Anoneh's Blog

exFAT vs Fat 32 vs NTFS vs HFS vs Ext2

Lets assume that Mac uses HFS, Linux uses Ext and Windows uses Fat32 & NTFS. In terms of compatibility, Fat32 ranks highest. That is why, most (if not all) USB thumb drive, CF cards, etc. are preformatted in fat32 so it is compatible to all OS.

However, if you format the USB drive in other formats (than fat32), you will not be able to see it except NTFS. If NTFS, you will be able to see it, but you can’t modify it.

Fat32 is not the best though. It is not secure. As such, Linux and MacOSX cannot create permissions on it and is not usable to run applications. For example, Apache websites cannot be hosted on a Fat32 disk.

It has a file size limitation of 4gb. However, some software like VMware is aware of this limitation and break their files into 2gbs. You are better off putting your VMs in fat32 because this enables you to run your VM on Macs, linux and PCs. Now that is really cool because it enables you to carry your OSs wherever you go.

Then again, Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional cannot FORMAT a volume larger than 32 GB in size. So Windows 7 came out with exFAT.

Erm btw, don’t ever try the dynamic partition shit on XP. Windows 7 will not be able to read it.

For my thoughts on HFS, read here.

I initially tried using EXT-2 but realised,  it doesn’t work well with windows and mac even with software support. So, it’s BEST that if you use windows then use NTFS, Mac then use HFS and linux, EXT-4 or whatever.

But if you absolutely MUST cross use, the best option is to use NTFS.  As I said earlier, Mac can read NTFS but cannot write. With MacFuse and third party (paid) software like NTFS-3G from Tuxera, you can write to NTFS as well