"Safely Remove USB Device" - Time taken different b/w file systems?

I have two ext hard disks, one NTFS and the other FAT32.. and I have been seeing from day one that the FAT32 disk cane be "safely removed" very quickly.. but the NTFS device takes quiet some time to pop up the confirmation (something like "you can now safely unplug the device" or similar)....

Can anyone kindly clarify the reason behind this for me, Please? Thanks a lot.

*not a big issue or its not something thats bugging.. just want to know why?* Thanks again and Cheers.

 

If you want, go to Device Manager > Disk drives > right-click the drive > Properties > Policies tab.

There's an option "Optimize for quick removal" that says you don't need to use the safe removal thing if you select that option. (The drive will still show up in the list though if you do click Safely Remove Hardware.)

Maybe you have a different setting there for your two drives? Just a guess.

 

Ahhh yes... Thanks a lot for your reply Swarmer.

Yes, the FAT32 drive is optimized for quick removal while the NTFS drive has optimize for performance enabled.. *though I dont remember changing it or setting it like this* I guess its by default, is it???

Anyway, thanks for that eye opener Swarmer Very kind.

 

NTFS has journaling, FAT32 doesn't. I believe that NTFS drives also cache writes so they go faster. Anyway, it's basically just because NTFS is a much more robust filesystem than FAT32. I'd definitely recommend using NTFS for anything larger than a gigabyte on an external drive.

 

I'm actually not sure what the defaults are or how it decides what to set a new drive to by default.

 

Thanks Pitabred.....

But I thought NTFS was removing slowly......... when I unplug.. probably you didnt mean this removing part when U said they 'go faster'..

But thanks anyway for the explanation Cheers

OKie Swarmer I'll try to dig deep....

 

@ Swarmer


I tried looking around but could not find any guide or something like that.. Will check again tomorrow, too sleepy now.

Meanwhile I did see some article' where they talk about formatting ext drives like USB or whatever, to NTFS and they recommend setting the policy to optimize for performance, but did not see anything similar for when we wanted to format for FAT32... may be I didn't see the right place, but anyways...

Not a big deal though All is well. Will get back if I find anymore info into the default settings, and why? Cheers and thanks again to you and Pitabred

 

What do you need a guide for? If you want the best write performance, choose that option. If you prefer quick removal, choose that option.

Me... if I were using the external drive to actually run programs and/or the OS (is that possible?), then I'd set it to performance... if it's a drive for, say, your music and movie collection, then you probably aren't writing to it all the time, so I'd go for the quick removal setting.

If it's used to back up your whole system... hmmm I don't know... I'd go performance then I guess. But if I just copy over a few files now and then, then quick removal.

 

Ah well, when I meant guide I didnt mean some actual step by step guide mate.. sorry that was the wrong word. I was like looking for some technical explanation as to what is what *just to learn about these things, as I am not a s/w pro*.....

But I dont think its needed now, since your post has made it clear for me in a simple way Thanks.

Yeah the one for backup I have it at performance.. while the other one (is actually for music and other stuff), its for quick removal

But again, it was already set like this... some magic kinds... lol.. Anyway, thanks again mate Now I understand.