT32 no problem it's just it's formatter will only format FAT32 up to 32GB I believe.

That said I prefer NTFS for any serious work in Windows. Also FAT32 has that 4GB single file size limit which can get in the way with large video files also.

There is a driver coming out (it's in Beta right now) that allows OSX to both Read AND Write to NTFS and NTFS is a superior file system to FAT32.