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NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

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NTFS General Information > NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

Criteria

Operating System

NTFS5

NTFS

Windows 2000

Windows NT

Windows XP

Windows 2000

Windows 2003

Windows XP

Server

Windows 2003

Windows 2008

Server

Windows Vista

Windows

Windows 7

2008Windows Vista

exFAT

FAT32

FAT16

FAT12

Windows CE 6.0

DOS v7 and higher

DOS All versions of

DOS All versions of

Windows Vista SP1

Windows 98

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Windows 7

Windows ME

WinXP+KB955704

Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows 2003
Server
Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows 7
Limitations
264 clusters minus

232 clusters minus

1 cluster

1 cluster

Max Files on

4,294,967,295

4,294,967,295

Volume

(232-1)

(232-1)

264 bytes

244 bytes

Max File Size

(16 ExaBytes)

(16 TeraBytes)

minus 1KB

minus 64KB

Max Clusters

264 clusters minus

232 clusters minus

Number

1 cluster

1 cluster

Up to 255

Up to 255

Max Volume Size

Max File Name

Length

32GB for all OS.

2GB for all OS. 4GB

2TB for some OS

for some OS

Nearly Unlimited

4194304

65536

16EB

4GB minus 2 Bytes

4294967295

Up to 255

128PB

16MB

2GB (Limit Only by

16MB (Limit Only

Volume Size)

by Volume Size)

4177918

65520

4080

Up to 255

Extended - up to

Standard - 8.3
Up to 254

255
File System Features

Unicode File

Unicode Character

Unicode Character

Unicode Character

System Character

System Character

System Character

Names

Set

Set

Set

Set

Set

Set

MFT Mirror File

MFT Mirror File

No

Boot Sector

First and Last

First and Last

Sectors 0 to 11

First Sector and

Location

Sectors

Sectors

Copy in 12 to 23

Copy in Sector #6

Standard and

Standard and

Custom

Custom

Standard Set

Alternate Streams

Yes

Yes

Compression

Yes

Encryption

System Records
Mirror

First Sector

First Sector

Standard Set

Standard Set

Standard Set

No

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Disk Quotas

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Sparse Files

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Reparse Points

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

File Attributes

Object
Permissions

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Second Copy of FAT Second Copy of FAT Second Copy of FAT

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Volume Mount

Yes

Points

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No
High

Overall Performance
Built-In Security

Yes

Yes

Yes minimal ACL

only

Recoverability

Yes

Performance

Yes

Yes if TFAT
activated

Low on small

Low on small

High on small

Highest on small

volumes High on

volumes High on

volumes Low on

volumes Low on

Large

Large

large

large

Max

Max

Max

Average

Max

Max

Yes if TFAT

Minimal

Disk Space
Economy
Fault Tolerance

High

Minimal on large

Max

volumes
Average

Average

activated
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