How to optimize your flash drive for best use ?

While formatting a flash drive ,most of us don’t pay attention to the setting in the format box and just click Start but the right choice of format system and allocation unit size can make a lot of difference.The two pictures below show the great difference in the transfer rate of the same file on the same computer with default settings and when the same flash drive was formatted according to the needs.

                                    

Choosing the allocation size and file system depends upon many factors like Running operating system,types of file,features required and size of files.

Selecting the file system:-

FAT32-

Advantages-

• It is the most compatible system which works over  operating systems like MS Dos(ver 7.0 and higher), Windows 98/XP/Vista/7 and Linux and Mac OS X and higher.It is also compatible with many other devices such as Televisions and A/V receivers.
• Copying is usually faster or equal to NTFS due to less complexity.
• High performance on small volumes.

So FAT32 is the winner when you want to go for compatibility as it is supported by most of the operating systems being used today and also many other devices.

Disadvantages-

• Cannot format drive with size larger than 32 GB.
• The maximum size for a single file is limited to only 4 GB.
• Maximum files on volume is limited to 4194304.
• Maximum clusters number is limited to 4177918.
• Doesn’t have features like Encryption, compression, Disk Quotas and Volume Mount points.
• Lower performance on large volumes.

NTFS-

Advantages-

• Has maximum number of features like Encryption, Compression, Disk Quotas, Sparse files, Reparse points, Object permissions, Alternate Streams and Volume Mount Points.
• Allocation unit size up to  64 KB.
• Maximum file size is 16 TB.
• Maximum files on volume are as high as 2³²-1.
• Maximum clusters number is 2³²-1.

NTFS is the best file system if you want most number of features.

Disadvantages-

• Is compatible with only Windows NT and higher versions.
• Copying can sometimes be slightly slower due to more complexity.
• Low performance on small volumes.

exFAT-

Advantages-

• High performance on all sizes of volumes
• Maximum volume size up to 128 PB.
• Maximum files on volume are nearly unlimited.
• Maximum size of a file is 16 EB.
• Allocation unit size could be as higher as 32 MB(much higher than both FAT32 and NTFS).
• Data transfer speed is better than or equal to NTFS in most cases.

exFAT is best when compatibility is not the issue and you want high performance on all types of volume sizes with some features and you want the greatest range for allocation unit size.

Disadvantages-

• Very limited compatibility including Windows CE 6.0/Vista/7 and windows XP with this update.
• Not as many features as NTFS.

 

Selecting the allocation unit size:-

Allocation units are the granularity with which disk space will be allocated to files, so if you have a 4k allocation unit, a 1k file will be allocated 4k, and a 10k file will be allocated 12k likewise a 16k file will be allocated 16k . A smaller allocation size will give less "wasted" space, but will also be “slower to access” (actual data) due to increased MFT/FAT access while a higher allocation size would give “higher speed” but more “wasted” space.This means that if you want to transfer very large single files you should set higher allocation unit because it will give good access speed and very small space would be wasted, but if you want to transfer many small files you should go for smaller allocation sizes to prevent loss of huge space .

The example could be seen in the pictures above where a file of about 700 MB is being copied(large single file).In the 1^st picture the drive was formatted with FAT32 file system and 4096 bytes of allocation unit so the speed was around 4-6 MB/sec while when the same drive was formatted with exFAT system and 64 KB of allocation unit the speed rose up to about 25-28 MB/sec.