Fat32

I just bought two notebooks with PIIIs, 256 RAM, and 12 GIG HDs (from a computer broker). Both came with a fresh install of XP Pro and Office 2003; however, they were formatted using FAT32. No software CDs were included with the computers, but the software seems legit (so far).

Both computers will be used for surfing the web and light word processing.

Everything seems to work fine, but I’m wondering if I should reformat in NTFS and reinstall XP and Office. I don’t know the advantages/disadvantages between the two file systems, but everything I read says NTFS is the way to go.

Since these machines are not meant to be powerhouses, I’m thinking of leaving well enough alone (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Adam

 

You could try it out and see how it goes. One limitation of Fat32 is no files bigger than 2GB.

 

if you want you can use the Windows 'convert' tool to convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing your data.