Any data that you store on a pendrive, harddisk or storage card is organized and formatted depending on the file-system that you choose. Since all of this happens transparently, we are usually not aware of it, however in some situations, the choosing the right file system can be quite beneficial.
Since Windows XP, NTFS has become the standard default file system, replacing FAT32. NTFS is more robust, secure and provides many more options than FAT32. Yet when it comes to portable devices such as pendrives, FAT32 continues to be used. While FAT32 does give better performance on pendrives, often it might be useful for you to use NTFS instead.
So when should you use NTFS, and how?
NTFS allows you to assign permissions to files, such that only specific users can access / modify / delete / run them. This can give you much better control over what people can do with the contents of your pendrive. Although any sufficiently advanced computer user will be able to overcome these limitations, most people will jut leave alone a file which isn’t opening.
NTFS also allows you to encrypt your data, in which case it is difficult for even an advanced computer user to open the file. The encrypted data is only openable by the same user as the one who encrypted the file, and on the same computer.
In NTFS you can also transparently compress the files. This means that although the files will take up less space on your computer, they will open just like normal file, and most application need not bother with the fact that they are compressed. With the limited capacities of pendrives this can be quite useful. Here to, it is to be noted that you will not gain much by compressing already compressed files such as JPG images, music files or videos Reviews
To use NTFS of your pendrive, first of all, backup all the data on it, since it will be lost while formatting. On Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can simply right click on your pendrive and use the format option, which allow you to select the NTFS filesystem for formatting your pendrive.
On Windows XP systems, NTFS on pendrives is supported, however it provides you no clear way to format it as such. Here, you can use the commandline tool “format” to achieve the same effect. Here is how you can format your pendrive in NTFS on Windows XP:
First find out your pendrives drive letter.
Click on Start->Run…
Type “cmd”
In the command prompt which opens up, type “format /FS:NTFS X:” where “X:” is the drive letter for the pendrive.
Now after confirming that you indeed want to format your drive, you will end up with a NTFS pendrive.
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