NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

Operating System support

File System	Operating System
NTFS	Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008, Windows Vista, Windows 7
NTFS5	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, 11
exFAT	Windows CE 6.0, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, WinXP+KB955704
FAT32	DOS 7.0 and higher, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, 11
FAT16	DOS, All versions of Microsoft Windows
FAT12	DOS, All versions of Microsoft Windows

Limitations

	NTFS5	NTFS	exFAT	FAT32	FAT16	FAT12
Max Volume Size	2⁶⁴ clusters – 1 cluster	2³² clusters – 1 cluster	128PB	32GB for all OS, 2TB for some OS	2GB for all OS, 4GB for some OS	16MB
Max Files on Volume	4,294,967,295 (2³² - 1)	4,294,967,295 (2³² - 1)	Nearly Unlimited	4194304	65536
Max File Size	2⁶⁴ bytes (16 ExaBytes) minus 1KB	2⁴⁴ bytes (16 TeraBytes) minus 64KB	16EB	4GB minus 2 Bytes	2GB (Limit Only by Volume Size)	16MB (Limit Only by Volume Size)
Max Clusters Number	2⁶⁴ clusters – 1 cluster	2³² clusters – 1 cluster	4294967295	4177918	65520	4080
Max File Name Length	Up to 255	Up to 255	Up to 255	Up to 255	Standard - 8.3 Extended - up to 255	Up to 254

File System Features

	NTFS5	NTFS	exFAT	FAT32	FAT16	FAT12
Unicode File Names	Unicode Character Set	Unicode Character Set	Unicode Character Set	System Character Set	System Character Set	System Character Set
System Records Mirror	MFT Mirror File	MFT Mirror File	No	Second Copy of FAT	Second Copy of FAT	Second Copy of FAT
Boot Sector Location	First and Last Sectors	First and Last Sectors	Sectors 0 to 11 Copy in 12 to 23	First Sector and Copy in Sector #6	First Sector	First Sector
File Attributes	Standard and Custom	Standard and Custom	Standard Set	Standard Set	Standard Set	Standard Set
Alternate Streams	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Compression	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Encryption	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Object Permissions	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Disk Quotas	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Sparse Files	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Reparse Points	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Volume Mount Points	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

Overall Performance

	NTFS5	NTFS	exFAT	FAT32	FAT16	FAT12
Built-In Security	Yes	Yes	Yes minimal ACL only	No	No	No
Recoverability	Yes	Yes	Yes if TFAT activated	No	No	No
Performance	Low on small volumes High on Large	Low on small volumes High on Large	High	High on small volumes Low on large	Highest on small volumes Low on large	High
Disk Space Economy	Max	Max	Max	Average	Minimal on large volumes	Max
Fault Tolerance	Max	Max	Yes if TFAT activated	Minimal	Average	Average

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