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Suitable Fat system?

A

amitabhbansal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
446
20
Delhi, India
friends
i have a external USB HDD of 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. They are on NTFS, my windows enabled pc works fine on it but MBP (Intel Based) only read it, there are softwares for Lion like paragon etc.. to write and read on NTFS.
I have read in the forum that we can use exFAT on external Hard Drive and can be recognized by both OS. Now my question is does exFAT accepts any file size?, as my files are video files, the files are in big capacity like 4GB, 5GB 8GB and 10GB single file. or is there any other FAT system available by which my external hard drive can be read and write with these file sizes on both Windows and MAC?
Please help me out
Thanks
 
exFAT is more than okay for your usage.

____________________________________________________________

Overview of the four major file systems (called "Formats" in Mac OS X) used on Windows and Mac OS X, compiled by GGJstudios. You can use Disk Utility to format any HDD to your liking.

Any external hard drive will work with PCs or Macs, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.) It doesn't matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re-format any way you like. Formatting can be done with the Mac OS X Disk Utility, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Here are your formatting options:

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac internal hard drive.
    [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
    [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
  • You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.
____________________________________________________________
​
 
Wikipedia said:
File size limit of 16 EiB–1 byte.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

Although Microsoft published a different value in KB955704, the file size is in bytes and is stored as a 64 bit number. The largest theoretical file size would be 16 EiB−1 byte, the same as NTFS. However, since the true theoretical maximum volume size under the current specification cannot exceed 128 PiB, a file can never reach that file length.
Click to expand...
 
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