It's biggest downside is the lack of a journaling feature, which makes it easy to overcome data corruption. Another upside is the increase in speed when transferring data when compared with FAT32. Another advantage is that it keeps the high compatibility with many operating systems and devices. We noticed that exFAT was always faster than FAT32, while NTFS tended to be faster too, sometimes by a more significant margin, but not in all measurements.ĮxFAT fixes the downsides of the FAT32 file system regarding maximum file size and partition size.
We wanted to make a speed comparison between the three file systems, so we took three different flash drives and ran speed benchmarks on them: Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2, Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C, and IronKey D300.įirst we took the Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2, formatted using FAT32, exFAT and NTFS, and after each format, we ran CrystalDiskMark, to see the speed that it measures. Also, if you need the characteristics of each file system, read these tutorials:
If you need a guide on how to format storage devices using a Windows computer, read this tutorial: How to format an SD Card, a USB memory stick or a partition, in Windows.