USB sync between two PC's

Posts: 3 · sunnyimran 3 Jun 2020, 12:37

Hi there,

Thanks for this wonderful sync utility.

I have a USB Sandisk 32GB FAT32 which I am syncing between two different PC's. Two way Sync is used.
Once I have to sync USB with these two PC's. On each PC I have an NTFS folder where the contents of my USB are being synced frequently sometimes thrice a day.

All was working fine till I needed to copy a > 4 GB file on USB. FAT32 doesn't support > 4 GB file. So I converted by USB from FAT32 to NTFS by backing up and re-formatting USB to NTFS.

Now all three locations, Folder on PC1, Folder on PC2, USB are NTFS but now syncing task is extremely slow. Sometimes sync task does not complete. I have to manually stop utility.

What is the solution for this and what file format for USB is suggested for above scenario

waiting for promt response please

Posts: 3583 · xCSxXenon 3 Jun 2020, 18:25

Can you verify that the issue doesn't persist when formatted back to FAT32? I use NTFS on my USB drives and have no issues

Posts: 3 · sunnyimran 21 Jun 2020, 22:58

Replacing NTFS with exFAT on my USB solved above mentioned problems

Posts: 3583 · xCSxXenon 22 Jun 2020, 15:41

On Windows? Try disabling antivirus temporarily, just to see if there is ntfs scanning causing issues. Couple possible reolutions:
1. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/tech-tip-disable-the-last-access-update/
2. viewtopic.php?t=6705

Posts: 3 · sunnyimran 9 Jul 2020, 17:23

I think things are back smooth on exFAT on USB key. So no need to experiment further. NTFS on usb sticks is known for lot frequent read/write USN journal etc. while not in FAT32. But FAT32 has max file size limitations so exFAT is better alternative. NTFS carries its ACL, permissions, date records everywhere the file goes as long as it does not leave NTFS partitioning scheme. I have to carry files between two different systems each having its own local NTFS ACL. so no need to bother for me.