Not to mention the ability of NTFS to handle large disk sizes in a single partition. I don't think FAT32 could handle that large a disk all on the primary partition. 8gb was the limit for the first partition/drive letter?

The main downside to me in the past was that NTFS requires NT or WinXP to be loaded in order to read the files. With a FAT32 system, you could stick a DOS formatted system disk (floppy or bootable cd) into a computer and be able to read files off the drive even if the main O/S is hosed. Now that it is so easy to move a drive from one computer to another, that advantage means less.