Advantages of the ntfs file system compared with fat32

The absence of this capability in the File Allocation Table file systems makes them prone to corruption and data losses due to interruption. It is also worth mentioning that none of the FAT file systems provide compression. Most files on these systems are usually larger when compared to similar files on NTFS. It also does not have the ability to protect and encrypt files. Note that built-in read-only and encryption capabilities are standard features in Windows operating system.

Limitations in the maximum file size and volume size collectively represent another disadvantage of FAT As mentioned, it only supports a maximum file size of 4GB, as well as a volume size of 32GB on Windows format, 2TB on other operating systems, and 16TB on certain theoretical applications. Note that several consumer electronic devices such as television sets and digital media players would not be able to even read the contents of storage mediums formatted based on NTFS.

This file system will not compress files with a cluster size greater than 4 KB. Furthermore, for large comprehensible files, they become highly fragmented because each chunk smaller than 64 KB becomes a fragment. Fragmented files can affect the performance of hard disk drives because these storage mediums have moving heads that go over the surface of the magnetic disk whenever they read and write data.

New Technology File System is a better file system when used exclusively for the Windows operating systems. In comparison to its earlier versions, FAT32 uses small clusters and hence uses space more effectively. It can relocate the root folder and use the backup copy of the FAT instead of the default copy. NTFS does file-level encryption, sparse file support, disk usage quotas, distributed link tracing, file compression, hierarchical storage management etc.

NTFS has great security, file by file compression, quotas and file encryption. If there is more than one operating system on a single computer, it is better to format some volumes as FAT Using multiple operating systems in same computer would make FAT32 a better choice if you want both OSs to read the drive.

Share this comparison:. If you read this far, you should follow us:. Diffen LLC, n. Thank you. If the FAT is damaged or lost, the data on the hard disk becomes unreadable. Microsoft created the New Technology File System in , and it is now the most widely used file system in Windows. It was introduced as a replacement for the FAT file system, designed to improve upon FAT by increasing performance, reliability and disk space.

Choosing the right operating system depends on your needs. There is no clear winner when it comes to FAT vs. Choosing the right file system depends on your individual needs and uses.