# Best File System (NTFS or FAT32) for USB External Hard Drive



## nuzzawuzza (Oct 16, 2002)

I just bought a Maxtor 5000LE that has 80GB storage capacity and uses USB 1.1/.20 to connect to the PC. It comes formatted with FAT32. I will be storing large .avi files on this (around 700MB each) and wanted to know what would be the best file systems as far as disk storage and performance. I imagine with USB 1.1 or even 2.0 the performance will be poor anyhow. But in terms of making the most out of the 80GB I have to work with is NTFS or FAT32 better? I don't care about file system security and I am not sure if compression would be helpful in this case. Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.


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## cavp (Aug 16, 2001)

First of all: NO COMPRESSION; it'll make things slower (more CPU time). Now, if you say it will store big video files, my best bet is for FAT32; here's why: For a 80 GB hd, the default cluster size is 32 KB, it means bigger blocks that store data, at the same time faster to read and a bit more difficult to fragment. After copying aall your files, defrag the hd, to gain some speed in file accesing.


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## tjsudo (Jul 27, 2000)

Hi,

80GB on NTFS is 8 Sectors/Cluster and cluster size of 4kb.(you can change this.) 

On FAT32. It's 64 sectors/Cluster. A cluster is 32kb.(you can't change this.)

It's obvious that NTFS wastes less space compare to FAT32 although they both use same 32bit mapping.

Use NTFS. It offers more than security.

TJ


I didn't mean to oppose you, cavp. I took time to calculate and when i posted, your post is there.


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## monted (Jun 23, 2002)

the only reason i haven't went NTFS is that i've heard its hard to go back to FAT32 if you want to dual boot the hard drive later


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## cavp (Aug 16, 2001)

4 KB cluster=less space wasted; BUT ALSO: more fragments in big files=more seek time=lower speed. Remember that nuzzawuzza wants to store BIG video files, so some MB lost (the worst case) per all his files, doesn't make too much sense. Also, nuzzawuzza, I suppose u r using W2k, aren't you?


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