When we acquire a storage unit, of whatever type, it is generally delivered without a format. To start using this storage unit we need to format it to make it compatible with the operating system.
The format is basically used to create the file system. It is nothing more than the logical structure that will allow the operating system to read and write files to the drive. Although we are going to tell you about FAT32 and exFAT formats, know that there are many other formats available.
Differences between FAT32 and exFAT formats
Now you know a little about formatting a storage unit and its importance. The next step is to know what is the optimal format for our external hard drive, USB memory or memory card.
FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32) is a file system developed by Microsoft and released in 1996. It was created to overcome the limitations of FAT16 and FAT12 systems. Among its capabilities, it offers high security and the ability to compress files.
The file system exFAT (extended file allocation table) was released by Microsoft in 2006. It is created specifically for USB storage drives and external hard drives. It replaces FAT32 with security and file compression improvements.
As you can see, FAT32 is a much older system than exFAT. Both formats of storage solutions offer compatibility with operating systems Windows, macOS and Linux
The big problem of FAT32 it’s because he doesn’t admit files whose size exceeds 4GB. This is currently a problem, as it is simply an outdated size today. On the other hand, exFAT correct the problem and admit files from up to 16 Exabytes which, in practice, means unlimited file size.
Theoretically, FAT32 allow partitions maximum 8 TB with a cluster size of 32 KB. The reality is that most standard formatting tools do not allow you to create partitions larger than 2 TB. The format exFAT has no limit
FAT32 is a very old format and not much less efficient in space management than exFAT. Above all, the main problem of this old format is the cluster size restrictions, which lead to greater fragmentation and less efficient use of space.
Another problem with FAT32 is advanced features, such as file permissions or logging, which make it not recommended when greater security control or crash recovery capability is required. While exFAT offers advanced file management and mapping features for large files. This format does not support journaling, which NTFS allows.
We can say with all this data that FAT32 is a bad option for current storage drives. The ideal is to use the much more advanced exFAT format, which allows storage units of any capacity and files of any size.
