The biggest FAT32 file system limit is that it cannot store a single file larger than 4 GB. FAT32 is an older file system that's not as efficient or advanced as NTFS, but does offer greater compatibility with other operating systems and removable storage devices. The FAT32 file system is also called File Allocation Table file system, which was created in 1977 by Microsoft. Usage: An NTFS file system is perfect for your Windows system drive and other internal drives or external hard drives with large capacities that will just be used with Windows.

Only a few Linux variants are able to provide write support for NTFS.

Read-only with Mac OSX by default, and may be read-only by default with some Linux distributions.

Compatible with all versions of Windows.

No realistic file size or partition size limitsĬons: Not compatible with very old operating systems.

Enables users to set disk quotas, limiting the amount of space users can consume.

Uses a change journal to help restore information quickly if power failure or other system problems occur.

Enables users to compress files, folders or the whole drive when they are running out of disk space.

Automatically restores the consistency of the file system by using its log file and checkpoint information.

Enables users to set file permissions and encryption as a file system with higher security.

Supports very large files and it nearly has no realistic partition size limit by changing cluster size.

For detailed information, you can refer to following contents to learn its pros and cons, compatibility and usage. Nowadays, NTFS is the most widely used file system in Windows, especially for its system drive and most internal hard drives.Īs a modern and advanced file system, NTFS has many features not available to FAT32 and exFAT. Windows NT and Windows 2000 are the primary operating systems using the NTFS file system. NTFS is short for New Technology File System, created by Microsoft and introduced in 1993 with Windows NT 3.1. If you don't know the differences between NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT file system, don't worry, this article will tell you what you should know for the three kinds of file systems and give you a brief comparison of NTFS vs FAT32 vs exFAT.

If you know them well, you can choose the correct file system for different needs. Each of the file systems has their own pros and cons. And FAT32, NTFS, exFAT are three different file systems commonly used in Windows. A file system uses a set of rules to control how data is stored and retrieved on a storage device.

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