If you use the NTFS file system you will:
a. support a volume up to 16 Eb (an exabyte = 2 to the power 64 bytes (16 gigabytes worth of gigabytes, which is a bit more than 8Gb. However, they are currently restricted to 2Tb hardware and system restraints.
b. File level security to keep kids out.
c. Native support for the Mac filing system.
d. Built in compression.
e. Long file name support.
f. Self repairing file system.
Downside:
NTFS cannot be used to format floppies.
Not compatible with Win95OSR2/Win98 FAT32 file system, so if you dual boot you cannot read files in the other partition. FAT32 is limited, (if you want to call it that!), to volumes of 4Tb (terabytes).
Each directory entry requires 2k.
Summary: If you want partition size now, use Win95OSR2/Win98 with FAT32.
If you want maximum security use NT4 NTFS.