ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

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pablo
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:10 pm

ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

Post by pablo »

I just bought a new laptop running Windows 10 Home x64. I installed IFW v2.98 and successfully imaged the drive to an external drive (NTFS) via a USB 3.0 port. I was able to restore that image using a bootable UFD containing IFL.

What I want to do now is store an image of the drive on a 64 GB UFD and be able to restore the image with the IFL flash drive. The 64 GB drive is presently FAT32, so it won't work with the large image file (>4 GB).

Should I re-format the 64 GB UFD as ExFAT or as NTFS? Will either format work with IFW and IFL?
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3616
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

Post by TeraByte Support »

If you image to it, it will split the file up (you can split as well, .tbi
first, then .1, .2, .3, etc..). If you want to just copy it without
splitting then provided your Windows version supported ExFAT you could boot
TBWinRE/PE and restore via the drive letter it gives you, under IFL, you'd
have to manually mount and use "file". If you use NTFS, then you can use
"file (direct)", you can't use "file (direct)" with ExFAT.


"pablo" wrote in message news:10767@public.image...

I just bought a new laptop running Windows 10 Home x64. I installed IFW
v2.98 and successfully imaged the drive to an external drive (NTFS) via a
USB 3.0 port. I was able to restore that image using a bootable UFD
containing IFL.

What I want to do now is store an image of the drive on a 64 GB UFD and be
able to restore the image with the IFL flash drive. The 64 GB drive is
presently FAT32, so it won't work with the large image file (>4 GB).

Should I re-format the 64 GB UFD as ExFAT or as NTFS? Will either format
work with IFW and IFL?

pablo
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:10 pm

Re: ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

Post by pablo »

Sounds like NTFS is my best bet for ease in what I'm trying to do.

FAT32 would require splitting the file into 6 or 7 smaller files, but it would work with IFL/file-direct.
ExFAT (if it's supported by Win 10 x64) would require TBWinPE or mounting the image with IFL.
NTFS will work with IFL/file-direct, and the image does not need to be split. No need for TBWinPE.

Are there any disadvantages to using NTFS on a UFD for storing TeraByte images?

What allocation size should I use when formatting the drive? Seems like something larger (say 4096 KB) would be better for these large files.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3616
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

Post by TeraByte Support »

you should be good, 4K or above is fine.

"pablo" wrote in message news:10773@public.image...

Sounds like NTFS is my best bet for ease in what I'm trying to do.

FAT32 would require splitting the file into 6 or 7 smaller files, but it
would work with IFL/file-direct.
ExFAT (if it's supported by Win 10 x64) would require TBWinPE or mounting
the image with IFL.
NTFS will work with IFL/file-direct, and the image does not need to be
split. No need for TBWinPE.

Are there any disadvantages to using NTFS on a UFD for storing TeraByte
images?

What allocation size should I use when formatting the drive? Seems like
something larger (say 4096 KB) would be better for these large files.

Brian K
Posts: 2223
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: ExFAT or NTFS for UFD?

Post by Brian K »

pablo,

IFL will restore images (created by IFW in a Win10 system) stored on an exFAT UFD. As you suspected, File (OS) needs to be used.
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