Forums - Music techology
Subject: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Original Message 1/13 31-Jul-98 @ 12:41 AM - FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
first I assumed FAT 32 because of smaller clusters
on large drives, but one person said go back to
FAT 16, its faster. Is this really true ? Wouldn,t
audio take up more space and I thought if the FAT
is 32 that means 32 bit right. Also, are smaller partitions really better or a big roomy 6 or 7 gig drive ? ALL COMMENTS GREATFULLY APPReCIATED
Message 2/13 31-Jul-98 @ 03:23 AM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Peace
Message 3/13 02-Aug-98 @ 11:17 AM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Message 4/13 02-Aug-98 @ 01:10 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Its a well known fact that FAT32 should NOT be used for digtal audio purposes and hard-disk recording!
Its something to do with that 4k thing that Islandman's on about.
Message 5/13 02-Aug-98 @ 01:26 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Message 6/13 02-Aug-98 @ 07:18 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
16 bit FAT AND 32 bit FAT. There was really NO difference.
But: I have got an UltraWide SCSI Adaptec busmaster controller (2940).
With E-IDE you should use 16 bit FAT, with Ultra DMA IDE there should be no measurable differences too.
Message 7/13 02-Aug-98 @ 10:07 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Who says it's a well known fact you shouldn't use fat32 for hd recording ? If this is the case, I'd like to know why. My fat32 partition is faster (tested with that IQS tool), isn't that one of the criteria for hd recording ?
Message 8/13 03-Aug-98 @ 02:51 AM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Message 9/13 03-Aug-98 @ 03:47 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
Question: Which is better for audio?
Answer: Depends.
FAT16: Stores files in larger cluster sizes (which can eat hard drive space), is a BIT (but only a wee bit) more stable and can interact with other file systems more easily.
FAT32: Stores files in smaller cluster sizes (which saves hard drive space), is faster then FAT16 by a long shot, but sometimes has problems with other file systems. FAT32 exists only with certain versions of Win95 (there are 5 versions BTW.)
So to make a long story short, use FAT16 is you have plenty of HD space, a fast CPU and you are on some sort of a network, otherwise, rebuild your system with FAT32.
***WARNING*** Backup EVERYTHING before converting. There are conversion utilities available but they are not always stable or thorough. SO USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
Message 10/13 03-Aug-98 @ 04:04 PM - RE: FAT 16 or FAT 32 for digital audio ?
FAT32 is a significantly better filesystem. It's faster and more stable, and unless you enjoy dealing with the clunky way Windows deals with multiple drives, you don't have much of a choice when formatting a large drive. The cons, as was mentioned before, are that a Windows 95 OSR2 system running on a FAT32 drive WILL NOT want to interact with a FAT16 volume. The issue raised in an earlier post regarding networking actually does not apply because the clients and protocols involved in sharing data over a network are designed to be storage independant. In my home I have a PC with a FAT16 drive, a PC with a FAT32 drive, and a PC running NT with NTFS volumes. Interoperability is not a problem.
I want to restate, though, that you NEED TO MAKE A BACKUP. Although the conversion process in Windows '98seems to be very good, I've found that the best way to change a filesystem is back up system data, FDISK and reformat the drive, and reload the OS and applications from scratch.
Feel free to e-mail me at 99devils@mindless.com any time you have a computer-related problem like this and want advice from someone who is a computer professional. You will eventually get screwed if you keep listening to some dude off the net who watches Wired-TV once a week and thinks A is better than B because he read it in PC weekly or something.
-Craig
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