The following tables list functionality and feature support comparisons for the four main Windows file systems, NTFS, exFAT, UDF, and FAT32:

FunctionalityLimitsJournaling and Change LogBlock Allocation FeaturesSecurityCompressionQuotasSingle-Instance StoreRelated topics

Functionality

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Creation time stamps Yes Yes Yes Yes

Last access time stamps No (see note below) Yes Yes Yes (date only)

Last change time stamps Yes Yes Yes Yes

Last archive time stamps No No No No

Case-sensitive Yes (option) No Yes No

Case-preserving Yes Yes Yes Yes

Hard links Yes No Yes No

Soft links Yes No No No

Sparse files Yes No Yes No

Named streams Yes No Yes No

Oplocks Yes Yes Yes Yes

Extended attributes Yes No Yes (on-disk only) No

Alternate data streams Yes No Yes No

Mount points Yes No No No

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: The NTFS last access time stamp field is updated.

Limits

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Maximum filename length

255 Unicode characters 255 Unicode characters 127 Unicode or 254 ASCIIcharacters

255 Unicode characters

Maximum pathname length

32,760 Unicode characters witheach path component no morethan 255 characters

32,760 Unicode characters witheach path component no morethan 255 characters

32,760 Unicode characters witheach path component no morethan 255 characters

32,760 Unicode characters witheach path component no morethan 255 characters

Maximum filesize

2^641 bytes 2^641 bytes 2^641 bytes 4 GiB

Maximumvolume size

16 TB (4 KB Cluster Size) or256TB (64 KB Cluster Size)

2^321 clusters (Maximumcluster size = 2^25 1)

2^32 blocks 2^32 blocks

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Journaling and Change Log

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Metadata-only journaling Yes No No No

File change log Yes No No No

Block Allocation Features

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Tail packing Yes (small files are made resident in the MFT stream descriptor) No No No

Extents Yes No Yes No

Variable block size No (set by the volume) No No No

Security

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Track file owner Yes No No No

POSIX file permissions No (available in POSIX subsystem feature) No Yes No

Access control lists Yes No No No

File system level encryption Yes No No No

Checksum/ECC No Metadata Metadata No

Compression

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

Built-in compression Yes No No No

Quotas

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

User-level disk space Yes No No No

Directory-level disk space No (see note below) No No No

Note The directory-level disk space quotas feature on NTFS is available through the File Server Resource Manager.

Single-Instance Store

Feature NTFS exFAT UDF FAT32

File level No (see note below) No No No

Note Single-instance store for NTFS is available as part of the Single Instance Storage feature in Windows Server.

Related topics

About File ManagementSingle-Instance Store and SIS Backup

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Community Additions

2014 Microsoft

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