Storage filesystems cheatsheet

Table of contents

• Table of contents
• Description
• Comparison File and Volume Size Limits
• Portability (Cross-Platform Support)
• Reliability \& Data Protection
• Performance

Description

When using storage drives (USB sticks, SD cards, external HDD/SSD), the file system determines how data is organized, stored, and accessed. Affecting compatibility, speed, and reliability.

Comparison File and Volume Size Limits

File System	Max File Size	Max Volume Size	Notes
FAT32	4 GB	2 TB	Very common, works on almost any device, but limited by 4 GB file cap
exFAT	16 EB	128 PB	Great for large files, supported by most modern OSes
NTFS	16 EB	16 EB	Windows-native, handles large files well
ext4	16 TB	1 EB	Linux-native, high performance, journaling support
APFS	8 EB	8 EB	macOS-native, optimized for SSDs

Acronym	Name	Size
GB	Gigabyte	1024 MB
TB	Terabyte	1024 GB
PB	Petabyte	1024 TB
EB	Exabyte	1024 PB

Portability (Cross-Platform Support)

File System	Windows	macOS	Linux
FAT32	✅	✅	✅
exFAT	✅	✅	✅
NTFS	✅	Read-only by default	✅ (RW with ntfs-3g)
ext4	❌	❌	✅
APFS/HFS+	❌	✅	Partial (drivers needed)

Reliability & Data Protection

• Journaling (ext4, NTFS, APFS, HFS+): Keeps a transaction log to prevent corruption after power loss.
• Non-journaling (FAT32, exFAT): Faster on simple devices but more prone to corruption.

Performance

• SSDs benefit from file systems optimized for flash memory (e.g., APFS, exFAT).
• Mechanical HDDs often perform consistently across modern FS types.