USB Flash Drives Inquiry RE FAT32 and NTFS

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ....

It is informal understanding on my part that USB flash drives can be formatted as either FAT32 or NTFS. I further understand -- also informally -- that an NTFS formatted flash drive allows for files with sizes of greater than 4 GB, while a FAT32-formatted flash drive is limited to files under the 4 GB size.

I have seen online advice on how to format a USB flash drive using the NTFS standard, and this includes a notation that (depending on your Windows 10/11 setup) one may need to first invoke a routine that will allow a FAT32-formatted flash drive to be re-formatted as NTFS.

Now what about USB flash drives that you have been using (or about to use) without re-formatting? Is there a method to test each such drive to determine if it is formatted in FAT32 or NTFS mode ?

One final inquiry -- with regard to any video or audio file 4 GB or greater in size -- will modern smart TV's be able to play such files -OR- will it be necessary to re-size such files ?? If by chance smart TV's can't handle audio and/or video files up to (or beyond) 4 GB in size, then what is the proper max size in this particular regard ???

Thanx-A-Lotte, Frank-0-Video

[cholla]

I have had good results with NTFS for TVs & settop players.
They also use FAT32 OK. But as you said a size limit of 4GB.
Some devices will only use FAT32 like my car stereo does.
So you need to read the manual for each device & see what it accepts.
Don't forget exFAT as another formatting option.

This will give you the drive format type & allocation size.
As well as the allocation options for each format.
Usually use the larger allocation sizes for large files.

In the command prompt. Run as Administrator if possible.
Use diskpart.exe.
In command type: diskpart
Once you are in diskpart
type: list volume
type: select volume <VolumeNumber>
type: filesystems

[Barrythecrab]

I have used exfat only recently because it is my understanding it is cross compatible with Mac, PC and TV and it did work for the client.

[Cornucopia]

To clarify & add to the discussion,

Win 11 (Pro) allows for: NTFS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT.
FAT(16) doesn't support much and even though possibly default is not the recommended option
FAT32 supports long filenames, partitions <= 2TB, file sizes <= 4GB, no extended attributes or security
exFAT supports long filenames, partitions >2TB, file sizes > 4GB, but also no extended attributes or security
NTFS supports long filenames, >2TB partitions, >4GB files, extended attributes & security

All the FAT systems (FAT(16), FAT32, exFAT) are fully cross-platform compatible for Windows, Mac & Linux
NTFS is native to Windows but only available to Mac and/or Linux through add-on drivers (paid or not), though often with writability or feature compatibility issues

In embedded system on TVs, devices, a few will support NTFS, but most do NOT. FAT32 or exFAT is recommended - you should always check with the device's manual for more accurate details.

In addition to what Cholla said, you can right-click your Win computer icon and choose "Manage" or "Other Options | Manage" (depending on OS version) to bring up the admin "Computer Management" console. From there, choosing "Disk Management" will allow you to see your disks, and their volumes/partitions at a glance. This will include info on file system (FAT, NTFS, etc).


Hope that helps,
Scott

[cholla]

@ Cornucopia AKA Scott,
The main difference using Diskpart is it also gives the allocation size used for the format.
If the Default is OK for a person then not necessary to know.
I like 64k for video files myself.

I guess I have just been lucky the two TVs I use or have used NTFS for my USB drive format have worked.
The same for two different(brand) BD players.