ExFAT

exFAT
Developer(s)Microsoft
Full nameExtensible File Allocation Table
IntroducedNovember 2006; 17 years ago (2006-11) with Windows Embedded CE 6.0
Partition IDs
  • MBR/EBR: 0x07 (same as for HPFS/NTFS)
  • BDP/GPT: EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
Structures
Directory contentsTable
File allocationbitmap, linked list
Bad blocksCluster tagging
Limits
Max volume size128 PB, 512 TB recommended[1][nb 1]
Max file size128 PB[nb 2]
Max no. of filesup to 2,796,202 per directory[2]
Max filename length255 characters
Allowed filename
characters		all Unicode characters except U+0000 (NUL) through U+001F (US) / (slash) \ (backslash) : (colon) * (asterisk) ? (question mark) " (quote) < (less than) > (greater than) and | (pipe)
(encoding in UTF-16LE)[citation needed]
Features
Dates recordedCreation, last modified, last access
Date range1980-01-01 to 2107-12-31
Date resolution10 ms
ForksNo
AttributesRead-only, hidden, system, subdirectory, archive
File system
permissions		ACL (Windows CE 6 only)
Transparent
compression		No
Transparent
encryption		Yes, EFS supported in Windows 10 v1607 and Windows Server 2016 or later.
Other
Supported
operating systems

exFAT (Extensible File Allocation Table) is a file system introduced by Microsoft in 2006 and optimized for flash memory such as USB flash drives and SD cards.[6] exFAT was proprietary until 28 August 2019, when Microsoft published its specification.[7] Microsoft owns patents on several elements of its design.[2]

exFAT can be used where NTFS is not a feasible solution (due to data-structure overhead), but where a greater file-size limit than that of the standard FAT32 file system (i.e. 4 GB) is required.

exFAT has been adopted by the SD Association as the default file system for SDXC and SDUC cards larger than 32 GB.

Windows 8 and later versions natively support exFAT boot, and support the installation of the system in a special way to run in the exFAT volume.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference xpkb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference uspatent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ corbet (2019-11-25). "The 5.4 kernel has been released". LWN.net. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference exfat-fuse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Eric Slivka (2010-11-11). "Mac OS X 10.6.5 Notes: exFAT Support, AirPrint, Flash Player Vulnerability Fixes". MacRumors. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference flash-format was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Microsoft (August 28, 2019). "exFAT Specification". Archived from the original on 2020-07-19.


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