Osama Javaid asks:
In which format should I format my USB flash drives (8 GB each) ?
Browser: Firefox 11.0
System: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32-bit
Tagged: fat32, format hard drive, ntfs, usb flash drive
System: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32-bit
Tagged: fat32, format hard drive, ntfs, usb flash drive
10 Answers -
Kagnon
March 24, 2012Just a few things which can help you choose.
1. Mac can’t write into NTFS (So fat32 if you need Mac)
2. You can’t put files larger than 4GB into FAT32
3. If using NTFS, remember to format NTFS permissions to everyone or it can cause problems.
Reý Aetar
March 24, 2012Go for FAT as you will not find any difference in performance ..
And NTFS file system consumes some extra space ..
just use both file systems one by one and check the difference in available free space you will find a difference.
yeah NTFS consumes just 66 MB on my 8GB hard drive
March 25, 2012What are you doing with an 8GB Hard drive?
June 28, 2012Sparten1
March 25, 2012I think Windows expects to see Fat32 on a flashdrive. Also works on Linux.
FIDELIS
March 26, 2012Hello, I would say for a flashdrive under 32GBs the best format would be FAT32,
James Hyde
March 27, 2012If you’re working with larger files or portable apps, then NTFS is the way to go. For casual use or documents, FAT32 is sufficient.
Simon
March 28, 2012I think you’ll find the data transfer rate is much faster on fat
Sandipan
April 20, 2012Windows formats flash drives on FAT32 by default
Deep Moteria
July 19, 2012You should go for ntfs as if you do fat32 than it will not allow you to copy data file more than a particular GB I think 10 GB. so go for ntfs
Christopher Royall
August 9, 2012Hello Osama,
I realize that his question was asked a few months ago, however, I wanted to expand, and clarify on some of the posted comments, without actually referring to any single comment left.
First of all FAT32 is the most common default for most USB drives that you purchase, and most if not all come pre-formatted for immediate use in most OS systems on the market today. This is primarily so that a user can work on a file in multiple systems, without conversion. Also the FAT32 system has a faster read/write time as well in at least the Windows system.
So, if you plan to just be using your drive for the purpose of storing documents, music, and/or media files that are smaller than 2GB, FAT32 will suffice. However, if you plan to store larger files on your drive (without breaking them up with an archiver such as RAR or ZIP formats), you will need your drive formatted as NTFS. Also, if you plan, or think at any time in the future, you want to install a Windows OS from USB, rather than a DVD, then the drive will have to be formatted as NTFS. While windows provides a formatter now to install an OS to USB for this purpose, that same formatter will wipe everything ahead of time off the drive, so if you have an inkling that you may one day need to do this, then you should have your drive formatted as NTFS to save the extra time of backing up the USB drive, formatting, and restoring files to it later.
I noticed that someone stated that NTFS could not be read by MAC OS, however, MAC OS X does have read only access built in for this purpose, and Google has a tool as well called MACFuse to make it writable for you from MAC as well.
Hope this expounds on the subject enough to give you or anyone else wanting to know which way to go.
I also wanted to add, while FAT32 and NTFS were discussed here, there are other formats that can be used on FLASH drives as well depending on the OS being worked on/with.
August 9, 2012louise
October 13, 2012i bought a 16GB usb. how should i format it? in FAT32? will be using it to store microsoft word, excel etc.. and to store documents but thats about it!! also what do i change the allocation unit size to?
forgot to mention I will be using it on macbook as well as microsoft computers, but as they ll be public computers, it needs to be formated to work on most microsoft operating systems.
thanks