FAT32 and NTFS compared
A comparison of the FAT32 and NTFS file systems is not difficult, but Windows itself does not provide any information about the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems. Therefore, read in this tip where the differences between the file systems lie.
The differences between FAT32 and NTFS
FAT32 and NTFS differ in these points:
- With FAT32, the maximum file size is limited to four gigabytes. Because of this limitation, you cannot, for example, save a DVD image at a time on a FAT32 partition. With NTFS, files of up to one exabyte are theoretically possible.
- NTFS has higher data security. Under FAT32, data can be lost after a crash because there are fewer backup mechanisms. However, this makes FAT32 slightly faster.
- The advantage of FAT32 is its compatibility. NTFS is only supported from Windows NT / 2000, while FAT, although in a slightly modified form, has already been used under Microsoft DOS. Use with other operating systems such as Linux is only possible to a limited extent under NTFS.
Due to the compatibility, you should use FAT32 on mobile storage media, since you usually don't save very large files there. Here you can read how to format a USB stick so that it can be used on both Windows and OS X.