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If you need to exchange files (even occasionally) with a non-Windows system like a Mac or Linux box, then FAT32 will give you less agita, as long as your file sizes are smaller than 4GB.

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FAT32 and NTFS are the most common formats, but whats the difference.

But what are those, and why would you choose one over the other We break down the differences between FAT32 vs.

NTFS.

FAT32 is the most common version of the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system created back in 1977 by Microsoft.

It eventually found its way on the IBM PCs PC-DOS in 1981, and carried over to MS-DOS when that became a standalone product.

FAT had been the standard format for floppy disks and hard drives all through the DOS years, and versions of Windows up to and including Windows 8.

NTFS (New Technology Files System) is the newer drive format.

Compatibility FAT32 is readwrite compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including DOS, most flavors of Windows (up to and including 8), Mac OS X, and many flavors of UNIX-descended operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD.

NTFS, on the other hand, is fully readwrite compatible with Windows from Windows NT 3.1 and Windows XP up to and including Windows 8.

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Mac OS X 10.3 and beyond have NFTS read capabilities, but writing to a NTFS volume requires a third party software utility like Paragon NTFS for Mac.

There are other hacks and workarounds for NTFS on the Mac, but in any case NTFS is only semi-compatible with OS X.

NTFS on Linux systems is spotty for both read and write operations.

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Look for NTFS-3G driver support on your Linux support page to see if its built in.

File Size Matters FAT32 file size support tops out at 4GB and volume size tops out at 2TB.

This means that youre limited to 2TB FAT32 partitions if you want to use a 4TB drive.

This is a concern with uncompressed high-definition movie files, where 30GB files are not unheard of.

One Exabyte is the equivalent of one billion Gigabytes, so were quite a ways away from maxing out NTFS.

Larger volumes will require a 64-bit OS and compatible hardware.

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.

Other factors will be in play, however, including drive technology (HDD vs.

While your OS usually makes the choice of hard drive format for you ahead of time, you can choose which format when youre re-formatting a drive, particularly an external drive.

If you need the drive for a Windows-only environment, NTFS is the best choice.

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