FAT32 or NTFS: which file system to choose for a USB flash drive or external hard drive. FAT32 and its features. FAT32: The obvious choice

This file system is used by operating systems such as Windows NT/2000/XP. When installing NTFS, the disk is divided into two unequal parts: the first is allocated for MFT (Master File Table - a common file table), called the MFT zone and occupies about 12% of overall size disk, the second part is occupied by your data itself. There is also a third zone, but more on that later. What kind of beast is this MFT? This is the basis of NTFS. It lies, as mentioned earlier, in the MFT zone, i.e. at the beginning of the disk. Each entry in MFT corresponds to a file and takes up about 1 Kb. At its core, this is a directory of all files located on the disk. It should be noted that any data element in NTFS is considered as a file, even MFT. The first 16 files (metafiles) in the MFT zone are a special caste. They contain service information, they have a fixed position and are inaccessible even to the operating system. By the way, the first of these 16 is the MFT file itself. A copy of the first three entries exists. Remember, I talked about the third zone, so that’s where it lies and with its position, so to speak, divides the disk in half. Why was this done? Yes, to be safe, in case of loss of information in the MFT file, you can always restore the information, and then it’s a matter of technique, as they say. All other files in the MFT zone can be located arbitrarily. It should be noted that theoretically there is nothing in the MFT zone except service files. But there are cases when there is no space left on the part of the disk that is reserved for the user: - (and then the MFT zone is reduced. Accordingly, space appears in the second half of the disk for recording data. When enough free space is freed up in this zone, MFT - the zone expands again. And this is where the problem appears. regular files and it begins to fragment. It's not fatal, of course, but it's not very pleasant either. But let's return to our sheep, that is, metafiles. Each of them is responsible for some area of ​​work. They begin with the name symbol $ (those who are involved in programming know the symbol). Let me give an example of some of them:

• MFT is nothing more than MFT itself
• MFTmirr - the same copy that is in the middle of the disk
• LogFile is a log file
• Boot - as the name suggests, His Majesty boot sector
• Bitmap - map of the free space of the partition

And so on. Information about metafiles is located in the MFT file. Difficult? There is such a thing. But all this garbage was invented to increase the reliability of NTFS and is justified. Let's move on. NTFS has virtually no restrictions on disk sizes (at least with current production technologies hard drives). The cluster size can vary from 512 b to 64 Kb, although its usual size is 4 Kb.

Let's talk now about the catalogue. This is a metafile with the notation $. . It is divided into parts, each of which contains the file name, its attributes and a link to the MFT file. And all the other information is already there. The directory is a binary tree. Let's try to figure out what kind of bullshit this is. In the directory, information about the data on the disk is located in such a way that when searching for a file, the directory is split into two parts and the answer lies in which part contains what you are looking for. The same operation is then repeated on the selected half. And so on until the desired file is found.

And now about the files. They don't exist as such. Normal, yes! There are so-called streams, or in normal Russian language - streams. That is, any unit of information represents several streams. One thread is the data itself, it is the main one. Other streams are file attributes. You can attach any other file to any file. Simply put, you can attach a completely new stream to streams of the same data and write new data there. But the information on the file size is taken based on the volume of the main stream. Empty or small files on disk are displayed only in metafiles. This was done in order to save disk space. In general, it should be noted that the concept of a file is much deeper and broader and it is quite difficult to describe all the properties. I note that maximum length The file name can be up to 255 characters.

To all other, NTFS files have such a wonderful attribute as compressed. Any file or even directory can be compressed. The compression operation itself occurs unnoticed, since its speed is quite high. Before the heap, so-called virtual compression is used, i.e. one part of the file can be compressed, but the other cannot. Compression is carried out in blocks. Each block is equal to 16 clusters.

NTFS uses data encryption. Thus, if you demolished the system and installed it again, you will not be able to read the encrypted files without appropriate authorization.

Now about logging. But first, let's define the concept of transaction. A transaction is an action that must be performed entirely (read correctly), otherwise it will not be performed at all. So, based on this garbage, if there is a failure while writing data to disk, no notes about the new file will be made in the metafiles. And the place where the recording was started will be considered clean. This is necessary to protect :-) from various types of hemorrhoids. In short, I completed the action to the end - I made a recording, it failed - and there is no need to record it. But it should be noted that the journaling function preserves the functionality of the file system, not your data.

And finally, NTFS has two more functions such as Symbolic Links - the ability to create virtual directories, and Hard Links - support for multiple names for the same file. That's probably all.

On this moment time, this file system is the most common, although it is gradually losing its position after Windows release XP. All operating systems support FAT 32 Windows family starting with Windows 95 OSR2. So, FAT 32 (File Allocation Table) is a spreadsheet for file allocation. It is located almost at the very beginning of the disk. FAT disk structure:

1. boot sectors of the main and additional partitions;

2. boot sector of the logical disk;

3. root directory;

4. data area;

5. cylinder for performing diagnostic read/write operations;

The main advantage of FAT 32 over FAT 16 is that instead of 16-bit entries, 32-bit entries are used. This in turn increases the number of clusters in the partition to 268,435,456 (in FAT - 65,536). When using FAT 32, the volume size is 2 Tb, and the size of one file can reach 4 Gb. Noticeable difference FAT 32 from the previous tables is that the root directory does not take up fixed disk space and can be of any size.

The cluster size when using FAT 32 in a 2 Gb partition with 5,000 files is 4 Kb (in FAT 16 - 32 Kb), up to 524,288 records will be used in the table. In this case, the table itself will weigh about 2 MB.

Comparison of NTFS and FAT 32.

Well, let's do a thankless task - comparing the two file systems.

Advantages:

1. Fast access speed to small files;

2. The size of disk space today is practically unlimited;

3. File fragmentation does not affect the file system itself;

4. High reliability of data storage and the file structure itself;

5. High performance when working with large files;

Flaws:

1. Higher volume requirements random access memory compared to FAT 32;

2. Working with medium-sized catalogs is difficult due to their fragmentation;

3. More low speed work compared to FAT 32

Advantages:

1. High speed work;

2. Low RAM requirement;

3. Effective work with medium and small files;

4. Lower disk wear due to fewer read/write head movements.

Flaws:

1. Low protection against system failures;

2. Ineffective work with large files;

3. Limitation on the maximum volume of a partition and file;

4. Reduced performance due to fragmentation;

5. Reduced performance when working with directories containing a large number of files;

So, some thoughts. Both file systems store data in clusters whose minimum size is 512 b. Usually regular size cluster is 4 Kb. This is where the similarities probably end. Something About Fragmentation: Speed NTFS work decreases sharply when the disk is filled to 80 - 90%. This is due to the fragmentation of service and work files. The more you work with such a busy disk, the stronger the fragmentation and the lower the performance. FAT 32 fragmentation work area disk also occurs at earlier stages. The point here depends on how often you write/erase data. As with NTFS, fragmentation greatly reduces performance. Now about RAM. Volume itself spreadsheet FAT 32 can take up several megabytes of RAM. But caching comes to the rescue. What is written to the cache:

1. The most used directories;

2. Data about all files currently in use;

3. Data about free disk space;

What about NTFS? Large directories are difficult to cache, and they can reach several tens of megabytes in size. Plus MFT, plus information about free disk space. Although it should be noted that NTFS still uses RAM resources quite economically. We have a successful data storage system; in MFT, each record is approximately 1 Kb. But still, the requirements for the amount of RAM are higher than for FAT 32. In short, if your memory is less than or equal to 64 Mb, then FAT 32 will be more efficient in terms of speed. If it is more, the difference in speed will be small, and often none at all. Now about the hard drive itself. For using NTFS Bus Mastering is desirable. What is this? This special treatment driver and controller operation. When using BM, the exchange occurs without the participation of the processor. The absence of a VM will affect system performance. In addition, due to the use of a more complex file system, the number of movements of the read/write heads increases, which also affects the speed. Availability disk cache has an equally positive effect on both NTFS and FAT 32.

This article is dedicated to file systems . When installing the OS, Windows prompts you to select a file system on the partition where it will be installed, and PC users must choose from two options FAT or NTFS.

In most cases, users are content to know that NTFS is "better", and choose this option.

However, sometimes they wonder and what exactly is better?

In this article I will try to explain what is a file system, what they are, how they differ, and which one should be used.

The article simplifies some technical features file systems for a more understandable perception of the material.

File system is a way of organizing data on storage media. The file system determines where and how files will be written on the storage media, and gives the operating system access to those files.

Modern file systems have additional requirements: the ability to encrypt files, access control for files, and additional attributes. Typically the file system is written at the beginning of the hard drive. ().

From an OS point of view, HDD is a set of clusters.

Cluster is an area of ​​a disk of a certain size for storing data. The minimum cluster size is 512 bytes. Because it is used binary system notation, then the cluster sizes are multiples of powers of two.

The user can figuratively imagine the hard drive as a checkered notepad. One cell on the page is one cluster. The file system is the contents of the notepad, and the file is the word.

For hard drives in PCs, there are currently two most common file systems: FAT or NTFS. Appeared first FAT (FAT16), then FAT32, and then NTFS.

FAT(FAT16) – is an abbreviation for File Allocation Table(in translation File Allocation Table).

The FAT framework was developed by Bill Gates and Mark McDonald in 1977. Used as the main file system in operating systems DOS systems And Microsoft Windows(up to Windows ME version).

There are four versions of FAT - FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 And exFAT. They differ in the number of bits allocated to store the cluster number.

FAT12 mainly used for floppy disks, FAT16- for small disks, and the new one exFAT mainly for flash drives. The maximum cluster size supported in FAT is 64Kb. ()

FAT16 first introduced in November 1987. Index 16 in the name indicates that 16 bits are used for the cluster number. As a result, the maximum disk partition (volume) size that this system can support is 4GB.

Later, with the development of technology and the advent of disks with a capacity of more than 4 GB, a file system appeared FAT32. It uses 32-bit cluster addressing and was introduced with Windows 95 OSR2 in August 1996. FAT32 limited volume size to 128GB. Also this system can support long names files. ().

NTFS(abbreviation NewTechnologyFileSystem - New Technology File System) - standard file system for the operating system family Microsoft systems Windows NT.

Introduced on July 27, 1993 along with Windows NT 3.1. NTFS is based on the HPFS file system (an abbreviation HighPerformanceFileSystem - High Performance File System), created by Microsoft together with IBM for the OS/2 operating system.

Basic NTFS features: built-in capabilities to limit access to data for different users and user groups, as well as assign quotas (restrictions on maximum volume disk space occupied by certain users), using a journaling system to increase the reliability of the file system.

File system specifications are proprietary. Typically the cluster size is 4Kb. In practice, it is not recommended to create volumes larger than 2TB. Hard disks have just reached this size, perhaps a new file system awaits us in the future. ().

During installation of Windows XP, you are prompted to format the disk in the system. FAT or NTFS. This means FAT32.

All file systems are built on the principle: one cluster - one file. Those. one cluster stores data from only one file.

The main difference for regular user between these systems is the cluster size. “A long time ago, when disks were small and files were very small,” this was very noticeable.

Let's look at the example of one volume on a disk with a capacity of 120GB and a file of 10KB in size.

For FAT32 the cluster size will be 32Kb, and for NTFS - 4Kb.

IN FAT32 such a file will occupy 1 cluster, leaving 32-10=22Kb of unallocated space.

IN NTFS such a file will occupy 3 clusters, leaving 12-10 = 2Kb of unallocated space.

By analogy with a notepad, a cluster is a cell. And having placed a dot in a cell, we already logically occupy it all, but in reality there is a lot of free space left.

Thus, the transition from FAT32 To NTFS allows for more optimal use of the hard drive if available large quantities small files on the system.

In 2003, I had a 120GB disk, divided into 40 and 80GB volumes. When I switched from Windows 98 to Windows XP and converted the disk with FAT32 V NTFS, I got about 1GB of freed up disk space. At that time this was a significant “increase”.

To find out which file system is used on the hard disk volumes of your PC, you need to open the volume properties window and on the tab "Are common" read this data.

Volume is a synonym for a disk partition; users usually call a volume “drive C”, “drive D”, etc. An example is shown in the picture below:

Currently, disks with a capacity of 320GB or larger are widely used. Therefore I recommend using the system NTFS For optimal use disk space.

Also, if there are several users on the PC, NTFS allows you to configure access to files in such a way that different users could not read or change files of other users.

In organizations when working in local network system administrators use other features of NTFS.

If you are interested in organizing access to files for several users on one PC, then the following articles will describe this in detail.

When writing this article, materials from the sites ru.wikipedia.org were used.

Author of the article: Maxim Telpari
PC user with 15 years of experience. Support specialist for the video course "Confident PC User", after studying which you will learn how to assemble a computer, install Windows XP and drivers, restore the system, work in programs and much more.

Make money with this article!
Register in affiliate program. Replace the link to the course in the article with yours affiliate link. Add an article to your site.

You can get a reprint version. NTFS, FAT or exFAT are completely different file systems that can be used to store data on various media

. Both were created by Microsoft and are mainly used for Windows, but they are also supported in the Linux kernel. Most often, NTFS is used to install operating systems. or Windows systems Windows partitions for files, while FAT is often used on flash drives or other external drives

. Also, FAT can often be used as the main file system for Android. In this article we will look at the differences between FAT and NTFS, we will analyze in detail how they differ and why they are needed.

The file system sets the basic rules for how data will be organized when written to a medium, regardless of whether it is a hard drive or a flash drive. The file system describes how folders will be organized. A certain piece of data called a file is placed in the desired area of ​​the drive. The file system performs all the necessary calculations, and also determines the minimum indivisible size of a data block, the maximum file size, and monitors fragmentation. There are many various types file systems, these are, for example, file systems for installing an OS, for external media , For optical disks

,distributed file systems. But in this article we will only compare fat and ntfs.

What is the FAT file system? The fat32 and ntfs file systems are very different. FAT stands for File Allocation Table. This is a very old file system in history computing systems . Its story began in 1977. Then an 8-bit file system was developed, which was used in the NCR 7200 based on the Intel 8080. It was an input terminal that worked with floppy disks . The file system was written Microsoft employee

, Mark McDonald after discussing its concept with Bill Gates.

FAT32 increased the maximum volume size to 16 TB, compared to FAT16. The file size has also been increased to 4 GB. File Allocation Table 32 bit was released in August 1995 for Windows 95. But this file system still cannot be used for installing heavy applications or storing large files. Therefore, Microsoft has developed a new file system - NTFS, which is devoid of such shortcomings.

FAT32 is an excellent file system for external media if you need to transfer files no larger than 4 GB. It is supported by many various devices such as cameras, cameras, music players. All versions of Windows and Linux distributions Fully support FAT32. Even Apple MacOS supports it.

What is the NTFS file system?

For its new systems, Microsoft developed a new file system - New Technology File System or NTFS. It appeared in 1993, in Windows NT 3.1. NTFS removed many restrictions on file and disk sizes. Its development began back in 1980, as a result of the merger of Microsoft and IBM to create a new file system with improved performance.

But the cooperation between the companies did not last long, and IBM released HPFS, which was used in OS/2, and Microsoft created NTFS 1.0. The maximum size of a single file in NTFS can reach 16 exabytes, which means that even the largest files will fit in it.

NTFS 3.1 was released for Windows XP and received many interesting improvements such as support for partition size reduction, automatic recovery and symbolic links, and the maximum file system disk size was increased to 256 TB. This is despite the maximum file size of 16 EB.

From others interesting features Options that were added later include lazy disk writes, defragmentation support, disk quota settings, link tracking, and file-level encryption. With all this, NTFS remains compatible with previous versions.

Now this is a journaled file system, all actions with files are recorded in special magazine, with which the file system can be very quickly restored if damaged. NTFS supported on Windows XP and later later versions. If we compare fat or ntfs, the latter is not fully supported in Linux; writing and recovery in case of damage are possible, but in MacOS only reading is supported.

What is exFAT file system?

File exFAT system is another Microsoft project to improve the old file system. It can be striped where FAT32 does not fit. It is much lighter than NTFS, but supports files larger than 4 GB, and is also often used on flash drives and drives. When developing it, Microsoft used its technology for searching file names by hash, which greatly improves performance.

Most countries recognize US patent law, so any implementation of exFAT is not possible on any closed or open source system. source code. But Microsoft wants this file system to be freely distributed and used. Therefore, a FUSE-based version of exFAT called fuse-exfat was developed. She gives full access for reading and writing. An implementation at the level was also created Linux kernels in Samsung, which is now also publicly available.

This file system also has a maximum file size limit of 16 EB, but it is much lighter and does not have any additional features. If we talk about compatibility, it is fully supported on Windows, MacOS, Android and Linux.

Differences between FAT and Ntfs

Now let's look at the main differences between FAT and NTFS in the form of a brief summary of each file system:

FAT32

• Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, almost all devices with a USB port;
• Pros: cross-platform, lightweight;
• Minuses: maximum file size 4 GB and partition size 16 GB, non-journaling;
• Usage: external media.

NTFS

• Compatibility: Windows, Linux, Xbox One, and read-only on Mac;
• Pros: journaled, large limits on partition and file size, encryption, automatic recovery;
• Minuses: limited cross-platform;
• Usage: to install Windows.

exFAT

• Compatibility: Windows XP and higher, MacOS X 10.6.5, Linux (fuse), Android;
• Pros: large limit on partition and file size, lightweight compared to NTFS;
• Minuses: Microsoft limits its use to a license agreement;
• Usage: for external media and external hard disks.

conclusions

In this article we have made a comparison between fat and ntfs. These are very different file systems. But it is difficult to understand which file system is better than fat or ntfs; on the one hand, NTFS has many more capabilities, but FAT is lighter and is supported wherever possible. For data partitions in Linux that need to be accessible in Windows is better use FAT rather than NTFS as it is better supported. What do you think is better fat or ntfs for Linux?

FAT - File Allocation Table - this term refers to one of the ways to organize a file system on a disk. This table stores information about files on your hard drive as a sequence of numbers that determine where each part of each file is located. With its help, the operating system finds out which clusters the required file occupies. FAT is the most common file system and is supported by the vast majority of operating systems. At first, FAT was 12-bit and allowed working with floppy disks and logical disks with a capacity of no more than 16 MB. IN MS-DOS versions 3.0 made the FAT table 16-bit to support larger capacity drives, and drives up to 2047 GB use a 32-bit FAT table.

The FAT32 system is a newer file system based on the FAT format and is supported by Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition. FAT32 uses 32-bit cluster IDs but reserves the most significant 4 bits, so the effective cluster ID size is 28 bits. Since the maximum size of FAT32 clusters is 32 KB, FAT32 can theoretically handle 8 terabyte volumes. Windows 2000 limits the size of new FAT32 volumes to 32 GB, although it supports existing larger EAT32 volumes (created on other operating systems). Larger number The clusters supported by FAT32 allow it to manage disks more efficiently than FAT 16. FAT32 can use 512-byte clusters for volumes up to 128 MB in size.

The FAT 32 file system is used as the default file system in Windows 98. This operating system comes with a special program to convert a disk from FAT 16 to FAT 32. Windows NT and Windows 2000 can also use the FAT file system, and therefore you can boot your computer from a DOS disk and have full access to all files. However, some of the most progressive Windows features NT and Windows 2000 are provided with its own file system, ntfs (NT File System). ntfs allows you to create disk partitions up to 2 TB (like FAT 32), but in addition, it has built-in file compression, security and auditing functions necessary when working in a network environment. And in Windows 2000, support for the FAT 32 file system is implemented. Installation of the Windows NT operating system begins at FAT disk, but at the user’s request, at the end of installation, the data on the disk can be converted to ntfs format.

You can do this later by using the Convert.exe utility that comes with operating system. A disk partition converted to the ntfs system becomes inaccessible to other operating systems. To return to DOS, Windows 3.1 or Windows 9x, you need to remove ntfs partition, and create a FAT partition instead. Windows 2000 can be installed on a disk with the FAT 32 and ntfs file system.

The capabilities of EAT32 file systems are much wider than those of FAT16. Its most important feature is that it supports disks up to 2,047 GB and works with clusters smaller size, thereby significantly reducing the amount of unused disk space. For example, a 2 GB hard drive in FAT16 uses 32 KB clusters, while FAT32 uses 4 KB clusters. To maintain compatibility with existing programs, networks, and device drivers whenever possible, FAT32 is implemented with minimal changes to the architecture, APIs, internal data structures, and disk format. But since FAT32 table elements are now four bytes in size, many internal and on-disk data structures and APIs have had to be revised or extended. Certain APIs on EAT32 drives are blocked to prevent legacy disk utilities from corrupting the contents of FAT32 drives. Most programs will not be affected by these changes. Existing tools and drivers will work on FAT32 drives. However, MS-DOS block device drivers (such as Aspidisk.sys) and disk utilities need to be modified to support FAT32. All disk utilities supplied by Microsoft (Format, Fdisk, Defrag, and ScanDisk for real and protected mode) have been redesigned to fully support FAT32. In addition, Microsoft is assisting leading disk utility and device driver vendors in modifying their products to support FAT32. FAT32 is more efficient than FAT16 when working with larger disks and does not require partitioning them into 2 GB partitions. Windows 98 necessarily supports FAT16, since it is this file system that is compatible with other operating systems, including third party companies. In real mode MS-DOS and in Windows 98 safe mode, the FAT32 file system is significantly slower than FAT16. Therefore, when running programs in MS DOS mode, it is advisable to include a command in the Autoexec.bat or PIF file to load Smartdrv.exe, which will speed up disk operations. Some legacy FAT16 programs may report incorrect information about the amount of free or total disk space if it is greater than 2 GB. Windows 98 provides new APIs for MS-DOS and Win32 that allow you to correctly determine these metrics. In table 1 shows the comparative characteristics of FAT16 and FAT32.

Table 1. Comparison of FAT16 and FAT32 file systems

with a volume of less than 8 GB, the cluster size is 4 KB.

The maximum possible file length in FAT32 is 4 GB minus 2 bytes. Win32 applications can open files of this length without special processing. Other applications should use the Int 21h interrupt, function 716C (FAT32) with the open flag set to EXTEND-SIZE (1000h).

The most significant 4 bits of a 32-bit FAT32 table element are reserved and do not participate in the formation of the cluster number. Programs that directly read the PAT32 table must mask these bits and protect them from changing when new values ​​are written.

So, FAT32 has the following advantages in comparison with previous file file implementations: FAT systems:

supports disks up to 2 TB;

organizes more effectively disk space.

FAT32 uses smaller clusters (4 KB for disks up to 8 GB), which saves up to 10-15% of space on large disks compared to FAT;

the FAT 32 root directory, like all other directories, is now unlimited, it consists of a chain of clusters and can be located anywhere on the disk; has more high reliability : FAT32 is able to move the root directory and work with FAT backup, in addition, boot record

on FAT32 disks has been expanded to include a backup copy of critical data structures, which means that FAT32 disks are less sensitive to the occurrence of individual bad sections than existing FAT volumes;

programs load 50% faster.

More than 32 GB An improved disk defragmentation utility optimizes the placement of application files that are loaded when the application is launched. It is possible to convert the disk to EAT32 using the Drive Converter (FAT32) utility, but after this it is recommended to run the Disk Defragmenter utility - otherwise the computer will work with the disk slower than before. When using FAT32, the alternative boot configuration of Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 becomes impossible, since the latter does not support FAT32. FAT32 allocates disk space much more efficiently than previous versions of the FAT file system. This frees up tens or even hundreds of megabytes on large drives, and when combined with the advanced FAT32 disk defragmentation utility, significantly reduces application loading times. The procedure for converting the file system on your hard drive to FAT32 using Drive Converter (FAT32) is quite simple. To do this, you must sequentially open(Start), submenu programs (Programs), Accessories (Standard), System Tools (Utilities) and select the Drive Converter (FAT32) command. The conversion may affect the hibernate features (saving the computer's state to disk) found on many computers. Systems in which sleep mode is implemented through the AWS BIOS or ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) S4/BIOS must support FAT32 - only then will they work correctly in Windows 98.

Most BIOS manufacturers include antivirus protection that monitors for changes to the MBR (Master Boot Record). Additionally, legacy antivirus utilities installed as resident programs or real-mode drivers may detect MBR changes when booting MS-DOS. Because conversion to FAT32 inevitably modifies the MBR, some virus checking tools may mistakenly interpret this as a sign that the system is infected. Therefore, if an antivirus utility detects a change in the MBR, it offers to “cure” it. It's best to remove your antivirus software and disable the built-in ones. BIOS tools virus protection before converting the disk to FAT32. Then you can reinstall the antivirus utility and activate the antivirus protection built into the BIOS.

Anyone who has ever installed an operating system has encountered the fact that at the formatting stage installation partition hard drive, the program prompts you to select the file system type FAT or NTFS.

And those who happened to format a flash drive or other external storage device needed to decide between three file systems: FAT32, NTFS and exFAT. Most often, users choose the default formatting because they do not know what the difference is.

This article is addressed to those who want to fill this gap in their knowledge.

FAT file structure: principles and purpose

File structure or File system was developed in the 70s of the last century by Microsoft and represented certain order organizing space for storing and accessing data on computers and other digital devices.

The purpose of the functionality is to provide the user with convenient control information stored on a disk or external gadget. The file system includes files, folders and directories, as well as a set of system tools that interact with them to perform the functions of read-write, create-delete, copy, name, etc. Besides, this structure organizes sharing to information between users and provides protection against unauthorized actions through encryption, operation in read-only mode, etc.

Structurally, the entire disk space area is divided into clusters, like a sheet of checkered paper. Each cell is a block, the size of which is set during formatting and must be a multiple of 2. The minimum size can be 512 bytes (for a flash drive), for a hard drive it is 32 KB. One file can occupy several such clusters. You can figuratively imagine disk space in the form of a notebook, where the cluster is a letter, the file is a word, and file structure- table of contents of the notebook.

When accessing a file, the operating system must find it in several clusters located in different places on the disk, thus forming a chain of clusters. Each cluster has its own label, which identifies it as one of three types:

1. Free, ready to record data.
2. Busy, which stores part of the information and has in the label data about the next cluster in the chain, while the latter is marked with a special label.
3. BAD block is a cluster with errors that is no longer accessible after formatting.

The size of the label is determined by the type of file structure: for FAT32 it is 32 bytes.

The entire file system consists of the following parts:

• the boot sector, which is located at the beginning of the disk, is activated after the OS boots and stores the partition parameters;
• a file allocation table (“table of contents”) that stores cluster labels;
• copies of the file allocation table to recover data if the file structure is damaged;
• root directory;
• data areas;
• cylinder to perform read/write operations.

There are three types of FAT file systems: FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32. FAT has been replaced by NTFS, and exFAT is an extended version of FAT32 and is mainly used for flash drives.

Advantages and disadvantages of FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file structures

In order to decide on the choice of the most optimal file system for formatting, we will consider descriptions of all three options, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of each.

FAT32

Among the three file structures considered, FAT32 is the oldest. It replaced FAT16 and until recently was the most progressive. The release of FAT32 was timed to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 OSR2 operating system in 1996. Main distinctive features: 32-bit cluster addressing and size limitations: file no more than 4 GB and volume 128 GB.

Advantages

Despite some moral backwardness, FAT32 has a number of advantages over other file systems. Its main attraction is compatibility and versatility. FAT32 works with all versions of operating systems, including Windows (comparison of all versions), Linux and MacOS, and is suitable for any game consoles and other gadgets with a USB port. Today it is used in all external drives (flash drives, CD cards) by default, since many old devices: PCs, laptops, set-top boxes with a USB input can only work with FAT32.

Other important advantages of the file system are: high-speed performance, undemanding amount of RAM, productive work with medium to small files, and low disk wear due to less head movement. However, it is also subject to fragmentation, and periodic defragmentation will definitely not hurt.

Flaws

The main disadvantage of this file system is its size limitations. For clusters, it cannot be more than 64 KB, otherwise some applications may incorrectly calculate disk space.

The file size should not exceed 4 GB, so the maximum disk size for a cluster size for a 32 KB file allocation table would be about 8 TB.

When formatting a disk using ScanDisk, which is a 16-bit program, taking into account the FAT tables themselves and with a maximum cluster size of 32 KB, the volume size is limited to 128 gigabytes.

Considering that not many computer devices are equipped with a hard drive larger than 8 TB, this drawback will not be noticeable for most users. However, the fact that FAT32 works with files up to 4 GB in size is a significant disadvantage, since most high-quality video files in the modern 4K format today are larger than these 4 GB, and therefore are not compatible with this file system.

Besides its size limitations, FAT32 has other disadvantages. It does not support long file names, which is not very convenient for users who want to identify files logically based on their contents. There are complaints about the security system (an additional anti-virus scanner would not hurt) and file protection in case of failures (features of hard drives), as well as low speed when working with directories containing many files.

Thus, FAT32 is more suitable for portable, low-capacity devices and older computers. The latest versions of Windows can no longer be installed on a disk formatted with the FAT32 system; reformatting to NTFS is necessary.

The main use of the FAT32 file system today is in portable flash drives and SD cards (features), which contain few files and are compatible with a variety of digital devices.

NTFS

This file system was developed by Microsoft in 1993 and introduced with Windows NT 3.1. In the title itself new technology file system , which means file system new technology , lies its progressive essence.

After formatting a disk in NTFS, it is divided into three zones:

• MFT - zone or general file table (Master File Table), where information about files and directories is stored;
• user data;
• metafiles containing service information.

Each of the metafiles is responsible for a specific area. For example, LogFile is a logging file in which all operations are recorded in the log, Boot is the boot sector, Bitmap controls free place in section, etc. This structure reliably protects files from any failures, be it OS freezes or power outages.

Advantages

Unlike FAT32, this file structure has virtually no restrictions on the size of files and directories. The cluster size can vary from 512 bytes to 64 KB, with the optimal size being 4 KB.

Thanks to many significant improvements to improve security, such as support for file access rights, HPFS quotas, encryption, journaling, access control and auditing, hard links, etc., NTFS is ideal for formatting a disk for the system area. Other hard drive partitions can also be formatted in this system, since NTFS allows optimal use of disk space when there are many small files.

The advantage of this file organization is fast speed access to small files, high performance when working with large files, as well as the possibility of using long names files.

Flaws

The main disadvantage NTFS systems is incompatibility with all operating systems below Windows NT, as well as limitations in compatibility with other operating systems. So, Mac OS reads files from NTFS drives, but cannot write them, same compatibility situation Linux files. The most popular gaming consoles Playstation and Xbox 360 do not work with NTFS, only Xbox One can interact with it.

Disadvantages of NTFS also include high RAM requirements, lower speed compared to FAT32, and difficulty managing medium-sized directories.

Thus, it makes more sense to use the NTFS file structure on hard drives, including SSDs running the latest Windows versions, starting from NT.

exFAT

This file system is the latest to be reviewed in terms of release time. She appeared in 2008 with next updates to Windows XP and is, in fact, an extended version of FAT32.

The main goal of the developers is to create a productive, convenient and universal file structure for portable storage devices: flash drives, SD cards and removable hard drives.

Advantages:

• Simple organization without specialized features and restrictions on file and partition sizes.
• Excellent compatibility with all Windows operating systems, as well as Mac OS and Linux. In the latter option, installation of additional software is required.
• Support from all modern Apple devices, as well as game consoles Xbox One and Playstation 4.

The main disadvantage of the exFAT file organization is Microsoft's licensing policy, which prohibits it free use in the public domain.

The most optimal file structure

Having considered the descriptions of three popular file systems, we can draw the following conclusions:

• For computer devices with an operating system higher than Windows NT it would be more appropriate hard formatting disk in the NTFS system;
• for older devices, as well as for the purpose of compatibility with various modern digital gadgets, the best option FAT32 will be selected;
• for any removable media it would be ideal to use the system

And lastly: information about what file structure is implemented on your disks can be found in the “General” tab ( right key mouse "Properties").