# External Hard Drive: NTFS or FAT32? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644 "2007-04-03T23:52:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/1 "2007-04-03T23:52:11Z")
So, I just bought a 320GB Seagate SATA drive and tossed it inside of a USB 2.0 enclosure. I now need to format the silly thing, and I can’t decide: FAT32 or NTFS? My next system will most likely be dual-booting Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP Pro. I know that XP can run both filesystems, and it seems that recent developments allow Ubuntu to write to NTFS using a beta driver and crossed fingers. Is there any particular reason to have my external set up for one or the other? Any advantage that the average user would care about one way or the other? _lowers his mental dipstick into the SDMB oilpan of knowledge_ ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/2 "2007-04-03T23:57:52Z")
You can’t store a file larger than 4 GB in a FAT32 partition, so if you ever plan on using VMWare images, use NTFS. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2007, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/3 "2007-04-04T05:47:37Z")
If Ubuntu can reliably handle NTFS without messing it up, then you’d rather go with NTFS. If you randomly lose power when writing to a FAT32 drive, there’s a chance that the tables that say where everything are will get messed up. NTFS won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2007, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/4 "2007-04-04T07:50:15Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] So, I just bought a 320GB Seagate SATA drive and tossed it inside of a USB 2.0 enclosure. I now need to format the silly thing, and I can’t decide:\*\* FAT32 or NTFS?\*\* My next system will most likely be dual-booting Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP Pro. I know that XP can run both filesystems, and it seems that recent developments allow Ubuntu to write to NTFS using a beta driver and crossed fingers. Is there any particular reason to have my external set up for one or the other? Any advantage that the average user would care about one way or the other? _lowers his mental dipstick into the SDMB oilpan of knowledge_ [/QUOTE] XP never gave the choice last week ,I hooked up a 120 gig external and it only showed NTFS in the drop down box. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/5 "2007-04-05T00:30:24Z")
Windows 2000 or later will not format partitions larger than 32 GB with FAT32, though it will read ones created by a different OS. The reasoning behind this limitation is that FAT32 gets seriously inefficient at sizes larger than 32 GB. It you are worried about Ubuntu writing to the drive then you could create a small FAT32 partition for transferring files and format the rest with NTFS. ---
**Author:** ![firstname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@firstname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstname)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/7 "2010-10-18T09:00:57Z")
If you wish to play media files through an Xbox360 you’ll have to have it formatted as Fat32, this could be completely useless to you but its another data point. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/8 "2010-10-18T09:44:08Z")
AHHH! ZOMBIE THREAD! Cool. 😃 Uhm… I can’t remember how I formatted the drive. Probably NTFS. In any case, it died a couple years ago (transferred everything onto another hard drive when it started having problems). Now I’m using a Western Digital Elements 1TB external hard drive as a no-frills external storage/backup solution. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/9 "2010-10-18T11:55:10Z")
the other thing is I think that if you format a removable drive with NTFS, you **must** use the “Safely Remove Device” function before you disconnect it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/10 "2010-10-18T11:59:19Z")
Just so you’re aware, there’s a 64 bit version of FAT called [exFAT](http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/11 "2010-10-18T12:51:21Z")
And there I was, just about to post that a 320GB HDD seemed unusually small. But back in 2007 it was quite decent. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive-ntfs-or-fat32/398644/12 "2010-10-18T13:25:42Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > And there I was, just about to post that a 320GB HDD seemed unusually small. > > But back in 2007 it was quite decent. Indeed, before the thread got rezzed, the last post was from before I shipped out for Basic. I still had hair! 😃