Formatting in exFAT question

ok so i need to reformat an external 60gig hard drive to FAT, generally fat 32 would be best but i notice in windows 7 its got the option to format in exFAT

i gather its extended fat but if i format this way will i be able to read this drive on older/other systems and USB storage enabled devices? (i.e. Archos media players, 360's, PS3's ect)

i get the feeling its FAT with the past 32gig trick bulit in but at the same time i guess it could be a new FAT so i just wanna know

i gather its extended fat but if i format this way will i be able to read this drive on older/other systems and USB storage enabled devices? (i.e. Archos media players, 360's, PS3's ect)

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You won't be able to read it on those devices. exFAT is not widely supported. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

It's not very much like FAT32, apparently. It's designed for USB drives. I'd stick with NTFS unless you absolutely need FAT32 for backwards compatibility.

johan851 said:

You won't be able to read it on those devices. exFAT is not widely supported. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

It's not very much like FAT32, apparently. It's designed for USB drives. I'd stick with NTFS unless you absolutely need FAT32 for backwards compatibility.

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MS really needs to come up with a new FS. NTFS still needs defraged by the user.

Edward78 said:

MS really needs to come up with a new FS. NTFS still needs defraged by the user.

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I'd rather M$ did NOT come up with a new non-free patent-riddled excuse for a FS. Leave the good ideas for the FLOSS crowd, rather than locking them up in patents with abhorrently expensive licenses. I'd rather see somebody implement ext4/btrfs/zfs drivers.

yea i need fat 32, i'll find a programm then