Filesystem refers to method in which files are stored on medium as well as additional features related to it.
Typically it's safest to use default file system of operating system you use.
Topics:
Recommended for any use. Default file system for Ubuntu, Debian and many others. Stable and mature, without many
surprises. Supports both extending and reducing size of a file system. Accessible on Windows (via WSL only).
Max volume size |
1 EiB |
Max file size |
16-256 TiB |
Max number of files |
4 B |
Max filename length |
255 bytes |
Allowed filename characters |
All except / and NULL (\0) |
Other filename restrictions |
. and .. are special filenames |
By default 5% of free space is reserved for system. This can be changed online but is not recommended, both for
availability and fragmentation prevention.
- Displaying reserve
sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda | grep 'Reserved block count'
- Change reserve to 2%
sudo tune2fs -m 2 /dev/sda
- Change reserve to 5% (this restores default setting)
sudo tune2fs -m 5 /dev/sda
Recommended for RHEL. Default file system for RHEL. Mature and performant. Supports extending size of a file system.
According to RedHat uses about 2 times CPU/metadata operation compared to ext4; it also and performs worse
on systems with low bandwidth/IOPS (but tends to be faster otherwise).
Max volume size |
8 EiB - 1b (2^63 - 1 bytes) |
Max file size |
8 EiB |
Max number of files |
2^64 |
Max filename length |
255 bytes |
Allowed filename characters |
All except / and NULL (\0) |
Other filename restrictions |
. and .. are special filenames |
Default file system for Fedora and openSUSE. Feature-rich with growing stability. Supports both extending and
reducing size of a file system. Natively supports snapshots. Offers built-in RAID-like functionalities albeit those
proves to still be in growing stability and maturity period (catastrophic partial/total data losses sometimes
happen).
Max volume size |
16 EiB |
Max file size |
16 EiB |
Max number of files |
2^64 |
Max filename length |
255 ASCII characters |
Allowed filename characters |
All except / and NULL (\0) |
Other filename restrictions |
. and .. are special filenames |
Recommended for small USB drives (pendrives) and memory cards. Fairly limiting but widely supported. Minimal
resiliency (alternating file allocation tables).
Max volume size |
2-16 TB |
Max file size |
2-4 GiB (technically up to 256 GB, realistically expect 2 GB for best
compatibility)
|
Max number of files |
268173300 for 32 KB clusters |
Max filename length |
8.3 filename/255 characters |
Max directory depth |
32-60 levels |
Recommended for external SSD drives where FAT compatibility of files larger than 4 GB is required. Performant but
less resilient than FAT32 (uses only one file allocation table).
Max volume size |
128 PB |
Max file size |
128 PB |
Max number of files |
2796202 per directory |
Max filename length |
255 characters |
Allowed filename characters |
All except <>:"/\|?* and ASCII control characters (\0 - \31) |
Default file system for Windows. Somewhat stable.
Max volume size |
2^64 clusters; 256 TB - 8 PB |
Max file size |
16 TB - 8 PB |
Max number of files |
2^32-1 |
Max filename length |
255 |
Allowed filename characters |
All except <>:"/\|?* and ASCII control characters (\0 - \31) |
Reserved filenames |
CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5,
LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9 (both alone or with any extension)
|
Other filename restrictions |
Cannot end in space or dot |
Highly not recommended. Non-default file system for Windows. Unstable, vulnerable to loss of all data on disk device
under around thousand IO requests per second (any type, fulfilled or not). Promises various improvements over NTFS
which it fails to deliver in safely manner. Expects backing storage (Microsoft's RAID1-like) to provide healthy
version of file on checksum validation failure, deletes those file entirely regardless of such operation result.
Possibly more stable in native offering (Azure storage).
Max volume size |
35 PB |
Max file size |
35 PB |
Last update: 2024-06-17