How do you think your data is stored, managed and organized on your hard drive, USB flash drive or portable sd card? A physical disk can only do 0 or 1, and the file system itself gives meaning to that data. When people say their disk is NTFS or FAT, it is actually referring to the file system being used by the computer or the operating system more appropriately.
Today we will tell you about the difference between FAT32 and NTFS file system used by Windows operating system. This information can help you choose the right system for your requirements.
Both these file systems were introduced by Microsoft to meet their business and application requirements.
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Basic definition
FAT stands for File allocation table and FAT32 is an extension which means the data is stored in 32 bit blocks. This is an older type of file system that is not commonly used today.
Do you know:
NTFS stands for New technology file system and this has replaced FAT as the primary file system being used in the Windows system. This NTFS file system is not only secure, but also supports larger file sizes and hard drives.
Indeed, before making a choice, you need to know about their capabilities. The table below will give you a rough idea of the respective features and support.
Interesting Fact: If we go back a few years, this New technology file
Feature Description
Few things here are self-explanatory. So I’ll expand on those that need less description.
Fault tolerance: NTFS maintains a drive change log, and in the event of a power failure or sudden failure, it automatically repairs files and folders without notifying the user of anything. FAT32 maintains two different copies of the file allocation table and uses a backup mechanism if some damage occurs.
Security: In FAT32 you will have to depend on sharing permissions for security. This means they are good in the Network but locally they are vulnerable. On the other hand, NTFS also allows you to set permissions on local files and folders.
Compression: FAT32 does not provide any file compression feature. Although NTFS allows you to compress individual files and folders so you don’t have to slow down your system by depending on partition compression.
Also, the FAT32 file system doesn’t seem to be able to handle large files and has a file size limit of around 4GB. So, if you are thinking of copying a high definition movie to your USB hard drive, an ideal way is to convert the drive’s file system to NTFS directly.
Also see:
Conversion: Talking about conversion, you can easily convert FAT32 system to NTFS. But the reverse is not true because NTFS follows a secure protocol. So the only option here is to backup your data and format the disk.
Compatibility: Developed by Microsoft, NTFS is compatible with most Windows operating systems. In fact, compatibility goes back to Windows XP. However, when it comes to Mac OS X, the NTFS file system has some limitations. First, Mac OS X can only read NTFS drives but cannot write to them. On the other hand, MAC OS can not only read but also write to FAT32 drives.
Interesting facts
NTFS vs FAT32: File Size and Volume Size
When it comes to file size, as mentioned above, the maximum file size that FAT32 can support is around 4GB and the maximum volume size is around 2TB. Therefore, if you have a 6GB hard drive, you should be able to create three 2GB FAT32 partitions.
In such cases, it is ideal to convert the hard drive to an NTFS or exFAT file system.
In such cases, it is ideal to convert the hard drive to the NTFS or exFAT file system. When it comes to NTFS partitions, thankfully it allows for larger partition sizes. The maximum allowed volume size is 2^64 allocation units or clusters. Therefore, the larger clusters will be NTFS partitions.
And if you are a Mac user stuck in a FAT32 file system, then switching to an exFAT or ext3 (third extended file system) partition would be a better choice.
When it comes to usage, you’ll find most modern digital cameras use memory cards with exFAT and FAT32 file systems, as memory cards now have extra storage capacity.
Conclusion
This is not an attempt to show which file system is better than which. This article is just a brief comparison of the features and capabilities of each of them. You won’t need to understand or explain these file systems in your daily life, but sometimes you need to know what they mean or how they work, then our article will serve as a guide. Quick reference guide. Therefore, we recommend that you bookmark this page to return when needed.
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Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
