Fat32 disk can be moved to practically any pc or os without issue but it only supports 4 gig max (which sucks) because I think its faster. As your using a 32GB usb, go with NTFS
It depends where you're using it. If it's going to be used in a Windows environment exclusively, then NTFS is the best option as it doesn't have a 4GB file size limit like FAT32. If it's going to be used under Linux/Mac OS or anything else, go for FAT32, limited file size but it will work pretty much anywhere unlike NTFS.
I am curious about to what extent that is causes a performance loss. I have been using exFAT for my USB 2.0 drives and havent noticed a change. Would I with USB 3.0?
Fat32 doesn't have a 4gig limit, however due to clusters, it becomes less efficient above 4gigs. Above 8 it starts to really become bad, but if you are only storing large files you are fine. However that presents another issue, since fat32 can't store very large files. NTFS or EXfat is your best options, though not everything will read and write to it, most modern systems can.
Based on previous usage, i was under the impression Fat32 cant have SINGLE files over 4GB, max capacity of the drive is up to 2TB. exFat overcomes these issues though, and i believe is supported by Windows, OSX and Linux. If you are using windows only then NTFS will be best, if you use a mix of OS's then exFat.
Windows throws a hissy fit whenever you try and put a file >4GB onto a FAT32 partition. Do you mean the actual partition sizes rather than file sizes, as you say fat32 can't store large files, which would be contradictory to "fat32 doesn't have a 4GB limit"?
as far as i know, the 4gb limit refers to single files. its slightly confusing. you can have a folder which might be 10gb, but it could just be made of loads of 100mb files. again, i think this is right. someone correct me if im wrong.
+1 for exFAT, though I believe j4 is correct, there is an issue with the reported size rather than actual size on fat32. this is, of course, it's own little PITA as some programs will honour reported size, some will not. I want one of these ....almost as fast as my intel X80-M! (yes I know the patriot is faster...kinda my point....)
I was referring to formatted partition size, not file sizes. Windows 7 (and a few others) will not even let you format in fat32 if the partition is over 32gigs, there are ways around it but it becomes extremely wasteful.