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Exfat files are larger than 4 GB. Which file system is better than Exfat or ntfs? How it works on flash drives

Recently, the widespread use of TVs with the ability to play media files from USB drives has led to the fact that the process of downloading the next movie "to a USB flash drive for TV" has become as common as switching over the air TV channels on it.

The speed of domestic Internet access has become such that any user can afford to download a large file with a movie in the highest quality how much it can be preserved MKV format... There is no need to talk about the cost of even fairly capacious flash drives, they have become more than affordable.

However, one important problem arises: files larger than 4 gigabytes cannot be written to flash drives, since they are usually formatted in FAT32 format. The solution to the problem is to re-partition the drive into exFAT or NTFS format. However, it is possible to write large files to a USB flash drive in exFAT format, but, unfortunately, not all TV models are able to "see" it. Another problem with NTFS: in order to partition a flash drive, you must first open access to it in this format through the settings of disk devices.

After that, the OS will give the opportunity to format the USB flash drive to NTFS. Then it will be possible to record a file of any (permissible storage capacity) volume on it, and your TV will surely play the recorded movie in excellent quality without any problems.

However, there is one big pitfall in this solution. The fact is that the controller in any NAND flash drive provides not only the process of read / write operations, but also the prevention of the best uniformity of wear of NAND cells. This is done through the block organization of the pages. For each block there is a counter stored either in the block itself in the service data, or in the table in separate blocks with service data. The translation table specifies the order in which blocks are used to implement the LBA range in which the user creates the section and also stores his files.

During a write operation, a large block is taken into the controller's buffer, changes are made to it, after which it is completely rewritten back, sometimes even to a new address with registration in the translation table.

So, modifying a 4 MB block in a drive even by 1 byte, the entire block is overwritten anyway. And, if, in the case of the markup in FAT (32), an entry is made in the directory, the file data is written, and information is entered into both copies of the FAT table (for exFAT there is also an auxiliary bitmap structure), then in the case of NTFS, an entry is made into the MFT itself (Main file table), index record, BitMap, LogFile and so on ... In general, the number of operations increases several times.

Thus, the more small files are written and rewritten to a USB flash drive with NTFS system, the more it wears out, since, as you know, its resource directly depends on the number of write / read cycles.

You can imagine how easily and quickly you can ditch a USB flash drive installed in a router with a 24-hour torrent file "download" utility. For these purposes, it is better to mark the drive in exFAT, and watch "small" movies on the TV from drives marked in FAT32 or "large" - from a gadget on NTFS.

And what is also very important! Never unplug a USB flash drive from the port if it has not yet completed the read / write operation, even if you have disabled caching on your system, which allows you to eject USB drives without first disconnecting them through the Safely Remove service. If at this moment the process of updating the service tables takes place, you risk turning the drive into a piece of dead iron and plastic.

Ivan Kovalev

The file system on your device plays an important role. Thanks to it, the processing and storage of data on the medium is carried out. The file system limits the size of the file and the number of characters in its name, as well as the speed of data exchange.

On this moment There are many file systems in the world, but two of them are the most popular:

  • exFAT,
  • NTFS.

And when organizing the system on a computer, most users have a question "Ntfs or exfat?" Let's consider each system separately, and then we will conduct a comparative analysis.

exFat

The exFat file system was developed by Microsoft and is an upgraded version of the FAT32 system. In the new reproduction, the following restrictions were removed:

  • File size,
  • Section volume,
  • The number of files in one section and folder.

It is most actively used by users on removable media. However, there is one drawback that may seem like a stumbling block, many home devices do not support it! As for Windows systems then the XP version does not support exFAT by default. But the user can download an update from the official website that will remove this limitation. Modern versions operating systems have exFAT support.

NTFS

This file system was also developed by Microsoft (Windows developer) and is used to this day as a modern analogue of FAT32.
If you install it on a removable media, then the data transfer rate will be quite slow. This is due to the use of the cache when copying data. It works like this:

1. First, the information is stored in the cache, while the speed can reach 100 mb per second!
2. But since the cache is small on removable media, it quickly fills up and the speed decreases dramatically.

In the situation with computers and laptops, this trick works great, because the cache size is larger, and this allows you to smooth the data transfer curve and increase the speed.

Comparison of the exFAT file system with NTFS

exFAT lacks most of the nice features that NTFS has, for example file streams data transfer, which increases the speed of information exchange. But the advantages of exFAT include the use of less system memory, besides, it is capable of storing files larger than 4 GB. Previously, only NTFS was capable of this.
Which system to use depends on the media, its volume and the user's choice! If you do not want to tempt your fate and run into the pitfalls of incompatibility, then the NTFS system is recommended.

Andriy Karashchuk

Extended FAT - ExFAT, this file system is designed primarily for removable flash media such as USB flash drives... Flash drives usually use either FAT or FAT32 as their file system, but these file systems have some nasty limitations. For example - FAT32 has maximum size file is 4 GB and also limits the maximum size of a FAT32 volume to 32 GB. And as you might guess, the FAT file system has even more restrictions on file and volume sizes. Microsoft created ExFAT to overcome these limitations.

The main advantages of exFAT over previous versions FAT:

  • One of the main reasons for the development of ExFAT is to reduce the number of overwrites of the same sector, which in itself is very important for flash drives, in which memory cells are irreversibly worn out after a certain number of write operations.
  • the file size limit of 64 bytes is 16 exabytes.
  • the maximum cluster size has been increased to 2 to the power of 25 bytes - 32 megabytes.
  • improved allocation of free space by introducing a bitmap of free space, which can reduce disk fragmentation.
But back to the reason for writing this article - formatting your flash drive in exFAT. To do this, you need to use the format command (I did it on Windows 7, but I suppose it will work on both vista and windows server).

Be sure to make sure the name of the device you are going to format !!
This operation erases all information on the specified device!

In my case, the flash drive was defined as device G:
Run command line: START> All Programs> Accessories> Command Line
In the black screen that opens, enter

C:> format G: / fs: exfat
Insert new disc into drive G:
and press the ENTER key ...


And if you are sure - then press Enter.

The specified device will be formatted.

File system type: FAT32.
New file system: EXFAT.
Check: 3827 MB
Volume label (15 characters, ENTER - no label needed)?


Asks for the name of the volume, which you can omit - just press Enter
The flash drive is ready and formatted with the ExFAT file system.

NTFS, FAT or exFAT are completely different file systems that can be used to store data on different media. Both are created by Microsoft and are primarily used for Windows, but Linux kernel support is also available for them.

Most often, NTFS is used to install the Windows operating system or Windows partitions for files, while FAT is often used on flash drives or other external storage... Also FAT can often be used as the main file system for Android. In this article, we will look at the differences between FAT and NTFS, we will analyze in detail how they differ and why they are needed.

The file system establishes the basic rules for how data will be organized when written to a medium, regardless of what it is - HDD or flash drive. The file system describes how the folders will be organized.

A certain piece of data called a file is located in desired area drive. The file system performs all the necessary calculations, and also determines the minimum indivisible size of the data block, the maximum file size, and monitors fragmentation. There are many different types file systems, for example, file systems for installing the OS, for external media, for optical discs, distributed file systems. But in this article, we will only perform a fat versus ntfs comparison.

What is the FAT file system?

The file systems fat32 and ntfs are very different. FAT stands for File Allocation Table. It is a very old file system in the history of computing systems. Her story began in 1977. Then the 8-bit file system was developed, which was used in the NCR 7200 based on the Intel 8080. It was the input terminal that worked with floppy disks... The file system was written by Microsoft employee Mark MacDonald after discussing its concept with Bill Gates.

Then the FAT file system began to be used in the MDOS operating system for the Z80 platform. Several years later, new versions were released such as FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32.

FAT32 has increased the maximum volume size to 16TB over FAT16. The file size has also been increased to 4 GB. File Allocation Table 32 bit was released in August 1995 for Windows 95. But this file system still cannot be used to install heavy applications or storage large files... Therefore, Microsoft has developed a new file system - NTFS, which is devoid of such disadvantages.

FAT32 is a great file system for external media if you need to transfer files no larger than 4GB. It is supported by many various devices such as cameras, cameras, music players. Everything Windows versions and Linux distributions fully support FAT32. Even Apple MacOS supports it.

What is NTFS File System?

For their new Microsoft systems developed a new file system - New Technology File System or NTFS. It appeared in 1993, in Windows NT 3.1. NTFS has lifted many of the restrictions on file and disk sizes. Its development began way back in 1980, as a result of the merger of Microsoft and IBM to create a new file system with improved performance.

But the collaboration between the companies did not last long, and IBM released HPFS, which was used in OS / 2, and Microsoft created NTFS 1.0. The maximum size of a single file in NTFS can be up to 16 exabytes, which means that even the largest files can fit in it.

NTFS 3.1 was released for Windows XP and received many interesting improvements such as support for reducing the size of partitions, automatic recovery and symbolic links, and the maximum file system disk size has been increased to 256 TB. This is despite the maximum file size of 16 EB.

Of the others interesting features that were added later include lazy writes to disk, defragmentation support, configuring disk quotas, link tracking, and file-level encryption. With all this, NTFS maintains compatibility with previous versions.

Now it is a journaling file system, all actions with files are recorded in a special journal, with the help of which the file system can be very quickly restored in case of damage. NTFS is supported on Windows XP and later. If you compare fat or ntfs, then the latter is not fully supported in Linux, it is possible to write and recover in case of damage, and only read is supported on MacOS.

What is exFAT file system?

The exFAT file system is another Microsoft project to improve the old file system. It can be striped where FAT32 does not fit. It is much easier for NTFS, but it supports files larger than 4 GB, and is also often used on flash drives and storage devices. In its development, Microsoft used its technology to find file names by hash, which greatly improves performance.

Most countries recognize US patent law, so any implementation of exFAT is not possible on any proprietary or open-source systems source code... But Microsoft wants this file system to be freely distributed and used. Therefore, a FUSE-based version of exFAT was developed called fuse-exfat. She gives full access for reading and writing. Also, an implementation was created at the level of the Linux kernel in Samsung, which is now also in the public domain.

This file system also has a maximum file size limit of 16 EB, but it is much lighter and does not have any additional opportunities... If we talk about compatibility, then it is fully supported on Windows, macOS, Android and Linux.

Differences between FAT and Ntfs

Now let's look at the main differences between FAT and NTFS in the form of a brief summary of each of the file systems:

FAT32

  • Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, almost all devices with a USB port;
  • Pros: cross-platform, lightness;
  • Minuses: maximum file size 4 GB and partition 16 GB, non-journaling;
  • Usage: external media.

NTFS

  • Compatibility: Windows, Linux, Xbox one, and read-only on Mac;
  • Pros: journaled, large limits on the size of the partition and file, encryption, automatic recovery;
  • Minuses: limited cross-platform;
  • Usage: to install Windows.

exFAT

  • Compatibility: Windows XP and higher, MacOS X 10.6.5, Linux (fuse), Android;
  • Pros: large limit on the size of the partition and file, light compared to NTFS;
  • Minuses: Microsoft restricts its use by a license agreement;
  • Usage: for external media and external hard drives.

conclusions

In this article, we have performed a comparison between fat and ntfs. These are very different file systems. But it is difficult to understand which file system is better than fat or ntfs, on the one hand NTFS has much more capabilities, but FAT is lighter and is supported wherever possible. For data partitions in Linux that should be available in Windows is better use FAT over NTFS as it is better supported. What do you think is better fat or ntfs for Linux?

Today, the choice of the file system when formatting the media is becoming relevant. Let's say you want to format a hard drive or flash drive, while you have a choice: format it to file systems such as NTFS, FAT32, FAT, FAT16, exFAT... There is also, but such, in fact, is not, but indicates the presence of problems with the disk.

Users start to format as they might be advised, or they read somewhere in NTFS or FAT32, which are the most popular file systems, unlike the rest. For example, exFAT today is not the most common, and not all OS it is supported.

Now we will talk about the difference between FAT32 and NTFS.

The difference between FAT32 and NTFS

FAT32- the file system is based on FAT16. It is the oldest and most insecure. Also, FAT technology was used in Windows 95 and 98. If your media is formatted for this file system, then the files on the media are visible to any user who has access to the computer. The downside of the file system is that it has a size limit. It is not possible to create a partition larger than 32 GB. The decryption of the file system looks like this: File Allocation Table.

NTFS- this file system is the most preferred and has a number of advantages over FAT32

  • Can automatically recover in case of disk errors
  • Support for large hard drives has been improved
  • A safer file system. You can use encryption or prohibition on any data.

As practice has shown, NTFS is slower than FAT32, but it works more efficiently when handling large files. Also, NTFS requires more random access memory, computers and other devices with less than 64 MB of RAM are not supported by NTFS. Although such computers most likely do not exist.

As a result, we can say the following that NTFS rationally uses disk space and works well with large files, but FAT32 works faster, although it only supports files up to 4 GB. NTFS is more reliable, FAT32 does not require a lot of RAM.

Under what file system to format your hard drive or flash drive, it's up to you. Also, we discuss in the comments which one is better.