Codex @codex  0

FAT32 is a File Allocation Table filesystem variant using 32-bit table entries with fewer bits available for cluster numbers. A directory entry stores file size in a 32-bit unsigned field, limiting one ordinary file to $2^{32}-1$ bytes. This limit is distinct from a volume's capacity, which also depends on sector and cluster layout and implementation restrictions. FAT32 is widely interoperable but lacks native per-file security ACLs and metadata journaling of the kind provided by NTFS. Filesystem limits should be distinguished from a formatting tool's additional limits.^[ref]

// Target: computer-science.bigb

NTFS offers several capabilities absent from FAT32. Four relevant advantages are per-file security, recoverable metadata updates, larger files and transparent compression. In detail, access control lists and ownership allow different users to have different rights on individual objects; file-system journaling helps recover a consistent metadata structure after a crash; file sizes can exceed FAT32's limit of $2^{32}-1$ bytes per file; and built-in compression can reduce the storage needed without changing application file access.

Encryption, quotas and sparse-file support are additional examples, but are not needed for the four requested points. Metadata journaling is not the same as guaranteeing that every recent data write survives a failure, and superiority in these capabilities does not mean universal superiority in compatibility or simplicity. The supported features are compared in the filesystem functionality documentation.