One way or another, at least once faced with the fact that you need to format the flash drive. The standard procedure, but only not everyone pays due attention to it, especially the formatting format itself. I would like to talk about this in more detail in this material. So, let's discuss in which format to format a USB flash drive is best .
What is formatting for?
Before we get to the point, it’s worth a bit to figure out why formatting is generally needed. Many mistakenly believe that by formatting a flash drive, they simply delete all unnecessary information from it, but this is not so. The drive has a certain digital structure similar to the same hard drives. The structure consists of clusters that have a certain amount of information storage.
Over time, clusters can overwrite, overwrite, or even become "broken." As a result, all this leads to not quite correct operation of the drive itself, and the only thing that can help in this situation is formatting.
In this process, the entire structure (clusters) is updated anew, which brings it, so to speak, to its normal, former form. You can also completely rewrite clusters by changing the format. Let's figure out which format is better to format a USB flash drive.
Ext4
The first format is Ext4. It is extremely rare to find flash drives with such a file system, and all for one simple reason - such drives can only work in the Linux operating system. If you insert such a USB flash drive into a PC running Windows, then nothing will happen, because the system is not designed to work with this format.
Fat32
Choosing which format to format the USB flash drive for, you can focus on the standard, which is offered by default as the operating system - FAT32. It has been around for quite some time and remains one of the most popular at the moment. Almost all flash drives and drives that leave the factory (up to 8 GB) are formatted in the FAT32 file system. Previously, there were 2 more formats - FAT and FAT16, but they were quite outdated, so they were abandoned.
FAT32 is easily recognized by any operating system, which makes this format universal. Another plus is the high data transfer rate when copying. However, there were some minuses. The main drawback of the format is the restriction on the maximum size of one file: it should not exceed 4 GB. Also, the disadvantages include not too high reliability. As a rule, FAT32 flash drives run out of order quite quickly, as a result of which the user may lose some important information at the most inopportune moment.
NTFS
Very often to the question: "In what format to format the flash drive?" you can hear a very common answer: "Well, of course, in NTFS!" And this is not surprising, because NTFS is devoid of almost all the shortcomings that the FAT file system has. For example, there are no restrictions on file size, which is already a big plus. In addition, drives with the NTFS file system have very high reliability and durability, which allows them not to be afraid of system crashes or incorrect retrievals.
The disadvantages of NTFS include not the highest data transfer rate. In fact, it is much smaller than that of the same FAT32, but as they say, "you go quieter, you will continue." As for compatibility, drives with the NTFS file system work with almost all operating systems, except perhaps for very old Windows ME, 98, and 95.
exFAT
exFAT is the format that replaced FAT32. Its main difference from its predecessor is that it does not have restrictions on file sizes. In other words, it is almost the same NTFS, but with some differences. Firstly, the cluster volume has been increased to 32 Kb, secondly, the data transfer speed is much higher, and thirdly, exFAT saves more space.
The main disadvantage of this format is that it is not yet very common and has poor compatibility with other operating systems. Drives with such a file system only work correctly on Windows 7 and above. Performance on devices other than computers is also low.
If you choose in which format to format the USB flash drive from the three presented above, then perhaps you should opt for NTFS if your drive has a capacity of more than 8 GB. If less, then the choice is obvious - FAT32. ExFAT may be recommended to experiment lovers, but you need to be extremely careful with it.
What format to format a USB flash drive for "Android"?
When formatting microSD cards for Android smartphones, it is recommended to use the FAT32 file system, which is the default. Why not NTFS? Because the basis of the Android OS is Linux, which is not friends with this system from birth. On the Internet, of course, there is a lot of information about how, with the help of various manipulations and programs, you can still make NTFS work on Android, but inexperienced users should better refrain from such experiments.
So, choosing in which format to format the USB flash drive for "Android", it is best to stop at the usual FAT32.