Explaining File Systems: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, ext4 & More

[Music] welcome to another video from explaining computers comm this time I'm going to discuss computer files systems these are the standards for organizing data on a hard drive SSD or as a storage device and are applied when you format a drive or partition today there are lots of different file systems in use with the choices available to you depending on the operating system you're using and the type of drive your formatting so for example here in Windows if I want to format this SSD and offer the file system choices of NTFS or exFAT whereas here in Linux if I want to format this USB flash drive the file system options of fat32 NTFS or ext4 so what are the differences between file systems and which should you choose file systems divide the storage space on a drive into virtual compartments known as clusters and maintain an index of where individual files are located and available free space the first dot and Windows file system was known as the file allocation table or fat with three major variant developed known as fat12 fat16 and fat32 each fat variant can divide a drive into an increasing number of clusters and supports an increasing maximum file size and volume size so for example fat 12 supported a maximum file and volume size of 32 megabytes meanwhile fat32 can store individual files up to 4 gigabytes in size and is limited to 32 gigabyte volumes if formatted in Windows up to 2 terabytes when formatted with other operating systems and has an absolute maximum volume size of 16 terabytes fat32 remains a popular filesystem due to its high level of compatibility across operating systems and is still widely used to format USB flash drives memory cards and some other external storage devices today the most popular Windows file system is the new technology file system or NTFS this was introduced in 1993 to overcome the limitations of fat32 and has a file size limit of 16 exabytes an exabyte is 1 million terabytes so in practice with no file size constraint NTFS is also a journaling file system which means that it maintains a record of changes so it can recover following a system crash or power failure unlike fat32 NTFS also supports file permissions for example allowing a file to be flagged as read-only as well as encryption and other features that make NTFS boss suitable than a fat32 for use on a system and drive for these reasons all modern versions of Windows must be installed on a drive which is NTFS formatted the only real downside of NTFS is a lack of compatibility with older versions of Windows and on Windows operating systems for example by default NTFS volumes are read-only in Mac OS and in older Linux distros and may not be readable at all on other devices such as standalone media players exFAT or the extended file allocation table was introduced by Microsoft in 2006 as a file system optimized for high-capacity USB flash drives and memory cards exFAT is less sophisticated with NTFS but has significant benefits over fat32 not least the maximum file size is 16 exabytes or effectively unlimited which makes exFAT the best choice for formatting memory cards for recording video for this reason exFAT has been adopted by the SD card Association as the default file system for SDXC memory cards in terms of compatibility exFAT enjoys wider non-windows support an NTFS with read and write support on Macs and recent versions of Android this said many Linux systems require extra drivers to be installed to access exFAT devices talking of Linux in 1992 the extended file system or ext was launched specifically for this operating system in 1993 an update called extended file system 2 or ext two was then released and was for many years the default file system in many linux distros by 2001 EXT two was upgraded to ext 3 which introduced journaling to protect against corruption in the event of crashes or power failures in 2008 we then saw the release of EXT 4 which is the most modern dedicated Linux file system ext 4 as a maximum file size of 16 terabytes and the maximum volume size of 1 exabyte however as you may anticipate neither Windows or Mac OS of a native ext2 ext3 or ext for support HFS or the hierarchical file system was introduced by Apple in 1985 the use in bacau s it offers a maximum file size of two gigabytes and a maximum volume size of two terabytes and is also known as Mac OS standard in 1998 HFS was upgraded to a new version called hfs+ or HFS extended or otherwise known as Mac OS extended this added journaling and has a maximum file size and volume size of eight exabytes when using Mac OS 10 point 4 or above in 2017 Apple introduced a new file system called ap FS or the Apple file system which is optimized for SSDs and other solid state media hardly surprisingly HFS hfs+ and ap FS are not natively supported by Windows or other non apple operating systems finally I thought I'd mentioned ZFS or the Z filesystem initially released in 2006 this was created by Sun Microsystems but since 2013 has been developed by the open ZFS project ZFS differs from other file systems because it integrates a volume manager to control the storage hardware attached to a computer by integrating physical drive management with file system functionality ZFS provides increased protection against data loss or corruption ZFS is currently available for linux freebsd and true OS and in the future may be ported to Windows and Mac OS so which file system should you choose well for your system Drive you should or must choose the file system for your chosen operating system which means NTFS for Windows ext4 for a linux distro or HFS+ or a PFS on a mac for USB drives and flash memory cards fat32 remains the best choice for devices below 32 gigabytes in capacity in order to maximize compatibility across platforms meanwhile exFAT is the best choice for a flash drive or memory cards of 32 gigabyte capacity or more or when you need to store files greater than 4 gigabytes in size for external hard drives or SSDs NTFS is the best choice for anybody who is entirely or primarily windows-based while exFAT is probably the best choice that anybody who regularly shares files between a PC and a Mac subject to its file size and volume size limitations fat32 also remains an option for external drives that need to be accessed across a wide range of Windows Mac and Linux systems several years ago I was making an explaining computers video about a single board computer and I had to download an operating system image I did so I downloaded it to flash drive and I had to decompress that file so I could use it on the single board computer and initially I tried decompressing the file using winzip and it failed and so I tried using 7-zip and it failed again until I moved to another computer and it still failed and eventually I went ah you're an idiot why was it because I was actually trying to decompress the file on the flash drive that was formatted fat32 and the uncompressed file was slightly bigger than 4 gigabytes which was unusual for a Singapore computer image but that was the issue and so as I was decompressing the file everything worked fine until it hit 4 gigabytes in size it then couldn't be contained on a fat32 Drive and everything failed and since that time I've had an even greater awareness of making sure I know the file system in use on a drive when I use it for certain purposes and I hope that this video has made you also more aware of the significance of file systems and which one you're using and if you're asking me now how do you check the file system on the drive well just go to an operating system put in the drive right click to bring up properties and you'll see the file system on the drive and if it's not the one you want you can change it but remember the only way to change it is to reformat the drive and you would lose all data on the drive in the process but now that's it for another video who've enjoyed you see no place better at the like button if you haven't subscribed please subscribe and I hope to talk to you again very soon [Music] you

Channel: ExplainingComputers

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Keywords: NTFS vs FAT32, NTFS vs exFAT, NTFS, FAT32, FAT12, FAT16, ext2, ext3, ext4, HSF, APFS, ZPS, computer file systems, NTFS file syste, file systems explained, file systems, Apple file system, Windows file system, Linux file system, TrueOS file system, Windows, Mac, Linux, macOS, best file system, USB drive file system, SDXC, SDXC file system, Christopher Barnatt, Barnatt, FAT32 vs exFAT, file system comparison, comparison, exFAT

Id: _h30HBYxtws

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2019