fat32 vs ntfs

I have notice that the laptops that they are selling in the stores have xp but in the fat32 file system not ntfs. Why is that?

 

That's up to the OEM retailer.

 

Thanks for the repy, but that doesn't answer my question. Why Do they all do that.Is there some kind of advantage? Someone said it's because fat32 is faster.

 

A fat32 file system with an OS built on NTFS is a dumb idea. Maybe the drives come from the factory as fat and they just add the os.
You should read this

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/russel_october01.mspx

and this

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

 

Ok, the thing is I was asked by my neigbor to restore here laptop. It is brand new but some how she realy messed it up. when i put the set of restore disks in, The first one started it up in windows 98 and formated it to fat32 The the next 3 added files and programs. Then was told to put first disk back in and it installed xp, but it runs on fat32 ,WHY

 

XP will run on fat32. Likley the format did the whole drive. You got some strange restore discs 98 & XP at the same time ????

 

Yes it formated the whole hard drive to fat32, and made it into 2 equal partions dividing the 160 gig in two equals. When the first disk is put in, as it firers up you can see the same screen as when you used to put the little floppy boot disk in for win 98. it says something about win 98 and real fast it starts formating with no options.