what would be the pros and cons of switching to NTFS? if i didnt want it anymore, would i be able to reformat it back to FAT?

NTFS has higher security because it has file level security. It also offers disk compression and file encryption. But FAT32 can be faster. I would go for NTFS if you have win2k.

No, you cannot go back to FAT once you convert to NTFS. But I'd agree with Robin, go to NTFS unless you have a real reason to stay with FAT (dual booting and needing to access data from across drives and partitions in both OSs)....

yes, you can reformat it back to fat/32 if you so wish(you may need to fdisk it first). Go NTFS, Win2k was designed for it and it runs optimally on it. Speed differences are negligible unless you convert a fat32 drive to ntfs. In this case you create 512byte clusters regardless of what the fat32 drive was. Formatting a drive ntfs right from the get go defaults to 4k clusters which yield comparable performance to fat32.

Why does everyone seem to think you can not go back to FAT32 from NTFS? This is just not true. You CAN format the drive back to anything you want. NTFS is all about security. If you dont need or want the extra security on files, then stick to FAT32. I suggest having two partitions, one NTFS (Operating System) and one FAT32 partition for storage or whatever. This will allow you to simply copy any file to the FAT32 partition, which will instantly become usable by Win98 again. If you want any additional info, please email me with the original question/response. Regards, Brian

Of course you can go back to fat after fdisking. Sheet, you can select ANY format after you whack a drive using fdisk. I think what Antonio wants to know is can he go back to FAT after conversion to NTFS without having to reformat and fdisk? The answer is YES! However, to preform this operation you will need to purchase a 3rd party tool, Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.htm You will be able to convert your drive back to fat using the partition commander utility. I use it daily at work and have had no problems with the tool.