A field technician must format a 2 TB USB external drive so that Windows 10 laptops, macOS systems, and most Linux distributions can all read from and write to the drive. The drive will store individual high-definition video files larger than 5 GB. Which filesystem format should the technician choose to meet these requirements?
exFAT was created to replace FAT32 on large-capacity removable media. Unlike FAT32, it supports individual files well above 4 GB and volumes well into the terabyte range. exFAT is natively writable by Windows and macOS, and modern Linux distributions can add support through a readily available driver, making it the most universally compatible choice for large cross-platform removable drives.
FAT32 is broadly supported but cannot hold files over 4 GB, so the required video files would not fit. NTFS can store large files, but macOS provides only read-only support without third-party tools, so it would not satisfy the write requirement on all systems. APFS supports large files but is limited to Apple devices and is not natively supported by Windows or most Linux installations.
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Why can't FAT32 be used for storing large files over 4 GB?
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How does exFAT ensure better compatibility compared to NTFS and APFS?
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What steps are needed to enable exFAT on Linux systems if not supported by default?