In some Linux distros the exFAT file system will not be recognized immediately, so we must install the several utilities by executing the following line: sudo apt-get install exfat-utils exfat-fuse
In this field, we can say that FAT32 has an advantage over exFAT because, being an old file system, it is compatible with all operating systems and devices such as game consoles, Smart TV, multimedia players and others.ĮxFAT, although it is currently compatible with more than 95% of the devices on the market, can still find individual limitations in some Linux distros or Android devices. This is the first fundamental field since if the USB device formatted with FAT23 or exFAT is not compatible with the device where it has to be connected it will be impossible for it to be recognized and to access its contents. Now we will analyze a little more in detail the fields of action where these two file systems are compatible to know which is the best option to choose.
exFAT:ĮxFAT is in a way a more modern and dynamic FAT32 which was developed in 2006 and is present in most modern operating systems.īy default, all traditional operating systems, Windows, Linux or Mac OS are compatible with exFAT, and its use is highly recommended for external drives, such as USB devices or external drives, thanks to its simplicity and multiple features. This format is one of the most compatible, but due to its useful life, it has been in force since the 90s, it has a series of limitations that can affect the pace of updates we are experiencing today.īeing a format with so much active time is compatible with virtually any operating system.Īs mentioned, it has its limitations such as the inability to host files larger than 4 GB or that partitions with this file system cannot have more than 8 TB capacity. Let’s see in detail what is and what covers each of these file systems. In technical terms, it has been recommended that the file system of the USB drives be FAT32 thanks to the fact that it is an old file system and that it has evolved to FAT32 at present, but there is a format that is much better regarding security, reliability, and compatibility: exFAT.
And the most sophisticated and most reliable method is to use a filesystem filter driver. Next, one can use FindFirstChangeNotification WinAPI function. The simplest is to scan the directory on timer and compare timestamps and file sizes. Regarding how file changes are tracked: there exist several methods.
On Windows our Callback File System is used.ĭropbox at the moment doesn't have a virtual file system but only shell extension (afaik they planned to create a virtual disk but I don't know what they have decided). On Linux, BSD and MacOS there exist FUSE and OSXFUSE (fork of now-inactive MacFUSE) respectively. To avoid writing your own driver, you can use user-mode file system toolkit.
The reason is that architecture of drivers is different in Unix-like OS and in Windows. Implementing a virtual file system is very OS-specific.