exFAT vs. NTFS since FAT32 isn't viable

BriMan83

Pi Model or other hardware: RP 4
Power Supply used: CanaKit included supply
RetroPie Version Used: 4.8
Built From: Manual install on top of Raspberry PI OS using instructions at https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/
USB Devices connected: 1 TB Western Digital USB Hard Drive
Controller used: None
Error messages received: None
Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used: (Mention if you followed a guide): https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive
File: N/A
Emulator: N/A
Attachment of config files: (PLEASE USE PASTEBIN.COM FOR LARGE LOGS)
How to replicate the problem: N/A

Hello! I know the official answer is to use FAT32, but I will have files that are larger than 4 GB on this external drive, so unfortunately FAT32 isn't an option. Basically, is it better to use exFAT or NTFS. Is there any real difference between using them as far as RetroPie is concerned? Files will be coming over to the USB drive from a Windows 11 machine, so from that stand point, either format works fine. It's literally a question of is one a better choice than the other as far as RetroPie is concerned since FAT32 can't be used in my scenario.

barbudreadmon

@BriMan83 Well, exfat is the successor of fat32, while ntfs is more of a server/workstation security filesystem inherited from windows NT.
For an external usb drive used to store roms, i vote exfat.

sugarfree

I am using exFAT for the external USB drive that contains retropie-mount folder. The only drawback I have found is that repairing the usb drive from a Linux system is not as effective as it is in Windows. This can be an issue if you don't have a Windows PC available.

mitu

@BriMan83 said in exFAT vs. NTFS since FAT32 isn't viable:

It's literally a question of is one a better choice than the other as far as RetroPie is concerned since FAT32 can't be used in my scenario.

If you wish to have write support for your partition, use exFAT. NTFS has better recovery options in case of corruption, since it's a journalled filesystem, but write support from Linux is not that fast.

Recent Linux kernels may have improved NTFS support, with the open sourced Paragon Linux driver, but otherwise using the userspace ntfs-3g is way slow compared to exFAT.

BriMan83

Thank you for the responses. Sounds like exFat is the way to go.

Lolonois

Little late to the party, but: As Linux is the primary system in this use case and Windows is only used for "ROM maintenance" another option would be to use WSL2 to mount the formatted ext4 USB media directly if you run a recent Windows 10 (or moved to W11 already) and then access it via the Windows Explorer for example.

See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk

TPR

I have been using a Seagate 8tb external hard drive for about a year now formatted to exfat and I'm constantly pounding on that thing and I have yet to have any files corrupt or any issues. Everyone's mileage may be different but I've at least had very good luck using exfat.