First launched almost ten years ago, USB flash drives have revolutionized the way we transfer files in-between computers. Blessed with an ever-expanding storage capacity, near universal compatibility and enhanced durability, it's this wonderful plug-and-play technology that was finally able to kill the abomination known as the floppy drive. In this FAQ, we answer a few of the most common questions and concerns about flash drives and attempt to explore the vast number of hardware solutions currently available
This largely depends on your intended use for the drive. Most thumb drives come pre-formatted as FAT32 for cross-platform compatibility with Windows, Mac, and Linux compatibility. Unfortunately this formatting scheme limits the size of any given file to 4GB, so you'll find that some high definition videos, databases, or secure file vaults won't fit with this formatting type unless they're first placed into a multi-volume archive with a utility such as WinRAR or 7-zip.If you want to avoid this 4GB limit, we recommend reformatting the flash drive to NTFS, which allows for larger file sizes and also offers much improved reliability. NTFS is natively supported by all versions of Windows since NT / 2000, and is also available on Mac and Linux thanks to the NTFS-3G project. Most Linux distributions made within the last year already have NTFS-3G installed and ready to go; Mac users already have Read-Only support built into the operating system but will need to install either the free Catacombae driver or the commercial Tuxera NTFS for Mac driver if write support is needed. Unfortunately, NTFS is not yet supported by many embedded devices such as televisions or media players due to the fact that NTFS is a proprietary system owned by Microsoft and requires licensing.
Another recent development is the exFAT file system, a format that's optimized for flash drives and currently available on all Windows operating systems since Vista SP1. Windows XP / 2003 users can add experimental support for exFAT by installingKB955704. exFAT improves on the limitations of FAT32 and removes the dreaded 4GB file size limit without the added overhead of NTFS, however we are hesitant to recommend it because at this time it cannot be used with Mac or Linux, and again is incompatible with most embedded devices.
What should I format my flash drive as?
This largely depends on your intended use for the drive. Most thumb drives come pre-formatted as FAT32 for cross-platform compatibility with Windows, Mac, and Linux compatibility. Unfortunately this formatting scheme limits the size of any given file to 4GB, so you'll find that some high definition videos, databases, or secure file vaults won't fit with this formatting type unless they're first placed into a multi-volume archive with a utility such as WinRAR or 7-zip.If you want to avoid this 4GB limit, we recommend reformatting the flash drive to NTFS, which allows for larger file sizes and also offers much improved reliability. NTFS is natively supported by all versions of Windows since NT / 2000, and is also available on Mac and Linux thanks to the NTFS-3G project. Most Linux distributions made within the last year already have NTFS-3G installed and ready to go; Mac users already have Read-Only support built into the operating system but will need to install either the free Catacombae driver or the commercial Tuxera NTFS for Mac driver if write support is needed. Unfortunately, NTFS is not yet supported by many embedded devices such as televisions or media players due to the fact that NTFS is a proprietary system owned by Microsoft and requires licensing.
Another recent development is the exFAT file system, a format that's optimized for flash drives and currently available on all Windows operating systems since Vista SP1. Windows XP / 2003 users can add experimental support for exFAT by installingKB955704. exFAT improves on the limitations of FAT32 and removes the dreaded 4GB file size limit without the added overhead of NTFS, however we are hesitant to recommend it because at this time it cannot be used with Mac or Linux, and again is incompatible with most embedded devices.
