Solved NTFS or FAT32

[UrAsish]

should i format my newly bought Sandisk cruzer blade 8gb pendrive using NTFS or leave it to the default FAT32? What i'm looking for is higher write speeds, as its only 4mb/s. I did find that one could store indivisual files exceeding 4GB only using NTFS, but i have no such requirements. Also is it true that NTFS decreases the life of the pen drive?? I need speed but definitely not at the cost of device life...

 

[LMiller7]

NTFS and FAT32 write speed is much the same. Either may be faster in specific situations. It is doubtful you would notice any difference. You have a slow drive and nothing is going to change that.

NTFS is a more modern file system but it was never designed for use with removable drives or media. On an 8 GB drive where there is no need for files over 4 GB there is little reason to use NTFS. When using NTFS you MUST use the safe removal icon or data loss is likely. This is less important with FAT32.

Be sure you understand that flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media and should be used primarily as a transport media. You always need an alternate copy on some other media, such as a hard drive. All important files on any media need at least one backup copy.

 

[madcratebuilder]

FAT32 for flash drives. Since I started using fat32 I have not had a single problem with my flash drives, my linux stuff is the only flash drive that does not get fat32. YMMV

 

[UrAsish]

thanks for your views. may i also know, if ntfs decreases the life span of pendrives? i just formatted it to ntfs. there is no change of write speed. should i keep it, or go back to default fat32?

 

[LMiller7]

NTFS does perform more writes than FAT32 and this will likely increase write times, in some cases quite a bit. Whether this will noticeably shorten the life of the device is another matter. But I would reformat as FAT32. You really don't want to be using NTFS on a flash drive unless there is a real need, such as having files over 4 GB.

 

[UrAsish]

Thanks LMiller7. I am going back to fat32 as you recommended, but may I know if it is true that NTFS decreases the life of the pen drive?

 

[chamjiee]

Thanks LMiller7. I am going back to fat32 as you recommended, but may I know if it is true that NTFS decreases the life of the pen drive?

Ntfs does more writes then fat32 so theoretically it should decrease the life of drive buy practically it won't be more then few days long. Hahahah
And the most important thing is that ntfs is not designed for removable drives so fat32is recommended.

 

[MourningStar]

Be sure you understand that flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media ...

Sorry for o.t. and my ignorance, this is news to me. Do you have an authoritative technical source for this? I had always reasoned that, due to no 'moving parts', these were as reliable as music/video discs - some of which I have had for more than 2 decades (back when disc drives were the size of a washing machine) and still work today.

-thnx

 

[LMiller7]

As I mentioned before, NTFS uses more writes and that is a factor in drive lifetime. But there are other factors as well and drives often fail for unknown reasons, even when new.

Will using NTFS shorten the life of a drive?
Maybe. There are too many variables.

 

[LMiller7]

Be sure you understand that flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media ...

Sorry for o.t. and my ignorance, this is news to me. Do you have an authoritative technical source for this? I had always reasoned that, due to no 'moving parts', these were as reliable as music/video discs - some of which I have had for more than 2 decades (back when disc drives were the size of a washing machine) and still work today.

-thnx

The unreliability of flash drives is well known and many people with far greater knowledge and experience than I have made similar statements. I have made essentially the same statement many times on other forums and until now it has never been questioned.

These devices are often built cheaply with poor quality control in order to compete with others in the mass market. Many years experience in the electronics industry has taught me what that can do.

Some devices are no doubt very good. The problem is knowing which ones. Past experience with specific vendors helps but this can go very wrong. The vendor may have switched suppliers and manufacturing techniques have changed. There is no way to tell if this is for the better or worse until a specific model is old enough for meaningful statistics to be available. By then that model is no longer available. All you can do is pick a reputable vendor and hope for the best.

SSDs use similar technology but seem to be manufactured to a higher standard.

Floppies are less reliable than flash drives but who would consider them a modern storage media?

 

[MourningStar]

Thnx LMiller7 - I will defer to your response and explanation as authoritative enough for me. Final o.t. question (I promise). What do you recommend for reliable permanent data backup and/or storage?

 

[madcratebuilder]

Flash storage wears out when you write to it, but not when you read from it. NTFS' Live Journaling feature, which keeps a record of changes to your files, writes to the drive a lot, and will thus shorten its life.
Speed really isn't an issue. Benchmarked reading and writing to the same flash drive formatted both ways. FAT32 proved faster, but not fast enough to worry about. The speed difference was less than 2.5 percent.

What do you recommend for reliable permanent data backup and/or storage?

For very important data I would use a flash stick and store off site. I store back up data with in friends gunsafe and vise-verse.

 

[LMiller7]

NTFS has an advantage that is often not understood. NTFS is much faster when accessing files in very large folders. When FAT32 searches a folder it must read every name until it finds the one it wants so on average it will need to read 1/2 the names in the folder. NTFS uses a more advanced method involving successive guesses to narrow down the search. Similar to the old number guessing game. The result being it requires little more time to access a folder with 1,000 or even 10,000 files than one with only 100 files. This isn't usually important in a flash drive but is on a drive containing Windows.

 

[MourningStar]

For very important data I would use a flash stick and store off site. I store back up data with in friends gunsafe and vise-verse.

Flash stick? Would that be those tiny thin cards that typically use an edge-connector type interface? I am understanding that a flash drive's 'life expectancy' is reduced due multiple reads/writes. If it was written to just once for a permanent storage scenario, why could not these be considered a reliable permanent storage solution? -thnx.

(yes, I know, broke my promise)

 

[UrAsish]

If it was written to just once for a permanent storage scenario, why could not these be considered a reliable permanent storage solution?

 

[LMiller7]

If it was written to just once for a permanent storage scenario, why could not these be considered a reliable permanent storage solution?

Because writing to the drive is not the only factor is disk reliability. Drives that are never written to can and do fail, often without warning or apparent cause.