5 ms·
exFAT is probably better in terms of cross platform compatibility and addresses a lot of the limitations of FAT while remaining portable. Since Snow Leopard OS
by nullify88 5y ago
exFAT is probably better in terms of cross platform compatibility and addresses a lot of the limitations of FAT while remaining portable.
Since Snow Leopard OS X is able to read and write out the box.
Linux natively supported from kernel 5.4.
Windows supports it from updated XP and onwards.
I not sure of Android compatibility though.
- cassianoleal 5y ago> addresses a lot of the limitations of FAT while remaining portable Whilst at the same time missing a very important feature for portable storage - a journal.
- tssva 5y agoJournaling can have significant downsides when used with external flash storage including reduced performance and increased wear of the flash memory.
- cassianoleal 5y agoNot disputing your facts, but I've used journalled file systems in flash drives since forever and never had a performance issue that was not directly tied to the hardware, and most have lasted many years. I prefer having to replace a cheap flash drive more frequently than to lose data altogether. Of course, everybody's use case is different and tradeoffs need to be considered.
- polar 5y agoIs exFAT's reputation for data loss/corruption unwarranted?
- cerved 5y agono, not journaled
- blarg1 5y agoI had an external harddrive with exfat that lost all its partition information. Worked one day, then few days later plugged it in and it was all gone.
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoJust write all your data twice, lol.
- simonh 5y agoIf one of them becomes corrupt in a non-obvious way, how do you know which it is? You need three copies to be sure.
- Zambyte 5y agoOr you could save a hash as well
- alias_neo 5y agoWhat if a bit flips in your hash file and changes that? Now you need to store your hash a bunch of times too! I kid, this is what I do. I've recently been backing up my family photos/videos to various media and I've been hashing each file and storing a hash file alongside the media to compare to in the future.
- wila 5y agoNot really. FAT32 is very simple and normally has a copy of each FAT table stored as well. When something goes wrong with the first FAT table, there's a reasonable chance you can still use the 2nd copy. [1] ExFAT is much more complex and AFAICT it does not have a 2nd copy of all of its data. [2] Anecdotal evidence is that I personally lost data on ExFAT file systems, but also have had many customers with problems when they figured to use ExFAT for my backup products. If I see ExFAT in a support bundle than -by default- my suggestion for fixing issues is to reformat to a different file system. More often than not, that's the end of the open support case. [1] https://www.ntfs.com/fat-mirrow.htm https://www.ntfs.com/fat-mirrow.htm [2] https://www.ntfs.com/exfat-overview.htm https://www.ntfs.com/exfat-overview.htm
- salamandersauce 5y agoAndroid is annoyingly hit and miss. It's dependent on whether the device manufacturer wants to pay Microsoft royalty fees for it. So some devices do support it just fine and others don't. Often if a device has a microSD card slot and says it only supports 32GB cards it doesn't support exFAT since SDXC made the default file system for 32GB+ cards exFAT.
- jychang 5y agoMicrosoft exFAT patents expired in 2019, I think. It's included in the Linux kernel since 5.7 or some version around then. Android devices support exFAT depending on which Linux kernel version they have.
- Asmod4n 5y agoThe patents didn’t expire in 2019, Microsoft just allowed Linux to use them without fear of getting sued.
- nolok 5y agoAnd Microsoft ACTIVELY went against Android manufacturers to get licensing fees a decade or so back, so those that didn't want to pay are much more likely to have a hard ban on exfat in place that will take time to overcome even after Microsoft opens it
- salamandersauce 5y agoMaybe that will change in the future but most Android devices are not using a 5.x kernel yet. All my Samsung devices support exFAT and use Android 11 with a 4.14 kernel. My old BB Priv also supported exFAT with Marshmellow which definitely did not have kernel version 5!
- aasasd 5y agoJust recently I brought a Mac-formatted exfat flash drive to a print shop, where it failed at being read on a Windows box. I doubt it that they're using WinME.
- vbezhenar 5y agoIt might be an issue with partitioning. ExFAT support built in from Windows 7 and requires service packs for earlier versions.
- OverAndAbove 5y agoexFAT is HORRIBLE. Sorry for the caps. Interoperabiliy between Windows and Mac is hit-or-miss. Formatting on Windows and it's random if Mac can read it. Unplug without ejecting and expect to wait hours for Mac to analyse and fix, or plug-in and out and in and out of Windows and hope it fixes it. Many times a day. Zero problems with NTFS.
- squarefoot 5y ago> exFAT is probably better in terms of cross platform compatibility and addresses a lot of the limitations of FAT while remaining portable. Still it is a shame that we're kept back literally decades when it comes to file exchange due to corporate culture polluting every corner of IT. Ensuring file export options plus file formats full documentation, should be among the most important requirements any software should satisfy to be even considered for professional use.
- tharkun__ 5y agoI agree with your want. Wholeheartedly. Alas you are right in that this culture is all over Corporate World (yes not just America). Vendor lock-in is something that's been with us since forever and I doubt it will ever go away. They might have gotten better at hiding it from obviously being spotted but that's about it and in some other cases it's still just as clear as always but the marketing people are still very good at selling it to customers.
- pschastain 5y agoOS X/macOS used to have some serious issues with exFAT but they may have been addressed in the few years since I last used exFAT on a Mac. Something to double-check before using the pair to store critical data.
- anthk 5y agoUDF is the "secret" multiplatform FS there. Even under OpenBSD you can use udftools and write pretty fast to any external USB storage.
- nullify88 5y agoOh I forgot about UDF. Easy to forget since the GUIs dont usually make it an option when formatting. Unsure about Android and ChromeOS compatibility.