Which better fat32 or ntfs

In this article, we will break down what a FAT file system is, what an NTFS file system is and what the pros and cons are for each system.

Microsoft created the File Allocation Table file system in and is the simplest file system supported by Windows NT. However, it does offer more compatibility with other operating systems and removable storage devices. The FAT is used to describe the allocation status of the clusters the basic units of logical storage on a hard drive in a file system, as well as the link relationship between each. It acts as a Table of Contents for the operating system, indicating where directories and files are stored on the disk.

The file allocation table is a critical part of the FAT file system. If the FAT is damaged or lost, the data on the hard disk becomes unreadable. It is introduced as a replacement for the FAT file system; it is more robust and effective because it makes use of advanced data structure to improve reliability, disk space utilization and overall performance.

After getting a basic understanding of NTFS and FAT32, now you can look into their difference in speed, file size limit, compatibility, etc. This is completely correct sometimes since the data transfer speed is also limited to many other factors including drive technology HDD vs. SSD, flash vs. In this aspect, NTFS has obvious advantages.

It can support volumes as large as TB, and its file size support tops out at 16 EiB. But it is read-only with Mac, some Linux distributions. Both of them have no realistic file-size or partition-size limits. Both of them are suitable for removable devices due to their compatibility. FAT32 is compatible with more very old operating systems.

Install and launch it to get its main interface. Step 3. At this window, you are allowed to specify partition label, file system as well as cluster size. After resetting these parameters, you can click OK. I would like to recommend this fabulous format tool to more friends who need to perform disk formatting.

And each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. The full form of exFAT is an extended file allocation table. It has large limits on file and partition sizes. It optimizes exFAT for flash drives. NTFS is a modern-day file system that is used by default used by Windows. This file system has the file size and partition size limits, which are so huge that you are not likely to run up with disk space. It supports file permissions for security, a change in a journal that allows you to recover when your computer crashes, reach disk quota limits, shadow copies of your backup, etc.

Skip to content. What is a File system? Easy to use and quick to access format.