Working with Removable Disks

Removable is the standard disk type associated with removable storage devices. Working with removable disks is similar to working with fixed disks. Removable storage devices can be formatted with exFAT, FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS. Both Windows Vista with SP1 or later and Windows Server 2008 support exFAT with removable storage devices as well.

The exFAT file system is the next generation file system in the FAT (FAT12/16, FAT32) family. Although retaining the ease-of-use advantages of FAT32, exFAT overcomes FAT32's 4-GB file size limit and FAT32's 32-GB partition size limit on Windows systems. exFAT also supports allocation unit sizes of up to 32,768 KB. exFAT is designed so that it can be used with and easily moved between any compliant operating system or device.

Note: Both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 support hot-pluggable media that use NTFS volumes. This new feature allows you to format USB fl ash devices and other similar media with NTFS.

Removable disks support network file and folder sharing. You configure sharing on removable disks in the same way as you configure standard file sharing. You can assign share permissions, configure caching options for offl ine file use, and limit the number of simultaneous users. You can share an entire removable disk as well as individual folders stored on the removable disk. You can also create multiple share instances.

Where removable disks differ from standard NTFS sharing is that there isn't necessarily an underlying security architecture. With exFAT, FAT, or FAT32, folders and files stored do not have any security permissions or features other than the basic read-only or hidden attribute flags that you can set.