NTFS vs exFAT

mark2410 · 9 Apr 2019 at 11:48

new ssd, need to format it and while i dont think its likely to be coming out of the comp any time soon, is there any reason to choose one file snystem over the other aside form exfat being more compatible?

is there a speed difference between them?

I googled but everything just went on abotu ntfs being windows only and exfat being more compatible with removable storage.

JR1 · 9 Apr 2019 at 13:38

Hi mark,

You should definitely use NTFS. NTFS supports trim functionality, which is essential for a consumer SSD and it will be faster. NTFS also supports data integrity in the event of an interrupt, such as a power failure.

Regds, JR

mark2410 · 9 Apr 2019 at 14:00

JR1 said:
Hi mark,

You should definitely use NTFS. NTFS supports trim functionality, which is essential for a consumer SSD and it will be faster. NTFS also supports data integrity in the event of an interrupt, such as a power failure.

Regds, JR

Excellent, thats exactly the kind of answer i was after :-)

labcoattech · 29 Apr 2019 at 10:21

Only time I would use exFAT would be if it was an external drive and you need to access the drive on other machines / OS.

bledd · 30 Apr 2019 at 01:15

labcoattech said:
Only time I would use exFAT would be if it was an external drive and you need to access the drive on other machines / OS.

Yup

If I'm formatting a USB stick that a Mac user will be using, then I'll pick exFAT.

seagate_surfer · 30 Apr 2019 at 20:58

NTFS. Where you're not going to be moving the drive around much from the sounds of it, you won't need to worry about things like cross-platform functionality with iMac. Plus exFAT can sometimes have file corruption susceptibility. On the off chance you ever do need to worry about the iMac thing, there's a driver you can grab called Paragon which should help you out.