You’ll find benchmarks online if you’re interested in specific details Flexense has a thorough comparison of FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS. Generally speaking, exFAT drives are faster at writing and reading data than FAT32 drives.
Which is Faster? While file transfer speed and maximum throughput is limited by the slowest link (usually the hard drive interface to the PC like SATA or a network interface like 3G WWAN), NTFS formatted hard drives have tested faster on benchmark tests than FAT32 formatted drives. It does not offer journaling functionality and other advanced features built into the NTFS file system.FAT32 has much better compatibility compared with NTFS, but it only supports individual files up to 4GB in size and partitions up to 2TB. Which is better fat32 or NTFS? NTFS is ideal for internal drives, while exFAT is generally ideal for flash drives and external drives. The long answer is the same – just with reasons! FAT32 and exFAT are the remaining options you’re given once you rule out the more ‘native’ file systems as above. The short answer is: use exFAT for all external storage devices you will be using to share files. Which format should I use for external hard drive?
Windows USB install drives are formatted as FAT32, which has a 4GB filesize limit. What format should USB be for Windows 10?
If you have files larger than 4 GB and mostly share with Windows PCs, choose NTFS. If you have files larger than 4 GB, but still want pretty good support across devices, choose exFAT. If you want to share your files with the most devices and none of the files are larger than 4 GB, choose FAT32. However, exFAT acts faster when used as the file system for external drives as the read/write speeds are handled differently over USB connections and between operating systems. It consistently outperforms exFAT efficiency and uses fewer system resources. NTFS is faster as an internal drive file system. For older USB drives, FAT32 is also a decent choice.įAT32 and exFAT are just as fast as NTFS with anything other than writing large batches of small files, so if you move between device types often, you might want to leave FAT32/exFAT in place for maximum compatibility. Unlike FAT32, it is not limited to 4 GB of storage, making it suitable for high-capacity pen drives. It is fast, efficient, and has a much smaller overhead than NTFS. The exFAT format is the best file format for USB drives.