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Flash drive reformat

Not applicable

Flash drive reformat

All my flash drives came in FAT32 format. When I copy files onto it I often get the message about it not being possible to copy the properties of the document.
I understand that if they are reformatted to NTFS this does not occur and indeed I did reformat one and it solved the problem.
Just wondered what other people do with their flash drives - reformat or leave? 
I know that NTFS gives you more available space but are there other advantages/disadvantages to reformatting? 
4 REPLIES 4
HairyMcbiker
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Posts: 6,792
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Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Flash drive reformat

for the majority of people leaving them as fat32 is best, as a home user you are not bothered with access control issues when using NTFS, also fat32 is the most common format, readable by the majority of pc/mac's where as NTFS can be hit and miss.
The only downside of fat32 is the 4Gb file size limit, no single file can be bigger than 4Gb, so no movie ISO's  Cry
Also there is less r/w with fat32 than NTFS or ext3/4 (ext2 is less again but not readable by M$ pc's) so they last longer.
Not applicable

Re: Flash drive reformat

Ah - thank you for that clarification Biker. My own are still on FAT32.
I was only asking because I can't get round the issue of properties not being copied for certain items and having read up about it, this it seems to be the reason. Doesn't do it for all docs though. Mainly photographs and emails.
shutter
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: Flash drive reformat

Why not have a "spare" which is configured for NTFS ?  Wink
HairyMcbiker
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Posts: 6,792
Thanks: 266
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Flash drive reformat

I would just ignore the error, it all to do with acl's and not really an issue on personal machines.