What is the fastest Linux file system?
When running FS-Mark, F2FS was the fastest for the SATA/USB storage tests while XFS picked up another win when it came to the Optane 900p performance, followed by F2FS. JavaScript is required to view these results or log-in to Phoronix Premium.
StorNext is Officially the Fastest File System in the World for Video Workloads.
Various benchmarks have concluded that the actual ext4 file system can perform a variety of read-write operations faster than an NTFS partition. Note that while these tests are not indicative of real-world performance, we can extrapolate these results and use this as one reason.
The Quick Answer: Use Ext4 if You're Not Sure
Ext4 is the default file system on most Linux distributions for a reason. It's an improved version of the older Ext3 file system. It's not the most cutting-edge file system, but that's good: It means Ext4 is rock-solid and stable.
For anything with higher capability, XFS tends to be faster. XFS also consumes about twice the CPU-per-metadata operation compared to Ext3 and Ext4, so if you have a CPU-bound workload with little concurrency, then the Ext3 or Ext4 variants will be faster.
While ext4 comes embedded on Linux, it may not be the right choice for managing your data. Consider the strengths of each system in light of your needs. On the face of it, ZFS seems better but arrives with much higher hardware requirements to run smoothly.
In terms of XFS vs Ext4, XFS is superior to Ext4 in the following aspects: Larger Partition Size and File Size: Ext4 supports partition size up to 1 EiB and file size up to 16 TiB, while XFS supports partition size and file size up to 8 EiB. Please note that XFS is a 64-bit file system.
The benchmarks posted speeds of EXT4, showing it excelling over filesystems like FAT32 and NTFS by considerable amounts. As this article above states, many flash drives come with Microsoft's FAT32 which is nice because of compatibility.
Apple File System (APFS), the default file system for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later, features strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals.
NTFS is faster as an internal drive file system. It consistently outperforms exFAT efficiency and uses fewer system resources. However, exFAT acts faster when used as the file system for external drives as the read/write speeds are handled differently over USB connections and between operating systems.
What is most commonly used file system in Linux?
Unix File Format
Ext4 is the preferred and most widely used Linux file System.
Btrfs is growing at a fast rate, but it is still not considered stable. Until now, the ext4 seems to be a much better choice on the desktop system since it is the default file system, and it is faster than the btrfs when transferring files.
As a result, ext4 has significant advantages over its predecessor, such as improved design, better performance, reliability, and new features. What is this? Nowadays ext4 is the default file system on most Linux distributions. It can support large files and file systems of up to 16 terabytes.
Sad as it makes me, as of 2017, ZFS is the best filesystem for long-term, large-scale data storage. Although it can be a pain to use (except in FreeBSD, Solaris, and purpose-built appliances), the robust and proven ZFS filesystem is the only trustworthy place for data outside enterprise storage systems.
Metadata operations in XFS have historically been slower than with other file systems, resulting in, for example, poor performance with operations such as deletions of large numbers of files.
| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| XFS | Extensions for Financial Services |
| XFS | Next Generation File System |
| XFS | X Font Server |
| XFS | Extended File System |
XFS is the default file system for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. XFS supports metadata journaling, which facilitates quicker crash recovery. The XFS file system can be defragmented and enlarged while mounted and active. In addition, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 supports backup and restore utilities specific to XFS.
Windows doesn't support XFS file system, so if you connect a XFS drive to a Windows computer, it can not be recognized by the system.
Ext4 is functionally very similar to ext3, but brings large filesystem support, improved resistance to fragmentation, higher performance, and improved timestamps.
The read and write speeds of NTFS are also faster than that of FAT32. The FAT32 file system is suitable for smaller capacity flash memory devices (such as memory cards, USB drives, and other storage devices), while the NTFS file system is suitable for large capacity disks.
Why is Linux file system faster?
Linux caches all the files into available RAM and write to disk when they can - hence why it looks faster (as it only needs to read for now, and write when they can).
Btrfs is growing at a fast rate, but it is still not considered stable. Until now, the ext4 seems to be a much better choice on the desktop system since it is the default file system, and it is faster than the btrfs when transferring files.
NTFS, short for NT File System, is the most secure and robust file system for Windows 7, Vista, and XP. It provides security by supporting access control and ownership privileges, meaning you can set permission for groups or individual users to access certain files.
Ext4 is functionally very similar to ext3, but brings large filesystem support, improved resistance to fragmentation, higher performance, and improved timestamps.
There are many reasons for Linux being generally faster than windows. Firstly, Linux is very lightweight while Windows is fatty. In windows, a lot of programs run in the background and they eat up the RAM. Secondly, in Linux, the file system is very much organized.
They handle data differently. That doesn't necessarily mean one is inherently faster than the other, but one may do a better job of copying files of a certain size or type. And that's only scratching the surface of all the conditions that can impact the speed of your transfer.