Partition Table Types for USB Memory

• The memory contained on USB flash drives works very similar to how any other external USB hard drive works. This means it can contain multiple partitions and partition types and is not limited to the typical FAT32 format, with which the USB flash memory typically comes pre-formatted from the factory. By reformatting the USB flash memory, different partitions containing different file systems can be placed on the drive. The USB flash memory is even configurable to boot up the computer.

FAT / FAT32

• This is by far the most common format; nearly all new USB flash memory drives come formatted with this partition type by default. The FAT32 partition type supports partitions over 4 GB in size and is the most compatible between multiple operating systems.

NTFS

• A USB flash memory device can be reformatted with an NTFS partition table type to work with Microsoft Windows. Format a USB memory device with NTFS to create bootable copies of Microsoft Windows that can be installed from the USB memory. This is useful for installation on netbook computers.

HFS+

• The Hierarchical File System Extended is the partition table type used by Macintosh computers. If a USB memory device is to be used exclusively with Mac OS X, formatting the USB device with HFS+ enables extra features such as file permissions that FAT32 doesn't support.

EXT3 / EXT4

• The EXT filesystem is used with the GNU/Linux operating system. By formatting a USB memory device with the EXT3 or EXT4 partition table type, a bootable Linux system can be created on the USB device.