Re: Oracle for NT - FAT or NTFS?

From: Bruce MacDonald <Bruce_MacDonald_at_mindlink.bc.ca>
Date: 15 Mar 1995 07:41:40 GMT
Message-ID: <3k65nk$7p0_at_deep.rsoft.bc.ca>

In article <3k4gig$nrr_at_explorer.csc.com>, spelegan_at_csc.com [Stew Pelegan] says:
>
>In <3jqm8d$2g7_at_explorer.csc.com>, spelegan_at_csc.com [Stew Pelegan] writes:
>>I'm getting 3 Windows NT 3.5 machines in a couple of days and I've been asked
>>to install Oracle 7 on one of them. For some reason, I think I read something
>>somewhere that either Oracle or one of its optional products could only be
>>installed on a FAT disk. Can anyone confirm or deny this very vague memory?
>>Thanks.
>>
>
>I found it. It was in Oracle's WWW site. Here's a portion of it:
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FAT might be better than NTFS
>
>NTFS is a better file system than FAT for systems with a lot of small
>files on them that are used frequently. An Oracle database, however,
>consists of a small number of very large files. The performance of an
>Oracle database on a FAT hard drive has been measured to be somewhat
>better than the performance of the same database on an NTFS drive.
>
>The Oracle database tools for Windows, such as the CDE tools, are not
>supported on NTFS drives and should not be installed on them.
>
>Also, Service Pack 3 contains a lot of fixes to Windows NT 3.1's file
>system calls in general. It's worth getting and installing.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The entire document from which this was extracted can be found at:
>
> http://www.oracle.com/support/oracleWorkNT/oracleWorkNT-tips.html
>
>
>Stewart Pelegan
>Computer Sciences Corporation
>(301)921-3206
>FAX:(301)921-0985
>

This material appears to be out of date. The current release of NT is 3.5, not 3.1.

I'm running the latest Workgroup Server (7.1.4) AND the CDE2 tools on NTFS right now, with no apparent problems. I think Oracle Book 2 had some problems under NTFS, but there is a way to work around them -- I don't use Book much so I can't remember the details.

FAT might be slightly faster (I haven't checked) but NTFS has other advantages such as security, long file names etc, which make it worthwhile.

---

Bruce MacDonald                                Bruce_MacDonald_at_mindlink.bc.ca

Database Consultant
Cornerstone Computer Associates Inc.
Chairperson, Vancouver Oracle Users Group Received on Wed Mar 15 1995 - 08:41:40 CET