If you use a Linux computer as your main PC, or use it as a complement to another Windows PC, these other file systems may interest you more than using the veteran NTFS.
NTFS (New Technology File System) is the main file system of the Windows operating system, compatible with this and many other devices, which has been used since the nostalgic Windows XP. Most likely, the hard drives of our Windows computers have this format, as well as pendrives or other types of external memories also come with pre-established NFTS.
Now, NTFS is starting to be replaced even on Windows computers. Although it is still used, the new PCs with Windows 11 use the new ReFS (Resilient File System) system, which provides improvements in security and performance. If you only manage one or more Windows computers, what will be best for you is to use either NTFS or ReFS, but if you use other OSes, especially Linux, there are others that may suit you better.
There are many other file systems other than NTFS and ReFS, and on this occasion, we are going to name some alternatives that will be useful to you, especially if you use a Linux operating system. The reason these other file systems will be of interest to Linux users is that they are largely not compatible with Windows unless you use a specific program that translates the data.
Four other file systems worth knowing are:
- ZFS
- exFAT
- XFS
- Btrfs
Below, we briefly explain them and discuss what aspects should make you choose one or the other.
ZFS
The ZFS type system will interest you, above all, to build a NAS server at home. Developed by Sun Microsystems, ZFS is a file system that simultaneously acts as a drive manager, and therefore, you can use several SSD storage units at the same time almost as if they were one.
Another of its advantages is that it allows self-healing, with which you minimize the possibility of suffering data loss or corruption. It also uses compression, encryption, and deduplication algorithms, and is highly reliable for its ability to take snapshots – read-only snapshots of the disk state at a given point in time. These can be useful in different situations, such as when looking for changes or which files have been deleted.
exFAT
exFAT, although for various reasons it is not so widely used today, is still useful if we have or use Windows and Mac computers, since this system allows us to transfer data between these two operating systems, being compatible with both.
If you use different operating systems, or if you are going to use the SSD for a camera, for example, using exFAT guarantees full compatibility with different OSs.
XFS
If you have a Linux computer with a good processor, using XFS will allow you to enjoy faster data transfer speeds. This is because XFS can perform read and write operations in parallel, that is, at the same time. This means you can recover media files faster than using file systems that use sequential input/output operations.
Btrfs
Btrfs is a file system that is usually used on servers, as it offers high protection for files, which keeps them safe from systemic failures that could corrupt them.
It is a modern file system that includes copy-on-write, advanced fault tolerance, repairability, and easy management. Other interesting functions that it integrates are the use of subvolumes, snapshots and flexible RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).
