Windows 10: USB install - Fat32 OR NTFS ?

Fresh Installing Windows 10 and before downloading file, I was thinking if I should format my drive to Fat32 OR NTFS OR exFAT?

Does it make any difference ? - Plz Guide me.

:)

 

USB media formatting recquirerments, FAT32 or NTFS?

The installer itself will create and format it to NTFS. But you can still format it to FAT32. If you are using a 4GB USB flash drive the installer will automatically format it to FAT32 and if you're using bigger storage most probably it will automatically
format to NTFS.

Feel free to post back if you have any other concern.

 

How to copy a file from N8 to a USB-stick?

What is the file system of ur USB stick? NTFS or FAT32.

N8 will support only FAT32

 

Try NTFS. I don't think it makes much difference what the host installation is on What does matter of course is the destination.

 

Well maybe somebody on here, knows for sure if it matters....

 

You do not need to format the USB flash drive, before using the Media Creation Tool.

 

OK

Yup, I know tht.

 

Which drive do you refer to: a USB flash drive to have the upgrade files downloaded onto, or your PC's hard disk?

For my motherboard, the flash drive has to be FAT32 if I want to do a UEFI install.

I don't know whether it's required, but if you start the Win 10 install, delete the partitions on the OS drive, and let the installer create and format its own partitions, you'll get NTFS by default. I believe that it's recommended, for security reasons that I don't recall.

Also, the largest file size permitted under FAT32 is 4GB. I don't know about exFAT.

 

Well... talking about USB flash drive

And, I have already created 1 USB stick with Media creation tool and its FAT32 and not NTFS as you saying.

 

If you install just 32bit or just 64bit version alone on a drive then format fat32 if you choose to install both on the drive then format exfat .
This is because the container for both is greater than 4GB.

 

Did you notice that the last prior post is nearly a year old?

 

So it doesn't matter if the USB is formatted in FAT32 or NTFS just for the upgrade from 8.1 to 10? I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft TechNet, both 32 and 64 bit versions, and mounted it on a NON-BOOTABLE USB drive. Is that OK to go then?

Thanks

 

If using a USB Stick/Pen Drive I use EXFat you have large file size advantage and simple format advantage, it does not have the possible permissions drawbacks of NTFS, or the excessive writing.

I use macrium and an EXFAT 64GB formatted pendrive to store my main backup on, when using a large capacity magnetic or SSD drive I use NTFS

 

Let's try to lay this 1 year old thread to rest again. @DasDonster, in your situation it sounds like you want to use the USB flash drive for non-bootable storage. You want to copy the ISO files themselves to the flash drive, then mount the stored ISO files to do an upgrade with. If you want to use the USB flash drive for storage only, then you want NTFS. It allows you to format a flash drive over 32 GB. It allows you to have individual file sizes over 4 GB. It allows you to have an insane number of files/folders. It allows you to keep all the file security settings. It is now a mostly universal file system that is compatible with almost every modern operating system.

If you want the USB flash drive to be bootable then you want it to be FAT32. When you purchase a Windows 10 installation flash drive from Microsoft, it is FAT32. If you allow the Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 10 flash drive for you, it is FAT32. If you allow Macrium Reflect to create a rescue drive, it is FAT32. The reason is that FAT32 is the standard file system that all PC BIOS/UEFI firmwares are required to boot from. All Windows 7/8/8.1/10 installation ISO files are designed to be extracted to FAT32. Modern system imaging programs such as Macrium Reflect will spit up the image it creates into chunks that will fit in the FAT32 file size limits.

The limits of FAT32 are 32GB total for the USB flash drive and 4GB individual file size. There is some smaller limit on the number of individual files and folders but you probably won't hit it, especially if you are using the flash drive for booting purposes.

Also, @Dandonster, I highly recommend that you have at least 1 bootable USB flash drive created for system repair/recovery purposes. You want that one to be FAT32, you want the FAT32 partition on it to be marked as Active, and you want to extract the files inside the ISO file to it rather than copying the ISO file itself to the flash drive.

 

Thanks for your explanation NavyLCDR. Not using this non-bootable USB flash drive for anything other than a Win 10 upgrade. Not for storage. When I am done using it for an 8.1 to 10 upgrade flash drive, then I will reformat it to NTFS for storage, as you suggest.

I learned the hard way on my first UEFI build last week that the bootable USB flash drive had to be formatted FAT32. The DVD drive wasn't recognized in the UEFI Bios, so I had to create a flash drive with the new Win 10 install from the disc. But I formatted the flash drive to NTFS. Wasted a lot of time. But I know help is always here at this forum when I need it.