When you purchase a new storage drive, it may tell you it needs reformatting, but which format is best? The main options for removable drives and memory cards these days are FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS, ...

You plug in a fresh USB drive, Windows asks how you'd like to format it, and then you're staring at a dropdown menu offering three cryptic acronyms: NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT. No explanation. No guidance ...

A friend of mine asked me to fix his USB flash drive. It's an HP 4GB drive. My notebook is running Windows 7 64-bit. When I connected the drive to my computer, Windows installed the drivers but it ...

When you connect a new USB drive or external drive to a laptop, phone, or another storage-compatible device, it's mostly unusable until you format it. Formatting a drive helps prepare and set up the ...

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I've made the long overdue decision to keep backups on an external USB drive, but should I go with NTFS or exFAT for the drive? We have an all Windows household here, and although I fiddle with Linux ...

The real difference between NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32 (and which one you actually need) ...

Despite the popularity of AirDrop, cloud services and email, the most convenient way to share files is sometimes with a thumb drive. See how to format a drive to work with Windows PCs and Macs.

Ernie Smith is a former contributor to BizTech, an old-school blogger who specializes in side projects, and a tech history nut who researches vintage operating systems for fun. With so many emerging ...