FORMATTING YOUR USB FLASH DRIVE IN NTFS FILE SYSTEM

*We all know that the regular file system used on flash drives is the FAT file system.
Now this article is about a different file system, the NTFS file system which is also used on most computer's today.

Before we proceed to the main topic. As usual here is a short introduction on NTFS:

NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.[4]

NTFS supersedes the FAT file system as the preferred file system for Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. NTFS has several improvements over FAT and HPFS (High Performance File System) such as improved support for metadata and the use of advanced data structures to improve performance, reliability, and disk space utilization, plus additional extensions such as security access control lists (ACL) and file system journaling.


-That was according to wikipedia, my source.


-Why do we need to convert the file system of the USB Flash Drive? Simple, and I bet you already know the answer that's why you came here. It's because FAT32 only supports a maximum of 4 GB per file transfer, if you transfer a 5 GB file into a flash drive formatted in FAT32, you will get an error. While in NTFS, I think there is no limit, the only limit is the size of your flash drive itself.



*Now, here is how you get to change the file system of your USB to NTFS.

Note: Backup your data first before you proceed, because we will format the flash drive to change the file system to NTFS.

-The screen shots may not look the same, especially if you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7. But the idea is still the same, I've already done it using Windows 7 the evaluation copy.


1. Right click My Computer and select Manage.

2. Open the Device Manager and find your USB drive under the Disk Drives heading.



3. Right click the drive and select Properties.

4. Choose Policies tab and select the "Optimize for performance" option



5. Click OK.

6. Open My Computer.

7. Select Format on the flash drive.



8. Choose NTFS in the File System dropdown box.

9. Device Formatting is completed.



Important: To remove a device safely without data loss use a "safely remove hardware" procedure or Eject function from Windows Explorer.






Source:
http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm