What is exFAT File System?
The exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), is a file system that was created to be used on externally connected storage drives, like USB memory sticks, SD cards and external HDD drive.

The exFAT file system is a newer version of the old FAT32 file system, and it is a middle ground between FAT32 and the more modern and more sophisticated NTFS file system (New Technology File System).

The exFAT file system was designed by Microsoft back in 2006 and was a part of the company’s Windows CE 6.0 operating system.

Because Windows CE was an operating system that had to run on mobile devices with limited hardware and memory, it had to use a file system that was less demanding than NTFS, which was used on more powerful devices like desktop computers and laptops.

Microsoft’s solution to this problem was to invent a new file system, which would be lighter than NTFS but more modern than the old FAT16 and FAT32. This new file system was called exFAT.

The exFAT is a file system that is optimized for flash drives.

exFAT has a few major features that distinguish it from other file systems:

  • exFAT is a lightweight filesystem that doesn’t need a lot of hardware resources to be maintained.
  • It offers support for huge partitions, of up to 128 pebibytes, which is 144115 terabytes!
  • It can store files that are very large, a lot higher than the 4GB limit imposed by FAT32 for instance.
  • exFAT file system file size limit is 16 exbibytes, but that’s more than the maximum partition dimensions, so the real size limit for a file stored on exFAT is the same as the limit size of the partition: 128 pebibytes.
  • exFAT is compatible with a lot of different devices and operating systems. According to Wikipedia, exFAT is supported in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 with update KB955704, Windows Embedded CE 6.0, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 (except Windows Server 2008 Server Core), Windows 10, and Mac OS X starting from 10.6.5.
  • exFAT is also supported by most cameras, smartphones and newer gaming consoles such as Playstation 4 and Xbox One. exFAT is also supported by Android’s latest versions: Android 6 Marshmallow and Android 7 Nougat. According to this website, exFAT is supported by Android since its version 4 came around. And according to this discussion, exFAT is also supported by iOS 7 and newer.


The exFAT file system does not support for journaling. Journaling is a feature that allows the file system to keep records of changes made to files stored on it. That’s useful when data corruption occurs because journals can be used to recover broken data.

Although the speeds don’t vary much between exFAT and NTFS file systems, it’s safe to say that NTFS is the fastest choice if data read speeds is what you want, and exFAT is the choice if writing speed is your primary concern.