NTFS vs FAT32 vs exFAT - Everything You Need To Know

Like JavaScript Frameworks there are way too many filesystems in the world. When it comes to Windows the three main file systems are NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT. But what are the differences? And which one should you be using? Let's find out.
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[@_..---]

imagine how cool it would be if Gary was your professor

[@Alexus00712]

I accidentally misread that as processor, lmao

[@GaryExplains]

True, I don't have a Ph.D. only a B.Sc. (Hons). But I guess if I was a professor at University then getting the Ph.D. would be part of the career path.

[@lucius1976]

For external drives with using Linux and Windows i use only EXFat, but always format it in Windows not Linux. If i did the the latter Windows could not read it

[@Jeff44]

Isn't it the case that Professor is just a job title but Phd is an actual qualification. It's generally required to have the latter to have any chance of the former.

[@KTHKUHNKK]

Wow amazing. I see that you occasionally reply back to your fans so I am going to subscribe. The reason I was watching your video is I wanted to know more about exFAT Due to the fact that's the file system that is on my drone SD card. Which I believe is a 32 GB Great info thanks Keith

[@NedalHanna]

Just remember if you format an external harddrive FAT32, you cannot store files larger than 4 GB on it.

[@armannn6376]

Fat32 is almost deprecated, you can use exFat to get good compatibility and being able to save larger files

[@aaroninclub]

so it’s terrible for HD movies etc...

[@lugasing69]

even usb flash drive?

[@NedalHanna]

@@lugasing69 yes. You cannot store larger than 4 GB files on flash drives either with fat32 format. That's why I instantly format every USB drive I get to exFat

[@kwaminaalpha1649]

@@NedalHannaWhat about NFTS?

[@chrisarmstrong8198]

Gary, could you please do a video on GPT, MBR, UEFI, BIOS, etc for Windows.

[@aaroninclub]

yes because it can cause a real headache when using multiple FSs on the same drive like I do!!!!

[@swarnavasamanta2628]

All of those terms are not exclusive to windows but all x86 OSes

[@EnsignRho]

Was hoping for some internal mechanics, like how FAT physically works on the disk. How NTFS, ext4, JFS, etc. work.

[@AndreVanKammen]

The FAT has a table of numbers that form linked lists (every number contains the index of the next number). The directory entry has a list of files and their names (12 letters in my time). The entry contains the length in bytes and the index of the 1st FAT entry. These FAT numbers of 8, 12 , 16 or 32 bits are multiplied by a blocksize to get a position on the disk to store the file or directory.

[@LetrixAR]

4:35 - The partition table tab also affects compatibility. I remember my father buying multiple USB drives because wouldn't work on the TV because I flashed Windows with GPT. It took me a while to know that GPT wasn't compatible. Replaced with MBR and worked again.

[@anoniem012]

GPT 4.0 now XD

[@sandysalgotra1982]

Thanks a ton Gary for this vid. Wanted to understand this since long. Crystal clear now.👍👍👍👍

[@GaryExplains]

Glad to hear it

[@CanadairCL44]

Thanks Gary, that was well explained!

[@valitocardoso4643]

Thank you professor Gary! 👍

[@petrslavik4356]

Thanks for a very nice and informative video, Gary! Will you continue in this fashion and discuss filesystems related to Linux and macOS?

[@miladini1]

Hi Gary, very informative! Thanks!

[@GaryExplains]

Glad it was helpful!

[@dragline.]

Great explainer. Helpful. Thank you

[@raserapps8230]

really interesting, learnt a lot from this! Sometimes when I run a live USB linux distro, I run out of space fast when theres still lots of room on the USB drive. Even when I do a persistence mode USB, it tends to do like 4 to 5GB with the OS filesystem then the persistence partition is seperate - but locked down. This has given me an idea to try different filesystems. thanks

[@bapynshngain]

Thank you Sir Gary!

[@GaryExplains]

You are very welcome.

[@reneseib6532]

Wow what a good way of explaining, thank you

[@gdthegreat]

Hey man, thanks a lot for these videos.

[@GaryExplains]

My pleasure!

[@Far3oan]

thanks alot for detailed explanation 👍🏻

[@Spike-qh2bb]

Great perfect just what I needed to know.

[@kaiweihong311]

Thank you Professor Gary

[@0LoneTech]

There's also the very rarely mentioned option that is supported by all major operating systems: UDF. It is used on DVDs and CD-RW, but can be used on other block media too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format#Compatibility Cameras and such tend to follow SD and Design rule for Camera File system specifications, which include use of FAT/FAT32/ExFAT. A weakness of UDF nowadays is volume size; it runs into limits over 2TiB, which hard drives and SSDs have now reached. It seemed pretty big back in 1995. It's not a hard problem to solve (FAT has had 6 such generation bumps), but interest is limited since Blu-Ray hasn't reached that size.

[@NeutralOrNotTooBadStuff]

Can hard drives be formatted as UDF?

[@0LoneTech]

@@NeutralOrNotTooBadStuff Yes, but some operating systems disagree on compatibility with partitioning schemes. Hard drives do not need to be partitioned, but some firmwares have problems with that too.

[@walterpark8824]

Excellent summary. Even though I use all of these on Win and Linux, there,was new info here for me. Will you please do a similar review of 5 or 6 major linux file systems. I'd like to know more about BTRFS and ZFS especially. Thanks, as always.

[@shubhamdwivedi7766]

Sometimes I hear Gary Sins then I have to pause and check the channel name lol Nice explanation as always👍

[@naeem8434]

Excellent explanation sir 👍

[@deadruss7574]

Thanks for the helpful vid! Very much relevant information in 2023 now and this has helped me loads.

[@GaryExplains]

Glad it was helpful! 👍

[@shobeirasayesh6378]

Fantastic simulation of the sound of putting a file/directory to trash bin @ 7:40 Appreciate your video.

[@spaceiswater6539]

I use Fedora-OS and it reads/writes to external NTFS hard-drives without any errors. Brilliant video Gary thank you so much for making it.

[@YounesLayachi]

That's likely thanks to ntfs-3g , built into pretty much every Linux distro now x)

[@YounesLayachi]

@@ahnafhabib7531 okay, I understand those barebones distros might not

[@SnowyRVulpix]

@@ahnafhabib7531 Arch does but you need to actually install it.

[@armonianumerica5830]

thanks great info!

[@idcrafter-cgi]

fun fact Linux can use allmost all filesystems that exist

[@billmukholi7430]

I dual boot windows 10 & Ubuntu and I can read from the windows partition (C:), writing gets weird, I can only write when I restart windows then boot into Ubuntu

[@ruru4855]

@@billmukholi7430 try turning windows fast boot off

[@joe8663]

And, almost no other systems can use linux file systems :)

[@ssthapit]

Was looking all over to find out if it is better to use NTFS on my external SSD if I am only ever going to use the drive on a PC and got the answer in the video. Thanks.

[@kapilbusawah7169]

Thanks for lesson Prof

[@GaryExplains]

My pleasure.

[@andrewalex7873]

Cheers mate👍🏽

[@ezequielpedroza3865]

That's really good

[@augustobarradas]

With such rich content Gary should be way over 1M subscribers by now ! Come one guys....spread the word ...

[@GaryExplains]

Tell me about it!!!!

[@TheSuccessfulLeader]

Okay, Gary, you have pulled together in my mind why my new storage unit did not open up at the FedEx Store printer. Thank you!

[@nitrovenom991]

Gary saar please do a video on EXT4 vs F2FS or CRC and Fsync on vs CRC and Fsync on )( disabling CRC and Fsync increases storage speed by a lot! You need kernel level support to turn them off 🙄

[@Laszlomtl]

Excellent, Gary! Laszlo Montreal Photog.

[@nextlifeonearth]

You can format an sd card as ntfs, you can easily install an ntfs driver on Linux so you can read and write. IMO transferable solid state storage should all just use xfs. It's open source, flexible, optimised for solid state storage etc. Apple and Microsoft should just agree on this one, exfat is terrible, there is no reason not to use a journaling file system in this day and age.

[@ekeretteekpo3004]

Do you think that one could format an SD card as ext4 or xfs or even btrfs?

[@CodeWithDevvin]

yet it did show up on the yt algo im subscribing

[@SpcFilho]

Awesome!

[@dragounay]

Thanks for the video professor Gary 👍 Can filesystem difference between Windows and Linux explain some speed difference ? As I always Linux file operations to happen faster than on Windows (such as copying, extracting, or just searching files)

[@tlmoller]

External HD I would for sure use NTFS. exFAT has no advantage as you would still need drivers in other systems. SD cards something different and fine for exFAT.

[@Eric-jt9nj]

I am covering my 1tb external HDD from NTFS to exFAT in order to be able to back up files not only from my windows laptop but from my MacBook too. Currently, working on Mac I can only read from the external HDD but can't write🤷

[@Spike-qh2bb]

We be backing up my games Xbox S console and Steam games on PC so need exFAT using external hard drive.

[@aerospecies]

Good video, plenty info but not even close to everything I need to know!!!

[@christiansonio412]

iOS 14 & iPadOS 14 started to support NTFS format as read-only but not writing to NTFS drive. It only support both read & write in ExFAT drive..

[@kbaudewyns7]

Thank you! I was having so much trouble with this. I'm following an IT course and it's like the instructor is talking Chinese LOL. Watched this video and took notes and I'm ready to go : D

[@GaryExplains]

Glad it helped!

[@404_not_foun-d]

It's so good!!!

[@ramosmanos]

I had an experience with recent (for that time) ubuntu 20.04 and I couldn't mount fat32-formatted flash drives. For this reason, now all my flash cards which I plug-in both to linux and windows machines, are formatted in ntfs. And yes, it seems this concerns only rw mode, when one needs to specify -o options for sudo mount. If read-only access is needed, it seems everything is mounted, but -o options are not required.

[@ryukjoga]

Finally i understood cus i never really cared but i remember all of those times where i got problems with it by picking the wrong format

[@djgroopz4952]

Thanks

[@donerdoner2272]

Thanks sir in my country nobody youtuber can explained

[@see576]

Thank you

[@gmolstad]

what a perfect green screen! which camera, lights and keyer are you useing?

[@cicalinarrot]

"NTFS limit is measured in Exabytes so that's nothing we have to worry about right now" That's exactly what people must have said in the 90s when talking about the 4GB limit of FAT32. Or CO2 emissions.

[@GaryExplains]

The theoretical file size limit is 16 Exabytes, so we are talking about magnitudes of differences. In the 90s we still had files that could be measured in gigabytes. Even a CDROM was 0.65GB. 0.64GB to 4GB isn't much of a leap. But, 1000TB is 0.001 Exabytes. As I said this a magnitude of difference.

[@cicalinarrot]

​@@GaryExplains Not to mention factors like video streaming and SSD prices surely slowed down drive's expansion lately and put us on a storage size plateau. My father's top notch PowerMac had a 10GB HDD in the year 2000 (we upgraded it to a bigger one but it could only use 120GB, if I recall properly), his iMac had a 1TB drive in 2010, my PC runs fine on a 240GB SSD. Sorry, I mostly wanted to make an environmentalist joke ;-)

[@Spike-qh2bb]

Would love a 1 EXbytes hard drive.

[@soumyaranjanmahunt1452]

Would have been nice if ReFS was included too, I have so much confusion about it.

[@ephraimgarrett4727]

Good overview for computer semi-literates...like me! 😁👍

[@zahidarmanzahid9190]

what the heck is going on with youtube compression ? spooky effects on vids like 10:32 and so on

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

fat32 MBR, 32kb(if using drive for bigger files like movies instead of pictures). this is my go to scenario to use on older systems(ps3 and tvs under 4k) for my newer laptop using a 12tb external i go for exfat since i wont be using it on old devices because they cant read 12tb anyways

[@olafschermann1592]

Please make a comparison NTFS vs. ReFS. ReFS should support Hyper-V and Deduplication nowadays.

[@AkshayHendre2010]

Hey Gary, do you know any of the platform independent file system which I can use across Window, Linux or mac. I know many FS have support on all three platforms. But is there anything platform independent? like does exFat have official linux and mac support? or is there anything open FS?

[@silviucc]

exFAT has been officially supported with a kernel driver on Linux since version 5.4. People on distros using older kernels need to use the FUSE implementation. macos has supported exFAT since version 10.6.5 according to info I found on the web.

[@noneovyerbusiness4909]

It sounds like NTFS would be a good choice for data backup drives since it's compatible with both Windows and Linux.

[@ramosmanos]

Can anyone explain me why my new usb 3.2 flash card is so slow sometimes? I go quite deep in subdirectories (maybe 3-5) and at some point I have to wait dozens of seconds while next directory is shown. And it contains just a few elements, not hundreds thousands. Flash is ntfs-formatted, 64 gigs total capacity, it's occupied to 50-60%, and I use windows file explorer. Now I realize that it's better to format it in exFAT, but I'm not sure I can mount it in linux then.

[@paulperkins1615]

In the world of Linux distributions, the difference between FAT32 and exFAT is that FAT32 support is probably installed by default, but exFAT may not work until you cast the proper magic spell to invoke it (i.e., request installation of the proper obscure package from "the repositories"). This reflects that there exists an open-source implementation of FAT32 for Linux, and nobody seems to think any unexpired patents cover FAT32, and neither of these points is as clear when it comes to exFAT.

[@samdeur]

Microsoft has released exfat its now in the Linux kernel.

[@edwardmacdonald5453]

Hi Gary love your videos. I need your help. (I am told) that in order for my usb's to play on a Marantz device I need to put this -(Sat- FAT 16-32 NB3) on the usb -How do you do this ? Regards Ed

[@markboss1398]

when using Rufus what "cluster size" do i want for a 64GB USB? web site suggested 32 kilobytes

[@uchiha_tobi2219]

Mr. Gary please do a video ,which file system is used in Android and Apple iphones ?

[@77MAD77MAD77]

Wow, this video helped solve the bigger mystery, lol. I think that's the real reason why OEMs might be ditching SD cards from their phones.

[@SlyEcho]

It is technically possible to use UDF (you know, from DVD's) as a cross-platform file system. But in practice it has poor support.

[@SomeRandomPiggo]

i might be wrong but isn't it read only?

[@SlyEcho]

@@SomeRandomPiggo No, it works with read-write as well, I have tested it on a USB stick and it works between Windows and Linux but there may be issues.

[@andreydavydov6417]

Should i use exFAT for my USB flash drive, or EXT4 will be better option?

[@AbhishekSingh-fz6jp]

Gary can you tell me how to access the metadata and also how to edit this metadata in windows

[@GaryExplains]

You can't.

[@developerpranav]

I didn't know Linux and Mac don't support NTFS officially. I'm gonna reduce my usage of NTFS from now on. Thanks 😊

[@foxsux6000]

Apple's filesystems don't work on Linux or Windows without 3rd party software..

[@ShepherdAr254]

I have a 4TB that I formated as exFAT. I've been using on windows and lately the disk loading is so slow..I can't even access or copy files. Am I using the wrong file system and how do I resolve this without loosing data? Kindly help

[@redahaskourihachlout9302]

Go to a device with usb port 3.0 then use a box for your external hard drive that support usb 3.0 speed. Then you should to have a new Linux OS ( try latest fedora ) Then pluggin your that external harddrive. And pluggin an other hard drive that formated with ntsf. Copy and past file by file or folder by folder directly from your old harddrive with exfat to the new formated one with ntfs. Be sure you copy at same time not more than 4GB. Even you copy all files. Then use that new ntfs external hard drive. The old one should format it wity other format type.

[@giaptheson]

And yes, FAT32 is the first release in 1995 (i.e. Windows 95). NTFS is the second release in 2001 (i.e. Windows XP), whereas exFAT is the third release in 2006 (i.e. Windows Vista SP1).

[@GaryExplains]

I don't quite understand the point you are trying to make. NTFS was released in 1993 with Windows NT 3.1.

[@ged_lt]

Yes. I liked it.

[@freedombsd2539]

I primarily use linux mint and windows with all external drives formatted to exfat. I lost 4 terabytes of data moving my ssd from linux to windows. Formatting my external T7 4TB ssd to NTSF resolved loss of data issues. The journalling system of NTSF kept data loss to a minimum, and linux mint reads and writes to NTSF drives without issues.

[@redahaskourihachlout9302]

This comment helped me. I use windows and i want to swutch to linux mint. In my internal harddrive (ntfs for windows) I have two partition. One of my stuffs and my files and one of my windows OS. So now i need to format my windows partition to install linux mint. So the other martitiin with ntfs can be useful in linux mint os? Can read and write right?

[@dune2024]

so NTFS is a decent journaling system protecting you from corrupt data transfer but how about exFAT and the others? do they use the same advanced journaling system, too?

[@proffesorchaos]

i noticed with exfat i get stutters in games

[@samuelmatheson9655]

DO ext4 and apfs next

[@Daniel160384]

Synology DSM 7 (beta) has native exFat support for free

[@PUR3H8]

Gary, any easier way of using NTFS with Android apart from Total Commander?

[@foxsux6000]

Get a Samsung, it's supported by default.

[@PUR3H8]

@@foxsux6000 I do use a Samsung and it doesn't. It's Android's limitation.

[@NedalHanna]

Use 3rd party file explorer like* MiXplorer... It can read from NTFS.

[@dennispetersen2558]

3:23 NO!!! if you use the buildt-in dialog yes but if call the disk formatter API directly through diskpart you can

[@roboak7916]

exFAT support is free with the new Synology OS (7)

[@Skybar23]

So NTFS is recommended for external hard drives purchases today?

[@a_maxed_out_handle_of_30_chars]

do a ext filesystem video

[@samuelmatheson9655]

which filesystem should i use for internal drives shared between Windows and linux?

[@OrangeRock]

I believe NTFS should do the trick

[@samuelmatheson9655]

@@OrangeRock i ended up ditching windows

[@TheCORE.]

I'll watch the video again but I'm just trying to figure out what's seems to be going on with my camcorder. Now from your explanation of fat32 I had my camcorder running a test on a 32gb sd card and it 1 hour and a couple of minutes for my max amount of time and that was because of how much space was on the card. Now it was set to 1080p and when the record button was it recorded for around 15 minutes and then started a second file automatically but there was a gap in the recording. I've tried this also with a 400gb micro sd card to sd card adapter and the same thing occurred. Any tips would be appreciated. I just thought this was a little fishing when trying to record with my dslr (camera) it can record for 30 minutes max but that's because the company said if it can record for longer it should classified as a camcorder and not a camera.

[@sabriath]

I like building my own file systems and drivers

[@IpelengMotsatsi]

can you do a video on APFS

[@SCIENindustries]

hmm, weird, all my other devices recognize NTFS but not exFAT

[@SultriAccess]

If its NTFS how do i change it for my andriod

[@raserapps8230]

I always wondered why are operating systems in general in iso format and referred to as an image? is a .iso literally an image like a .jpg? Raspbian OS used to literally be a .img file.

[@GaryExplains]

A .iso is an image of a CD or a DVD. Optical disks have their own filesystem that isn't FAT, NTFS etc. For CDs it was defined in ISO 9660 hence the file extension .iso.

[@johnygthing]

I've just bought an ssd t7 it comes as exfat standard,, I have windows 10 is it OK to leave it as exfat?

[@GaryExplains]

If you think you will use it with other non-Windows machines like a Mac, NAS, or even a SmartTV then leave it as exfat. If you know you will only use it Windows then you might want to reformat it as NTFS.

[@johnygthing]

@@GaryExplains just a quick format rather than long?

[@GaryExplains]

Yes, quick format is sufficient.

[@shamusobi2748]

Is this how ransomeware works? they take over your ntfs metadata?

[@mcrap4864]

I can safely say that I am now very FATten with knowledge

[@xxmountaindewxx7893]

I either use EXT4 or BTRFS

[@SomeRandomPiggo]

"Like JavaScript Frameworks there are way too many filesystems in the world." true lmfaoo

[@bluesillybeard]

fun fact: Ubuntu(a Linux distro) supports most of these natively. I plugged in an HFS drive, worked perfectly. NTFS? no problem. EXT4? ok that one is obvious

[@hamzamuhammadkhan]

Gary for professor at institutes 🥺

[@YounesLayachi]

This is handy, last week I had to dig through these file systems and wow thank you Microsoft for creating this awesome new technology named NTFS... NOT Always doing things differently for no reason >_>

[@denvera1g1]

I was very upset that ReFS was taken away from Windows 10, like, NTFS is older than many of the people using windows 10

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

i have tons of old tvs and ps3s so i have to u se fat32 for everything. its a shame that windows 10 just doesnt allow you to use it by default and you have to download programs for it. it wouldnt take up much space for them to add the option and mbr. but thats windows for you

[@rashie]

👍👍

[@gacherumburu9958]

👍

[@lemdixon01]

My Linux on doesn't see my new 2Tb ext HD as it's Fat but Linux sees my windows partition. My windows partition sees my ext HD, so don't understand why Linux doesn't see it.

[@eurimontero1883]

Don't forget ZFS

[@0LoneTech]

2TiB is right at the limit of what FAT32 supports, but Windows tends to hide the option past 32GiB. It may have made exFAT, which is not natively supported by Linux before 5.4; you may want to try exfat-fuse or similar.