SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 Format to NTFS

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1

Hello,

I recently purchased a SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 memory stick and it is formatted to exFAT. We have some older Windows 2000 computers I need to copy data from as well as some Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers. Will the write/read performance be affected and will the life of the USB Extreme Pro 3.1 be shortened if I format it to NTFS on one of the Windows 7 computers?

Thanks in advance

Tim

2

Yes.  NTFS is a journeling system and therefore increases the writes to a drive.  There is no advantage to using it on an exFAT flash drive. Windows7 and 10 support exFAT, I don’t know about Windows 2000.  If it doesn’t there may be a utility that would add that support to it.

3

For Windows 2000 this link may help you.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/955704/description-of-the-exfat-file-system-driver-update-package

4

I appreciate the information you provided. Unfortunatly it appears there is no way to use my new Extreme Pro USB 3.1 on the Windows 2000 computers I am required to support. I will re-format the USB stick to NTFS and when the USB stick ceases to function, will purchase another. Formatting to regular FAT 32 will not work either because I am required to copy Windows 2000 backup files from the computers as well.

5

Please, can you check the SMART infos of your USB key ?

I do report in another post a SEVERE abnomaly about the Remaining Life, the Temp, etc…

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6

I found this forum as I had an error using my sandisk to hold a hyper-v disk - I had to format as ntfs to run a vm from the usb drive - all worked fine after formatting it and moving a fresh copy of the vm hard drive to the drive

7

exFAT supports large files also and without the overhead of journaling.  Did you try it mattmoses?

8

What is the optimum allocation size of an sandisk ultra dual drive go in Exfat format and What can it be in Fat32 and NTFS

9

Simply put, switching to NTFS won’t slow down speeds or ruin your flash drive. Modern flash tech is durable, so don’t worry about lifespan.

However, your biggest hurdle is that the old Windows 2000 computers probably won’t recognize it.
NTFS is safe to use and handles tons of tiny legacy files efficiently.
Windows 7 formats NTFS into a newer version that Windows 2000 cannot read. The default exFAT isn’t supported by Windows 2000 either.
To make the drive work seamlessly from Windows 2000 all the way to Windows 10, format it to FAT32:. The only limitation is that FAT32 cannot handle single files larger than 4GB. Also read: FAT32 File Size Limit: FAT32 vs. exFAT/NTFS in Max File Size