Explaining File Systems: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, ext4 & More

[@loughkb]

Additional note on file system robustness and reliability. Based on years in I.T., the last job was ten years in a shop that uses hundreds of Macs for workstations. FAT and FAT variants are fairly reliable, but will occasionally corrupt a file. Recovery is generally possible and file system repair usually possible. NTFS is robust and reliable, but when it breaks, it breaks hard and recovery/repair is about a 50/50 possibility. EXT4 is very robust and almost never corrupts a file. Repair and recovery in those rare cases is almost always successful. ZFS is solid. I've never run into problems with it. HFS+ is the worst file system ever created. It regularly corrupts files and recovery is rarely successful. 80% of the problems I fixed on mac workstations involved using a 3rd party utility to repair the file system. APFS came out just after I left the last job, so I have no direct experience with it and can't offer any opinion.

[@gottagowork]

I would say with FAT32 you're eventually guaranteed corrupted files, merged files, indexes that cannot be read etc. Only use it for use with devices that can only read FAT32, and keep it's contents backed up **when** you need to restore it.

[@gokul6041]

Thankyou for the notes....

[@szponiasty]

ext4 has also awesome functions, like space preallocation: when you write a large file on an ext4, the continous space is preallocated, so the file is writeen on a hard drive continously. This is very important if you're using old magnetic HDDs not SSDs, where drive head normally would have to jump all over the plates to access one file. With ext4 you maximise HDDs performance, specially for very large files eg. while editing videos, or playing huge games.

[@builder396]

@@gottagowork Id still say its perfectly valid for flash drives and such that generally store data with only rarely if ever having any read/write activity, especially the latter, since youre pretty unlikely to corrupt stuff thats not in use.

[@builder396]

Bit off topic here I guess, but what do you do if an NTFS system drive fails? The drive in question is long gone and died a long, painful death with many nuisances like long delays when trying to read files (like solid 10 second freezes), corrupted files all over the place, frequent CHKDSK runs on startup, consistent clicking noises etc. Is there any file system that has a better chance at handling failures like that?

[@TimNurTV]

I'm a big fan of the aesthetic on this channel. It reminds me of watching the discovery channel when I was a kid

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@nro6739]

I love his videos. They’re so informative and i feel like he has so much experience to speak from; it makes it seem like he was sent from the future to teach about electronics. Music makes it even better

[@massinakmin8340]

I miss the old discovery channel. Now it is all about real life tv. People selling trash and pretend it is real and not acting.

[@xerxes2083]

@Milton Keenes native exfat support is still pretty young in ubuntu, it came in 20.04

[@aer0449]

Yeah your right ❤️

[@BipinRamachandran]

tip: if you ever hit size limit on a FAT32 drive on windows and too lazy to backup & format, try this command: 'CONVERT X:/FS:NTFS' where 'X:' is the FAT32 drive. This command will convert the file system to NTFS while keeping existing files.

[@diarykeeper]

handy!

[@heiieihy]

Thank you Sir!

[@bersercker]

how is that even posible?

[@dieselgeezer18]

@@bersercker evil magic

[@DTMAce]

@@bersercker That tool has been around since the early days of Windows 9x. But the likelihood of needing that tool these days is low. The Windows OS's from the last decade and half or so require NTFS to even run, and the chance you would format an additional drive with FAT32 is going to be about nil. The only thing you could possibly run into this on would be external USB memory sticks. As for whether the tool can do exFAT directly, no it won't. It only works on FAT32 and only to convert them to NTFS. If you want to do exFAT, you would have to backup the stick, reformat with exFAT then copy back the contents. You also can't use the tool to convert from NTFS to something else either.

[@johnphilippatos]

"16 Exabytes, or effectively unlimited" This is the updated line from the original "640K ought to be enough for anyone". Excellent video Chris. Thanks a ton!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Cool.

[@MikeAnn193]

I remember such a limit on _RAM,_ but had forgotten the file size limit. I was only the second person I knew to buy a PC, which I wanted for simple word processing and databases. So for a few years it _was_ enough (pre-Windows and pre-Worldwide Web). 😏 But I knew it _wasn't_ enough for the audio/video uses I dreamed of. It's just that in the late 80s, the beefiest hardware I could _afford_ was a $5,000 machine -- from a company that had just changed its name from PCs Limited to _Dell._ DOS tricks allowed me to take advantage of the "extended" and "expanded" memory (remember those workarounds?). After all, I had a whopping _Megabyte_ of the stuff. 😃 The machine also had a "386" processor and a monstrous 90 _Megabyte_ hard drive, too. 😮 Now I have countless individual _files_ larger than that. 😄Truly amazing how far the technology has advanced.

[@johnphilippatos]

@@MikeAnn193 Haha, yeah, I remember those times. First computer I ever bought was a pretty decent Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2. Programming in Basic and stuff. Hell, I had a whole 128 KB of Ram available. I could look those Commodore 64 users straight in the eye. Good times

[@MikeAnn193]

​@@johnphilippatos 😀128 KB, wow. Few people I've told my story to have been able to outdo me, but you managed! The brand name Sinclair sounds familiar, but I remember nothing about them. A friend of mine -- the _first_ computer owner I alluded to -- had one that used _cassette tapes_ as the storage medium. That's about the only detail I recall, but he probably also had to program in BASIC. I seem to recall he even had to load the operating system from the cassette each time, which probably took at least a few minutes. Do you still have your Sinclair? I wouldn't have the heart to get rid of my Dell, even if it didn't hold some treasured files.

[@johnphilippatos]

@@MikeAnn193 Well, almost everything you mention are quite accurate about Sinclair. Sir Clive Sinclair was a pioneer in the field, who was the first to introduce a low budget home computer in the UK market, the ZX80, at the dawn of the 80's. He achieved further acclaim by introducing the Sinclair ZX Spectrum series computers and his final act was ZX Spectrum+ 128K. He sold his company to Alan Michael Sugar TRADemarks, known as AMSTRAD and their first model on the series was the updated ZX Spectrum+ 128K, called Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2. It featured a quite normal keyboard compared to the original Sinclair's crappy one and it had an analog tape (cassette) recorder embedded in the case. Everything was stored there, any program took forever to upload in the memory, and you would see the "Tape Loading Error" message in the end, more frequently that you could ever imagine. The operating system was not stored there, it was stored in the ROM and the environment was Spectrum Basic, not DOS, CP/M, or any other operating system. We gave the instructions in Basic, we programmed in Basic, everything we did was in Basic. It was quite hard, but it gave you a better understanding about how a computer works, as the same principles are more or less still valid today. It gave you an inner look if you know what I mean. Unfortunately in Greece, other than the Commodore's and ATARI's whereabouts, we had little info at the time about what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic. We heard the words MS-DOS and "IBM compatible" for the first time, when AMSTRAD built its very first IBM compatible called AMSTRAD 1512. But since it was mainly a business machine, little did we care about it. Unfortunately I don't have my Spectrum anymore, It was long out of order and was lost during my moving from my parent's house when I got married on 1995. Cheers mate and stay safe.

[@mohammedabbas1175]

I've been using computers for more than ten years and I've never really understood what are the differences between the file systems.Thanks to you, and the KZbin recommendation algorithm, that's a thing of the past.

[@karstenberg3954]

Actually it is about the limitations (size of single files, size of partitions, support of OS (which is really NOT up2date)), but not about technical aspects or rights at all (e.g. sudo modprobe ./myfile 777)

[@user-tm3fz7qx3s]

I usually watch Linus Tech Tips to get a refresher on tech. When he explained file systems, it was biased toward Windows file systems. It was unusual for him not to explain common desktop Linux, MacOS, Android, and unusual file systems. It was unusual because even though he explains stuff as fast as possible, he left out many other file systems for more time to joke around. I'm glad that you actually took the time to explain this subject in more detail!

[@unusedaccount9130]

DaddyKitty04 LTT is very biased about Windows and insults Apple and Linux a lot. That's why I've stopped watching him.

[@IosifStalinsendsyoutoGulag]

@@unusedaccount9130 Apple sux

[@CZghost]

@@unusedaccount9130 I've never gave him subscription, I only watch his videos when I need to find some quick info or I am bored. I do not watch him regularily, as most of the time, I just stumble upon his videos by random or as a search result.

[@lightningparadox]

@@unusedaccount9130 he explains stuff more related to gaming. Apple sucks for gaming so he keeps his distance from explaining more about apple

[@unusedaccount9130]

@@lightningparadox Good point... you'd think though that Linus Tech Tips wouldn't be mostly for gaming

[@ThioJoe]

This is a very good internet video 👍

[@user-yw8sr3uj1w]

Unlike yours ThioJoe

[@HeenaPatel253]

OMG I WATCH YOU HELLO

[@charlesjsescoto]

@@user-yw8sr3uj1w lol

[@alwinvillero4404]

veRy Godo inTer NT viOed !!11!1!

[@stackza8740]

Hello ThioJoe!

[@theowaldburg]

"16 Exabytes, or effectively unlimited" Can't wait to look back on this and just think, we really thought 16 exabytes was alot. It's just as funny whenever reading system architecture books and seeing "Since it support up to one gigabyte of ram, it practically doesn't have any restrains"

[@chrisschembari2486]

Every time I hear of exabytes, it takes me back to SGU, where in one episode, the knowledge of an entire civilization is being downloaded to a ship's computer. One engineer looks at a monitor showing the transfer progress and says, "900 exabytes. Still just a drop in the bucket." www.gateworld.net/universe/s2/epilogue/

[@kalleklp7291]

I remember when I programmed BASIC on a C64 which had an incredible amount of 64 KB (as long as the thing had power connected). 20 years from now (if it takes that long) we'll have optical PC stations and Exabytes will be as common as Gigabytes today. AI will vastly boost our computer capacity the more it becomes an everyday reality. :)

[@spacejaga]

Yeah and first IBM HDDs... With incredible megabytes on them.... Growing up with machines past 386 even 10 GB seemed more than enough. And then internet came along. And movies just rising from 200-300mb rips to 700... And then 1,36 GB. And still growing. I personally never saw a need for 50GB Blu-ray push but some people need to spend extra cash so why wouldn't someone take it.... And one day even Americans will have a decent internet so whole world will be able to finally progress beyond 720p streaming even being an option....

[@karstenberg3954]

Yeah, I was thinking about my computers I had so far. In the end of 1997 (Pentium 1/166 MHz/32MB RAM/2 GB HDD) and when I had my second PC in 2001 (Pentium 4/1,8 GHz/80 GB HDD), when I was like: "WOW, nobody (except NASA) would ever be able to fill it totally." And I already thought that, when my father had a PC in 1999 with a 20 GB HDD. :D

[@alfathmuqoddas6986]

technology grows at exponential rate, one day 16eb will fit in our pocket sooner than we thought

[@dheerajnarenderyadav2938]

Sir, I have great respect for you. I have never seen anyone explaining Computers like you do.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Wow, thanks

[@binarybagel]

four years later, this is still very good learning material. very comprehensive and helpful!

[@thomasottvideos]

Mr. Barnatt... You have delivered another EXCELLENT technical tutorial in a concise manner!! When I entered the personal computer industry in 1983, most learning was via self-teaching and trial and error. There were NO Christopher Barnatt types openly sharing their knowledge. Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge with all the young (and not so young) eager learners in the world. Kind regards, T. Phoenix, AZ USA

[@jamestolliver9970]

I kept having issues trying to transfer large files between my two linux computers because i didnt know about the 4gb limitation on my fat32 usb drive. Watching your video to just casually learn more has actually helped me with an issue ive been having for a while, thank you.

[@chrisschembari2486]

Try formatting your USB drive to exfat. A Linux distro running the latest kernel (version 5.4) has native exfat support. If your kernel is older than that, you can install exfat support with just a couple of packages. In Kubuntu, for example, the packages are named something like "exfat-utils" and "exfat-fuse", and are in the default repos. I found them by searching for exfat in Muon package manager.

[@jamestolliver9970]

@@chrisschembari2486 that's the plan now, thanks

[@extremelydave]

Good lord, yet ANOTHER great video. Every time I watch your videos I am amazed what you dig up. If you are not in the teaching profession, you have missed your calling sir, because you do such a good job at it for the thousands of us on the other side of your monitor.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. I have been teaching/lecturing for about 29 years now, for 25 of those years as a member of staff in the University of Nottingham. Now freelance . . .

[@snoopy1alpha]

Very well explained. Some more facts worth mentioning: - Journaling file systems need additional space for storing the journal - Formatting an external device with EXT2,3,4 does not work well because of user access rights (chmod 777 required but still not a good option) - Formatting an external device with NTFS used to cause problems when not safely removed on windows and attached to linux afterwards (the ntfs-tools could not fix the problem in the past) - Windows can work with FAT32-disks larger than 32GB, it just cannot create/format larger disks. As far as I know this was artificially enforced for promoting NTFS. I am not sure if there is still such a limitation. - ReiserFS contained a journal before ext3, at least it was included in the kernel earlier than ext3 - ext3 and ext4 are backward compatible and can also be mounted as ext2 (at least as far as I know; important for windows drivers)

[@Benoit-Pierre]

Mounting ext2 from external storage is tricky but there are mount option to fix your issue : users, noauto, user= , allow_other ... I have a udev script that does it automatically for me. I just plug any disk and my user can read and write it.

[@megapangolin1093]

Brilliant, clear, concise video, well spoken and enunciated and therefore great for non native speakers too. Always appreciate your work. Thank you.

[@CelticShae]

Christopher, you are so affable and engaging. You come across as a stereotypical gentleman from England (to this American), and I mean that only in the most complimentary of ways. Your calm voice and relaxed candor lend themselves brilliantly to your thorough but simple explanations of things I have often found confounding. Thank you so much for explaining computers to us. Your installments of this program are invaluable to me.

[@delmonti]

probably the best and concise guide to File Systems I've ever seen.

[@cam_DA_Hawkdriver]

I find it hard to believe we’re in 2019 and there is not a common file system across all devices. Still goes to show that all the operating systems are still silos for their own methods of madness. Good video Chris!

[@wikingagresor]

you always have to remember that ext4 is open source, so technically right now there is nothing preventing Microsoft or Apple to integrate support for it into their OS.

[@pilgrimm23]

Also, the actual physical file storage mediums have changed so much that a file written say on an IBM 1600 Bit Per Inch 9 track tape, then transferred to a 8" floppy, then 5.25 inch, then 3.5, then a Bournouli SCSI, then a CD, then DVD then Thumb drive...and unless some kind soul did this back when, today each of those formats can only be recovered if you find the drive or media at a flea market and retro-engineer it back into a modern system. The ONLY media for that data that is consistent from start to finish is.... the tech manual about it; ie a written page of print.

[@pilgrimm23]

oh early games, some text files, examples of early IBM JCL, perhaps original source listings of a COBOL ALGOL or FORTRAN coding... this and that :) My point being that we humans like to stash things away for the centuries. and back in the 70s and 80s we stashed on formats that now cannot be read.

[@drooghead]

It's OK because Linux can use all of the mentioned file systems and many more.

[@patricklindahl868]

Nice with standards, everybody got their own! :=)

[@kael070]

Just found out this channel when searching for the difference between fat and exFat, you explain things better than most teachers i've ever had, good work

[@billgross3579]

I come back to this video for reference when I encounter file system issues. In the process of adding a permanently-mounted 500gb SSD to my RPi4 NextCloud system, I couldn't set owner. Turns out the SSD was exFAT. I reformatted it to ext4 and it worked perfectly. I learned it here. Thank you!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Hi Bill, glad you sorted it out! :)

[@alvimuka1853]

This videos push learning at a higher level, something that youtube is missing

[@wavemaker54]

Hey Chris, I’ve been watching your channel for some time and just want to thank you for all the work you’ve done explaining... computers and devices along with software. Besides being informative and entertaining they’re presented delightfully and plainly enough for everyone to grasp the information you’re conveying. Thank you!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks John, your kind comments are appreciated.

[@SoulPoetryandOtherWorks]

The quality of your videos is always of a very high quality Open University or BBC Four production. Always educational and professionally delivered. Thank you.

[@leot8024]

That last “ very soon “ always creeps me out, I have watched 100s of your videos and every single time WOW. Thanks for the awesome content.

[@galihprabasidi8498]

NTFS = New Technology File System. Engineers are very creative in naming things.

[@DTMAce]

Windows NT = Windows New Technology. Windows 2000 originally was named NT5. Then they put a facelift on Windows 98SE and called it Millennium so it looked the same. Thank god XP came out a year and half later to become the best OS for over a decade.

[@puchu9507]

Microsoft's engineers to be precise, such as their other invention "Windows orchestrator"

[@NoorquackerInd]

@@DTMAce XP is still the best software to leave Microsoft's building, *change my mind.*

[@DTMAce]

@@NoorquackerInd Never said it wasn't. But check this out: www.reactos.org/ This is what a modern XP looks like, so to speak. Enjoy.

[@FlexibleToast]

@@NoorquackerInd that's a low bar to set, but I will say OneNote is amazing.

[@neildarlow]

May I add some observations please Christopher. BTRFS is a valid choice for Linux systems and it shares many features with ZFS. exFAT and HFS+ are also supported on Linux.

Besides, you can install a Driver for Windows.

[@Salcay]

+XFS

[@OpenGL4ever]

No, at the moment it is unreliable. That's why Red Hat removed it from their distribution. And the use of btrfs Raid 5 or better is not recommended and still experimental. Don't use it. ZFS is by far superior and reliable now.

[@exalented]

BTRFS has slipped away from the competition. ZFS is just butter.

[@HarmonicaMustang]

@@OpenGL4ever Interesting how I hear that BTRFS is terrible and unstable, but my experiences say otherwise. I work with multiple Synology NAS boxes which use BTRFS as standard and I've never had any problems, data loss or corruption. I see how ZFS is superior and should be used when given a choice between the two, but I'm struggling to see why BTRFS is shamed.

[@ShaidaMuhammad]

I was studying Operating System Memory Management and You upload this. Wawwww. Thanks

Teacher Rules !

[@ShaidaMuhammad]

@RDE Lutherie Yeah. Storage Management is upcoming Chapter. That's why I said that.

[@DMSProduktions]

WOW!

[@ericturner7744]

Speaking of format. The intro and layouts in your videos reminds me of 70s technology tv shows in England.....This is a great channel. Especially the Pi videos.

[@cockur]

hands down the best, straight to the point, no bs video on the subject matter

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@33story.T]

You really break the knowledge of file system for easier understanding.Thank you.

[@gokhankarabulut9753]

Some additional info to your last statement: It is possible to convert FAT## volumes to NTFS (see Windows command "convert" for more info) whithout data loss if the volume serves enough free space for conversion. This is very handy when you have a >64 GB flash drive formatted with FAT32 and try to place a big file on it, it has fooled me around quite a lot ^^

[@sherridavila2948]

I formatted my SSD DRIVE for my blackmagic cinema camera ef mount. I formatted it Xfat. How do I now retrieve those videos so I can upload them to Facebook. My pc is windows 10

[@mahiru20ten]

For tape drive users, there's LTFS (Linear Tape File System) which allows files in tape drives to be accessed normally like other storage medias (no more sequential access needed)

[@freesaxon6835]

The joys of watching defrag

[@freesaxon6835]

@RDE Lutherie true, it's the basis of so many system !

[@freesaxon6835]

@Marcin Freitag WOW 2gb 😁

[@freesaxon6835]

@@serenity6080 🤔😂

[@CaveyMoth]

I need a defrag simulator for my SSD.

[@builder396]

@Marcin Freitag Win 98 had the prettiest defrag screen in the world. I watched that go on for hours when I was a kid.

[@drmustansarhussain4307]

As I watch this channel I became a great fan of it. The things are elaborated very nicely n simply but on technical n scientific basis. Keep it up. You are doing great job. Best Regards Prof.Dr.Mustansar, Consultant Dermatologist, Malaysia.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@drmustansarhussain4307]

My pleasure n honour 4me.

[@drmustansarhussain4307]

Respected n Dear Christopher you have a wonderful n impressive personality n your way of describing the details is so innovative n Great that I would like to offer you the grade of Father of Knowledge n say you the Einstein of today. I m so much impressed by u that ist. time in my life a desire emerged in my heart to wish you n request you to sometimes co ordinate with me on my email if you like n don't have no issue, as we both are usually busy so you won't have any problem due to this co ordination. My personal email id is, [e-mail] And Hopefully will wait friendly email from you impatiently. Best Regards, Prof.Dr.Mustansar, Consultant Dermatologist, Malaysia.

[@drmustansarhussain4307]

❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@drmustansarhussain4307]

As I don't know the method how to send heart with the pic so I m sending the hearts through the method which I knew. Kindly feel the warmness n acknowledgment to your vast knowledge n greatness. Best Regards.

[@TheDefpom]

Thanks for this video, it cleared up a lot of uncertainties I had about the formats.

[@gokul6041]

Thank you a lot. Been confused which to choose for my SD-cards and external drives. Problem now solved.

[@braydenschultz8431]

Was just looking this up for a course i'm doing, perfect timing indeed

[@bluehornet6752]

Great video! I haven't gone through the details of these various file systems for 10+ years, since back in CS school. So thanks for the review!

[@jozefserf2024]

Best computer information channel bar none. This style was perfected decades ago and never bettered. Increasing the entertainment quotient inevitably means losing information transfer. Might mean more subs though 😉

[@EnilionVeno]

Very cool, my computer knowledge is outdated and incomplete, so this was a tasty update.

[@robertfletcher3421]

I remember going back to the 1980s a friend had a Wang dedicated word processor. You had to buy floppies formatted in their system. You could not format in the machine. They cost a fortune. Another friend had a bit copier, this was a card that would copy a disk a bit at a time. Used to copy locked games. We copied a new Wang floppy writing to an ordinary disk and it did the job. The proprietary systems are amazing when one system should suffice.

[@uzefulvideos3440]

There are also file systems with advanced features like data and metadata checksums - which allows for detection and often even prevention of bit rot - transparent compression, snapshots, ..., which none of the mentioned file systems have. Btrfs, ZFS, Bcachefs would be the more popular of those file systems.

[@Benoit-Pierre]

Few people will understand what you are talking about.

[@filiphabek271]

ZFS was mentioned, still disappointed that BTRFS wasn't.

[@KimJakab]

I hate computers and programming, but keep on torturing myself by trying to learn new things within these topics. This video was very interesting and informative. Thanks for a great video which made me suffer minimal! :)

[@Commentorist]

You must be masochist😎

[@nemooutis7934]

There are many file system discussions posted on-line. It is tedious to sort through these discussions. Your discussion is the best I've come across. Exactly what I've been looking for. Concise, well enough detailed, and crafted. If I want more information. I can go to print sources with a better than basic understanding of windows file systems. Most of what I've come across on-line is extremely stale and long winded or not relevant to what I want to know about Windows only file systems. Thank you... Good Job

[@lhtd]

Best explanation i've found so far. Thank you Sir !!!

[@dzikibill6756]

Your my hero !! I wish I had such a big knowlage about computers , but I`m thankful that I can learn from you !! Thank you !

[@rwashi]

Hello Chris, nice to see you again, Happy Father´s day, My favorite File System is the ZFS File System it is so robust, I use it with TrueOS, I even managed to recuperate a sector damaged hard drive.

[@pcuser80]

Tried ZFS today, so easy to create a raid works great. Thanks for the video and idea.

[@dougster576]

Really can't understand why this guy doesn't get more Veiws. He explains everything to well.

[@Mr_exe32]

I guarantee if he got rid of the bowl cut his view-count would skyrocket.

[@staninjapan07]

Thanks. I have seen a few of your videos, and I like the fact that you always get to the point and include no nonsense. Keep up the good work!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your kind feedback, appreciated.

[@ytugtbk]

Very good video. The other advantage to the latter file systems was they ability to handle file names of 128 characters. Early systems were limited to 32.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Early file systems (eg DOS) were limited to eight characters and a three character extension! :)

[@electric7487]

​@@ExplainingComputers So THAT'S why all those Windows filenames were so confusing!

[@dreamyrhodes]

Update: You can safely use ZFS for Linux as the standard system, especially when your Linux runs on a server and/or you are running it on an array. It brings more than just RAID, it's robust, the Linux port is now ported back to BSD because the Linux project has better funding for further development and you have a build in snapshot system that can be used to roll back if something gets messed up. It also can transfer data across clusters which makes it available for backup and load-balancing solutions.

[@labibahmed7056]

I like this explanation. So fluent and understandable

[@sns_rulz]

This is an amazing channel. Learned a ton of things… keep up the good work 👏👏👏👏

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks, will do!

[@patmat.]

Marvelously explained because you really know what you're talking about, unlike most other YT computer channels.

[@Deathrape2001]

There R many mistakes, like pretending U need NTFS more than U do, or that it is better or more reliable than FAT32 & so on. I've found the exact opposite is true. NTFS is absolute $hit.

[@marcse7en]

Wow! This guy knows his stuff! Helped me decide that I need to format my 32GB flash drive as exFat, so I can store files bigger than 4GB! Simples! 😂

[@peterhowe9688]

Great effort making this information accessible. I started using XFS for data drives years ago and that has been pretty reliable, it has journaling and it is a very performant (resource light) filesystem. I believe it is used in storage appliances from the likes of Buffalo for those reasons. Modern Linux distros handle exFAT, NTFS and HFS very well as FUSE filesystems, as ever Linux is the Swiss army knife of computing.

[@sardoggy]

OMG the grafix the grafix, such a good job and so helpful in explaining so anyone can understand. Great video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks so much!

[@cinicoproducciones]

Loved how well and simply it's all explain.

[@aag619]

Thanks for this, great video. Straight to the point with no filler.

[@Robert-Wip]

NTFS= New Technology File System ExFAT= Extended File Allocation Table FAT = File Allocation Table APFS = Apple File System And there are many more, like Linux: Ext2 = Second Extended File System Ext3 = Third Extended File System Ext4 = Fourth Extended File System 😇

[@DogeMcLovin]

Aw man, just a day too late! Just cloned another HDD to SSD yesterday and I was wondering again what the differences were between all of these. Great video, nonetheless! I always love learning.

[@d3stinYwOw]

As alternative to ZFS, BTRFS exists for Linux :) For USB drives etc, F2FS exists :)

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

I did wonder about that in the video, and the journaling reiserFS (even if it is old). Mentioning SWAP files might too have been worthwhile because "workarounds" (even if they are niche) can be done such as using fat32 on an old knoppix CD and that is reversible, sort of along the same "low impact" approach to the newcomer user as with a cloop when using wubi installs on winXP with old linux distros on a pc with a suitable bios.

[@oneeyedphotographer]

@@obsoletepowercorrupts I think ReiserFS{3,4} pretty much died when Hans Reiser went to gaol.

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

@@oneeyedphotographer If that is your preference, you might find more usage or enjoyment out of another filesystem. A toast to your quest for a more tailored FileSystem. As for everybody else in the world (to whomsoever multiple people my comment is directed), the subjective definition of when a FileSystem has died depends on what computer a person is using and what OS they desire for it, as for example with out--of-the-box (on the distro ISO) hardware drivers suitable to an older (offline) linux distro on a reto machine to get it up and running and lightweight and avoiding dealing with dependency hell just to install straight from a CD and get going. One could say fat32 died but then again it is used by retro enthusiasts and nand memory users alike. There is a massive retro hardware community that use different configurations for nostalgia and the experience, and it is all personal preference as to whether a person likes it or not, or finds it useful.

[@oneeyedphotographer]

@@obsoletepowercorrupts if you want to use a 2.x Linux kernel, go for it. My preference is for software that works on and supports contemporary hardware.

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

@@oneeyedphotographer Well, using a 2.x Linux is a good example as you say. One reason a person might do that is so as to use legacy nvidia drivers on older nividia cards for 3D support when they are disinclined to use nouveau open source software. So to further subset that scenario, a person might wish to play tuxkart (on linux) using the old graphics rather than the newer ones in SuperTuxKart (although in some cases they might do that too). Those older graphics are reflected in Android version of the SuperTuxKart game. Or a graphics card used in conjunction with a video-in (and out). Some older nvidia cards run better in linux than on mswindows and the geforce4mx is a example of that as is the geforce256 (which goes form "not working in 3D" for mswindows to 90FPS in 720p tux-racer on a 1ghz duron). Having to use a virtual machine is not always optimal. For some, it is oldskool Real Hardware FTW. This can mean that some midi joysticks/pads (albeit it rare) can be used on an old machine with a midi port. And while they are at it, the journaling might be the thing for them. Playing tuxkart on a LAN over rj45 with multiple oldskool computers and seeing the expression on peoples faces when you beat them (not that they'd ever win of course) is priceless. Beats online gaming any day IMO.

[@AseDeliri]

I love this guy. Straight to the point and great explanations.

[@mrsillywalk]

Always that beautifully paced and articulate delivery.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thank you kindly!

[@dickcheesehead9714]

Thanks, my British mate. This was very useful. These are the typical things I want to know more of. Cheers!

[@SovereignKnight74]

Once again, an excellent explanation! Your channel is invaluable. Keep up the great work because it's highly appreciated!

[@Henri_P]

Thank you for great video. I would also recommend to investigate UDF ("Universal Disk Format", see Wikipedia). It can be used on CD/DVD(rw) but also on block devices (usb/sd). It is compatible with Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. On Linux you can format with command: # mkudffs -b 512 --utf8 --media-type=hd --vid="name" /dev/sdX1

[@MM-wu4et]

This is the best explanation ever! and should be added as a short guide to any File System courses.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@awvalenti]

Nice video! I watched it some years ago and now I'm back to it. Two things to add: one is that Btrfs is a great ext4 alternative for Linux, offering cheap backups and data integrity guarantees; I've been using it for more than two years now and it's been working perfectly. The other thing is that TVs can also read USB drives, and their compatibility varies a lot; a Sony model from 2013 accepts FAT32 and exFAT; a newer LG one accepts FAT32 and NTFS. So, for files smaller than 4GB, I recommend FAT32 for higher compatibility.

[@ebreckpo6563]

Nice refresh of file systems. I would suggest a follow up regarding the legal characters you can use for the filenames in every operating system, more and more people are swapping between operating systems and I noticed a different behaviour of OS es regarding "special characters". If you stay in plain ascii no problem. With Regards, Eric

[@dwarf365]

Good Morning! Glad to see you and happy fathers day!

[@MarkTheMorose]

I have recent experience of another difference between filing systems, when trying to copy a file I'd created (in Linux) with a colon in the filename. I have two 8TB backup drives, and copying to the second (newest) drive was no problem, but the first drive kept complaining. After a couple of minutes, I twigged that the first drive was formatted as standard as exFAT. The newer drive I made sure to format before use as NTFS. Since then, I've made sure to use hyphens instead of colons in filenames!

[@patrickwigmore3462]

Errors caused by differences in the allowable characters between different file systems seem to be particularly badly handled. In my experience, you tend to either get a non-specific error condition that doesn't help you to identify what the problem is, or it just fails silently. Cloud file storage services can be particularly irritating in that regard.

[@d.joseph4356]

You make great videos. No nonsense, clear delivery and simple.

[@Jopacob]

The most informative 10 minutes of my life ! Thank you

[@ExplainingComputers]

You're very welcome!

[@hermanwooster8944]

I have found EXFAT to work great on Linux! It required only one terminal line to install the driver and that was that. Easy and worked between Windows and Linux. If you're working with larger files, you can't go wrong with it.

[@Benoit-Pierre]

Exfat looks good for exchange partition between systems ... Of external storage. I absolutely require exchange partition on internal drive to support resizing, and exfat does not. I do use exfat, but on small chunks , and consider this space as lost. Yes I yearly resize partitions to move free space around.

[@andme-cf7kj]

exFAT = not fat anymore FAT32 = i can open my own mcdonalds in my belly

[@bluecomet1109]

My breath smells like a mcmuffin

[@KangJangkrik]

exFAT = more likely extra FAT FAT32 = ...and this one 32x more FAT

[@chrisschembari2486]

Fat32: One quart (32 oz.) of full-fat ice cream. With lots of BTRFS (butterfats) in the recipe.

[@marekmackiewicz2854]

While exfat does require drivers on Linux, they are easily available, which makes it a great choice if you share drives between Windows, Mac, as well as Linux

[@j_5244]

This was the best explanation of file systems I have found on KZbin

[@azratosh]

Quick, simple, straightforward. Thanks a lot, much appreciated!

[@crazyrussianbot8012]

around 2000-2008 I ran large Linux servers for ftp / fileservers, and started testing various filesystems because ext2 wasn't the most reliable after a corruption, ReiserFS was ok but still awkward in a way, the best FS I found then was XFS by SGI. I think ext4 was catching up pretty well and I finally used that one. I always wondered how these FS avoid the typical Windows FS problem of fragmentation - being too lazy to read up on that topic myself, I was hoping you would shed some light on this problem. Maybe a topic for a future video.

[@erichopper4979]

I think it's important to mention the patent status of these various filesystems. The patent status of exFAT is one of the biggest reasons it's hard to make it work on Linux. In fact, the patent status of exFAT is likely the biggest reason for its creation. Also, btrfs can actually convert a filesystem in place for some filesystems. That means you can convert a filesystem to btrfs without losing any data. The original filesystem can even still be used in read-only mode.

[@thevivariumforhalfmeasures7698]

What do you mean by "the patent status of exFAT is likely the biggest reason for its creation"?

[@erichopper4979]

@@thevivariumforhalfmeasures7698 - Microsoft was frustrated with all the Linux implementations of FAT. They'd been trying to sue various companies out of existence based on their use of FAT in their Linux based products. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp._v._TomTom_Inc. This is really rich coming from the company that (albeit completely legally) ripped off their entire TCP/IP stack from BSD Unix. Anyway, exFAT is very, very definitely patented by Microsoft, and that is the reason that it's hard to get a Linux implementation. I suspect that the biggest reason Microsoft created it was to have a filesystem that they could convince a lot of manufacturers to license from them, while having it be extra-especially crystal clear that any non-licensed implementation would be sued into oblivion. Until Microsoft makes it clear that Linux implementations of FAT and exFAT are covered by the OIN, I consider their membership to be a sham. There is nothing about tomtom's product that really needed FAT. They were just successful and Microsoft wanted a piece of them and used their thoughtless use of the venerable and poorly designed FAT as an excuse.

[@Deathrape2001]

Yeah lots of freeware utilities can convert back & fourth between NTFS & FAT32 & so on, like 'Aomei Partition Assistant', as well as change size while doing so, but of coruse the 'oddball fake files' like the 'virtual pointer' type $hit in NTFS won't work when moving = just regular 'real' files =)

[@jonathanozik5442]

I never had any experience with ZFS but really missed mentions about ReFS and Brtfs. Thank You for the video. :)

[@abeljoasimmarquezgonzalez9922]

ZFS is practically the same as ReFS, but in Microsoft style and modernized, based on b-tree structure, with fully scalable and flexible pools, since ZFS can't modify it's primary assets, you can only "attach" new primary assets, so if you lose one of there assets, you lose all the pool. BrtFS is a ZFS inspired file system with some EXT4 features, but with worse stability. Even when is designed over b-tree scheme and pushed in by big distributions like Oracle Linux and SUSE, BrtFS was rejected by Red Hat, something to take care of...

[@reav3rtm]

@@abeljoasimmarquezgonzalez9922 RedHat is Oracle's competitor in cloud so no wonder. SUSE doesn't mind and goes with Btrfs.

[@olepigeon]

With the introduction of the original Macintosh, Apple used MFS as its initial file system prior to HFS' release a year later. It was a flat file system that didn't support a hierarchy. It had a maximum volume size of 20 MiB, and a maximum file size of 20 MiB. Apple offered Read & Write support through System 6, as the default file system used for single-sided 400K floppy disks on the Macintosh is MFS. Limited support for MFS persisted through MacOS 9. Although you could still read MFS formatted 400K disks, you could no longer reliably write to them.

[@motiurrahman5368]

This is just a master piece... Thanks for your amazing video ...

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thank you very much!

[@JohnMcCormack]

Perfectly explained as always, Chris. You remind me of the glory days of tech programming (in my opinion) with programmes like Tomorrow's World :)

[@martynbush3462]

Tomorrow's World was my favorite TV program. Rayment Baxter, William Wollard, Judith Hann, Michael Rodd, and many more. Black and white TV with no way of recording in the early days. That was immediately followed by Top of The Pops. Happy days.

[@JohnMcCormack]

@@martynbush3462 ah, when TOTP was good and you'd look forward to it each week to see if your preferred artist had hit number 1 :)

[@Deathrape2001]

No he left a lot of details out, like the fact NTFS is absolute $hit because if U get an error, especially on a big partition (& WTF is the point of 'journaling' if it still gets 'corrupted' with a 'bad shutdown'? LOL!) will take more than 10X longer 2 fix than FAT32. If U want 2 actually USE your PC, rather than randomly stuck with it demanding 2 spend literally DAYS (or weeks?) 2 'chkdsk' a 'big' file collection, use FAT32 =) Set the cluster size as small as reliable 4 your preferred partition sizes using the freeware 'FAT32Format' tool.

[@j2simpso]

Great review on the various file system options. A couple points to add though: I believe one downside to NTFS over exFAT and FAT based filesystems is the additional overhead to handle things like journaling. While I suppose that's a moot point given the rapid increases in storage capacity it's something to consider in certain applications. Also, I would argue that exFAT should be grouped together with FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 since it's a variant (a major one at that) of the FAT filesystem. Towards the end of the video you point out that if the filesystem of the drive isn't the one you want you would need to format the drive to the new filesystem but would then risk losing all your data. However, for many filesystems and operating systems the filesystem can be converted without requiring a format, thereby allowing the data to remain in place as it were. In Windows that would be the convert command whilst in Linux it is called fstransform. Also there are a couple of other filesystems that are somewhat popular in the linux community such as ReiserFS, which has a number of killer features that enhance drive performance. Another interesting thing to consider is the forwards and backwards compatibility of these file systems. As you correctly point out this space has evolved over time from the defacto file system of Microsoft based OSes going from FAT to NTFS. Whilst I suspect Windows 10 is backwards compatible with data stored on drives formatted with FAT32, I would be surprised if you could load a 3 /14 inch disk formatted as FAT12 or FAT16. As storage medium and file systems change a continuing challenge will be how we can continue having access to the troves of data we store over time. Whilst we can simply keep moving our data from one storage technology to the next, it does require a concerted effort to make sure no data gets left behind.

[@Deathrape2001]

exFAT is not based on FAT32, but just a lobotomized version of NTFS that does not let U write 2 it if there R N E errors, & locks (far as I've found) cluster size 2 a super-wasteful 32KB. N E 1 know of a way 2 force exFAT 2 do 4KB & 8 & 16 KB culsters instead? Also exFAT doesn't have N E recovery utilities that work (far as I've found) = N E 1 know of N E? & ReiserFS is a dead system since the inventor went 2 jail 4 murdering his rental whore so-called 'wife' mail order Russian $camer embezzler hag 'baby mama'.

[@wammo12345]

Great video Chris! Was pleased to see you mention Apple in the mix. I'm computer agnostic, running Linux, Windows and MacOS so end up needing to consider file systems from time to time. The oldest hardware I have is running Linux, and is none other than a 2006 17" Apple MacBook Pro, no longer supported by MacOS, but still Intel based hardware that just doesn't want to die. I'd love to see what projects you might have for obsolete Apple Hardware...

[@Sihvyl]

As both a Linux and Mac user, I've never noticed a difference or a problem using ext4 for both. As far as I've experienced, there is no problem. It's fun to watch this video though. Thank you. Gosh, we all must be a different breed. Spending time watching videos about file formats...

[@Miafunfactory]

Not only that..I was in my "watch later"

[@amnesia1764]

subscribed love this channel man not like other reviewers with sponsored content,ads all that kind of bullsht just clean content.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this, and welcome aboard.

[@Max_Jacoby]

Apple couldn't just make another file system, it has to be named in their honor. I wonder why it's not iFS.

[@unusedaccount9130]

They can't patent a single letter, so other companies are using the i trademark, and users are thinking it's Apple.

[@drkmccy]

Apple stopped naming iStuff ages ago

[@drkmccy]

@EL3KTRIK Not sure if you are aware but the iPhone is 13 years old, the iPad is 10 years old

[@keco185]

I personally really like APFS. A HUGE improvement over HFS and has adopted a lot of modern features. It’s a shame the industry can’t adopt a common standard though. Everyone needs to make their own file system it seems.

[@phonatic]

@@drkmccy Really? I wasn't aware they had stopped the release of new iPhones.

[@kalanaherath3076]

When your girlfriend is fat: "My girlfriend FAT" When your girlfriend dumps you: "My ExFAT"

[@Jono997]

She had too much ButterFS.

[@stackza8740]

XD

[@FOSSware_360]

My GF: **Beats me** *Psych*

[@dabigbadwolf5081]

Now she FAT 32

[@grandrapids57]

@@dabigbadwolf5081 Now she's FAT 58

[@mohd5rose]

A very informative videos as usual. Thank you very much Christopher.

[@lloydprunier4415]

Thank you for explaining these formats. I have had a cheap 3D printer for a few years and thought it was useless. Now that I know that it only works with FAT32 I can use it and enjoy the frustrating experience of this fad.

[@skashax777x]

you have just inadvertently taught me why the widows ISO installation file I was trying to put on a USB to install windows on an old mac kept failing I must have used the wrong file system for the USB thank you and keep up the good work!!

[@MrREALball]

Worth mentioning the fact that NTFS requires fragmentation. Also, on GNU/Linux there is also BTRFS option, which is similar in its functionality to ZFS, but doesn't have weird oracle licensing.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Been using BTRFS because it's the baseline for Garuda Linux, the addition of auto-Backups being integrated and accessible from Grub has saved me from a few noobie mistakes that tried to brick my system, really is great for learning and general use. Compared to my experience trying to recover Windows 10 when it bricks itself and takes ages to *Maybe* fix, I really feel spoiled while learning linux

[@stub1116]

That was a nice video, well presented to put forward the information contained within it. Good job!

[@troyquigg4411]

Chris, great video as always. Small correction: NTFS was not a reaction to Fat32 - it originated in Windows NT 4. Prior versions of NT used HPFS, which came from OS2. NTFS was an evolution of HPFS. Win 2000 was (i believe) the first MS OS that could natively support NTFS and Fat32.

[@DFX2KX]

If I remember correctly, getting your primary drive set to NTFS was still somewhat glitchy when using 2000, you could do it, but it confused some older applications. I think it wasn't until I went to XP that my main drive used NTFS.

[@paulmarano4078]

Yeah, XP installs defaulted to NTFS, and were most people's first experience with it. Fun fact, XP could still use FAT32 for C, though it was strongly discouraged. Usually only happened on system that upgraded to XP from Win98SE/ME.

[@jugginator4390]

Your learning experience is exactly what I went through once :). I was rather confused why my 8GB file was too large to store on my 32GB flash drive!

[@jugginator4390]

@Robert Fowler Lol! I admit that logic and more is why I never bother with Apple products, that's nuts indeed haha. That's pretty neat though, and speaking of, do you ever have any deterioration of quality whilst compressing and decompressing at high levels with videos? You got me curious :)

[@bobarnold4435]

Very clear presentation of the technologies. After 40+ years of using file systems, I thought I should learn about the differences. I particularly liked your story about re-formatting a file which subsequently exceeded the limits of that particular file system.