NTFS and FAT are both types of file systems. A file system is a way of organizing and finding files on a hard disk. Think of it as a librarian who knows exactly where each book is in a huge library.
- FAT (File Allocation Table): This is an older system, which is simpler and less robust. It’s like an older librarian who’s great for smaller libraries. It doesn’t handle large files or hard drives as well as NTFS, and it doesn’t have some extra features like file permissions (which dictate who can open, change, or delete files). But it’s handy because nearly all operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, game consoles, etc.) can understand it, so it’s often used for USB drives that need to work with many different devices.
- NTFS (New Technology File System): This is a newer system, which is like a super librarian. It can handle large files and hard drives much better, and it has extra features like file permissions and encryption (which scrambles files so only authorized people can read them). The downside is that while all versions of Windows and most modern systems can read and write NTFS, some older systems or non-Windows systems might not handle NTFS as well or at all.