Q about formatting USB Thumb Drives

[TVeblen]

I just quick formated one 8GB and a few 2GB thumb drives NTFS. They now each have 37.3MB of used space showing up under properties.
Really? 37MB for a file table? Is this common/normal?

They were originally FAT32 and had 0MB used space under properties.

 

[Devux]

Yeah that's about right. Think that's why most flash drives come preformatted with FAT32. Though with today's file/storage sizes 38 mbs is peanuts.

 

[whs]

Unless you have a specific reason to use NTFS (e.g. writing blocks bigger than 4GBs), you are better off with Fat32. Less wear on the stick and(sometimes) faster.

 

[TVeblen]

Thanks for the confirmation.

I needed to format NTFS to solve an annoying issue: the error message "Do you want to copy this file without it's properties" stopping transfers. The message is generated when you copy files from an NTFS formatted hard drive to a non NTFS formatted external drive or USB stick.

I'm just amazed that the file system would use that much space. I've got whole programs that use less!