FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file systems

FAT32

(File Allocation Table or file allocation table)
More compatible file system, but with a limitation of files no larger than 4GB
Having been established in 1996, it is one of the old rockers of the file system world, robust but dated. Of course, it is tremendously versatile thanks to its enormous compatibility with practically all devices and operating systems, which is why most USB drives that you buy will be formatted with it.

Its biggest and most popular limitation is that it only allows you to save files of up to 4 GB, so if you want to save a single file that occupies more than that, you will have no choice but to format it with another file system. Its positive side is that it is perfectly compatible with Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux, and works without problems on the old USB 2.0.

exFAT

(Extended File Allocation Table or extended file allocation table)
Evolution of FAT32, compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Ideal external drives for use with Windows, Linux and Mac.
We could refer to the exFAT system as an update to FAT32 introduced by Microsoft in Windows Vista with the intention of putting an end to the headaches caused by the 4 GB limitation of its older brother.

In terms of compatibility, you can use it on Windows, macOS or GNU/Linux. It is a highly recommended file system for external drives such as a USB or SD card where you are going to save files larger than 4 GB and you do not want to have compatibility problems.

exFAT (External FAT) is a file system that was released by Microsoft in 2006 with Windows CE 6.0 to be used exclusively on removable storage devices and thus eliminate the limitations that arise in these when working with FAT32.

In terms of compatibility, you can use it on Windows, macOS or GNU/Linux, although only in the most recent versions such as Windows XP SP3 or OS X 10.6.5 Snow leopard. It is a highly recommended file system for external drives such as a USB or SD card where you are going to save files larger than 4 GB and you do not want to have compatibility problems.

Unlike NTFS, ext4, and Apple’s file systems; exFAT is supported by a greater number of devices and operating systems, as long as they are fairly modern or up to date.

Along with the above, some consoles such as the PS4 and XBox One and even some televisions and multimedia players can already work with memories formatted with this file system without problems, compatible with 192.168.l.254 networks.

exFAT offers the following features:

Support for partitions up to 64 ZB (1 ZB=10¹⁵ TB) theoretically (although a partition size of 512 TB is recommended)
Support for a maximum file size of up to 16 EB
Support of a maximum number of files up to 2,796,202 per directory
Consumes less hardware resources than NTFS
If our device has a capacity greater than 32 GB, it is possible that it is already pre-formatted with exFAT, so if we have to format it, we must choose this file system in order to obtain better performance from it – Spanish information.

As most external hard drives have a large storage volume (even exceeding 2 TB), we will have no choice but to use exFAT if we are going to use it on computers that have macOS or Linux installed, because FAT32 presents problems when working with disk capacity greater than 32 GB.

We must also use exFAT if we want to store files on our drive that are larger than 4 GB (as can happen if we store movies or video captures of 4K or 1080p resolution or use the ReadyBoost 8 function on a computer with more than 4 GB of RAM). Despite the above, it is not worth using it on devices that have a capacity of less than 4 GB because we will not take advantage of all the virtues that this file system offers us.

NTFS

(New Technology File System)
Windows default – Recommended if we are only going to use Windows.
NTFS (New Technology File System) the file system used by default on the hard drive or partition where one of the Windows NT-based operating systems is installed (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 .x, Windows 10, server versions of Windows, and Windows NT itself).

NTFS removes several of the limitations found in FAT16/FAT32, supporting partitions of up to 264TB and supporting maximum file sizes of up to 16TB.

Along with the above, other advantages of using NTFS are:

Support for file encryption (we can password protect files to prevent unauthorized access to them)
Support for long file names (up to 255 characters)
Offers better performance on large partitions than FAT16/FAT32
Supports a maximum number of files up to 4,294,967.295

Using the Unicode 7 system for character encoding

A better ability of itself to recover from errors, and faster option for a website hosting. In external hard drives, there is the advantage that the deleted files are housed in the Windows Recycle Bin, so that we can recover them if we delete them by mistake (a situation that does not happen in FAT32).
The main disadvantage that we can find in NTFS is its compatibility, since it is only fully supported by Microsoft operating systems. In macOS and Linux we must use third-party tools if we want to have read and write support for NTFS because, natively, in these operating systems we can only read the files hosted on this type of partition. If we are going to use NTFS on USB sticks or SD sticks (something not recommended, because it is designed to be used and exploited on hard drives) we must keep this limitation in mind.

Despite the aforementioned incompatibility, it is possible that some modern devices (such as consoles) already support this format. To ensure the NTFS compatibility of your device, we recommend reading its manual to avoid problems.

Another disadvantage of using NTFS is that it requires a lot of space for itself, which is a problem for devices with a storage capacity of less than 400 MB (which is not a problem for hard drives).

If we are only going to make backups of our data and/or we will only use our drive on computers with Windows installed, we must choose the NTFS format for our device. In addition, most manufacturers of external hard drives recommend this file system in order to obtain better performance in these types of cases.