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Storage Can i partition a usb stick with fat32 on one partition, and ntfs on the other?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by j4mi3, 2 Mar 2012.

  1. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    i want one small partition, like 8gb as fat 32 so it will work with macs and windows computers, and the limit is 4gb anyway

    and the other 28gb as ntfs so as to bypass the size limit

    is it possible or do they have to be the same type? i think they do i was just making sure
     
  2. suragh

    suragh Derp

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    I think it is 100% possible to create partitions on a USB. Just create both partitions and have FAT32 on one and NTFS on the other. As for bypassing, I have never seen that done. Backup before you go ahead with it just to be on the safe side :)
     
  3. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    Oh ok I didnt know it,was possible to have partitions in different formats. That's good
     
  4. suragh

    suragh Derp

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    Yes, but bare in mind when using your Mac you can only read NTFS on the latest OS version, which is 10.3? Correct me if I am wrong. :)
     
  5. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah that's why I'm using fat32 for my mac/pc, partition and ntfs for windows :)
     
  6. Mac_Trekkie

    Mac_Trekkie Source Engine's #1 fan!

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    Just use exFAT. It works on all operating systems and has no size limit.
     
  7. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    i would but there is performance loss afaik
     
  8. Mac_Trekkie

    Mac_Trekkie Source Engine's #1 fan!

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    a quick read on Wikipedia doesn't suggest anything about performance loss. The max filesize is a healthy 64 zetabytes, but the 512 terrabyte recommended max filesize might be a bit restrictive :lol:
     
  9. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    would this not = overall performance loss?

    also, i would actually find it just as easy to have it partitioned anyway. it would keep my uni work separate from other stuff so it wouldnt be an issue
     
  10. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    I'd guess that over USB, you probably wouldn't notice the drop in performance caused by exFat.

    Might do some experimenting on one of my sticks.
     
  11. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    please do :) get some before and after benchmarks.

    as i say though its not a big deal just having 2 partitions. but i guess if it is same performance i may as well just use exfat
     
  12. Mac_Trekkie

    Mac_Trekkie Source Engine's #1 fan!

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    Out of curiosity, is it a USB 3.0 flash drive or a USB 2.0? If it's 2.0, any performance drop wouldn't be noticeable.
     
  13. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    usb3. its a patriot supersonic. there is another thread on here about it coincidentally, which i have just seen
     
  14. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Just done some testing.

    My stick is a 2GB OCZ Mini Kart.
    I used a single 589MB video file.

    FAT32 : 1:48.7

    exFAT : 1:35.7

    NTFS : 1:52.5

    Weirdly, NTFS raced up to pretty much done in 30 seconds, with a speed of 50MB/s, but then with 4.7MB to go, stalled and took another 70 seconds to finish.

    FAT32 seemed to be at about 5MB/s most of the time. exFAT did look to have a higher speed at about 6MB/s. But its probably negligible.

    I only did these tests once though, best way would be to do each one atleast 3 times, and then do an avg. But, I can't imagine it would change much.
     
  15. j4mi3

    j4mi3 What's a Dremel?

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    interesting cheers
     
  16. Deders

    Deders Modder

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    USB sticks and SSD's don't have clusters like HDD's.
     
  17. healthhazad

    healthhazad What's a Dremel?

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    Really? So how does the file system work?

    I would have thought they do but please correct me if I'm wrong.
     
  18. Deders

    Deders Modder

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    I may have been a little hasty, What I mean is I don't think cluster size affects read write operations like they would on a hard disk as there are no moving components.
     
    Last edited: 4 Mar 2012
  19. healthhazad

    healthhazad What's a Dremel?

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    Ah fair do - I started to wonder if I had missed something :)
     

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