USB flash stick format system

[lZKoce]

Hi all,

I have a relatively simple question. Let's say you have this flash memory. What's the most convenient file system between: FAT32, NTFS and exFAT?

I searched the forum, but most of the threads are tied to specific products and don't speak much in general.

The reason I am asking is a few days back I wanted to copy a single file with 5.5GB size to my 8GB USB 2.0 flash drive. When it started coping, the laptop froze: Mozilla(not responding), skype(not responding), and when it finished it "unfroze" again. Then I took this flash and gave to a friend that has USB 1.1 on his laptop, and the small graph showing the progress, was runnig smooth and steady. Then I read around the net and it seemed to me that my file system on the USB stick is not correct (it is FAT32 with 4096mb block size). And now I am going for a higher capacity flash and I wanted to hear opinion from here, since I am lurking in the forum for quite some time (albait-not contributing much )

[brandonwh64]

Fat32 would be the best. NTFS may not be recognised by some devices but it will allow over 4GB files

[phanbuey]

if you have Macs that you also want to use the flashdrive for, exFAT is the way to go. Otherwise NTFS should work just fine if FAT32 is causing issues.

although, i doubt that the file system is what is causing your freezing issues.

[lZKoce]

Originally Posted by phanbuey

if you have Macs that you also want to use the flashdrive for, exFAT is the way to go. Otherwise NTFS should work just fine if FAT32 is causing issues.

although, i doubt that the file system is what is causing your freezing issues.

So may be I should give NTFS a spin and see what happens? I don't know what's the reason for freezing. I have installed both mine and this friend's PC, so there is no difference in "quality of the service". I mean I took care as much as I could. All my drivers are in place. I was using a Supercharge port by the way- but that shouldn't make any difference.

[RCoon]

FAT32 is ok i guess, but i never use it because im always transferring singular files larger than 4GB, silly to restrict yourself like that. NTFS is fine, whack the allocation unit size up though, they read faster that way if you're transferring bigger files.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by lZKoce

So may be I should give NTFS a spin and see what happens? I don't know what's the reason for freezing. I have installed both mine and this friend's PC, so there is no difference in "quality of the service". I mean I took care as much as I could. All my drivers are in place. I was using a Supercharge port by the way- but that shouldn't make any difference.

Freezing is usually caused by one of the devices reserving the bus and then crapping out, and isn't necessarily a software issue. CDROM drives used to do this all the time to some extent - people would buy these badass computers and then put a cd in there, and watch as explorer hung waiting for the drive to spin up and windows tried to mount the CDFS disc.

If the filesystem trick doesn't work (it very well might), then go into the bios and set the USB speed to legacy to see if it does it still. It might just be a drive that doesn't play nice at 2.0 speeds :/. In which case write the company's support a nastygram and they might send you another model.

Also motherboard/firmware could cause the issue, so if there is a bios update for the laptop, that might fix it.

[Jetster]

fat32 is most common. But NTSF for lage files

[Solaris17]

fat32 for compatability

ntfs for large files

exfat if your doing many large file transfers

[Frick]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

fat32 for compatability

ntfs for large files

exfat if your doing many large file transfers

This and this.

I have mine as NTFS, mostly because I only have computers to use them with.

[de.das.dude]

i have mine as NTFS too. never seen it being unrecognised. windows says its best to format drives of over 10GB capacity with NTFS

[Frick]

Originally Posted by de.das.dude

never seen it being unrecognised.

A lot of "devices" (TV's, media players, digital photo displays etc) don't support NTFS, only FAT32. Which kinda makes sense as it's pretty universal. NTFS is proprietary, FAT is an industry standard.