There are limitations that come from the file system and those that come the operating system. A file system is a kind of basic format/structure for a hard disk that is created when the medium is formatted and later filled with files. There are three common file systems that can be used for hard drives on Windows computers:

 Limitations of the different file systems

FAT32 and NTFS – what you need to know about these file systems

 FAT32 – Advantages

•Almost all operating systems can read it, most can write it

•Almost all devices use it (Digital cameras, Receivers, MP3 players, …)

FAT32 – Disadvantages

•Maximum file size: 4 GB

•Therefore not always suitable for large backups!

•a bit slower than NTFS

NTFS – Advantages

•newer operating systems can be installed on it

•higher data rates

•file sizes up to 16 TB möglich

•writes data „intelligently“ to avoid fragmentation

•logs file changes to avoid data corruption if the computer freezes

•supports security permissions

•supports encryption of files and volumes

•supports compression of files and volumes

•faster defragmentation

•file accesses can be logged

NTFS – Disadvantages

•Windows ME and older cannot access NTFS volumes

•Devices cannot read it

FAT32 partitions are still frequently in use, especially on external hard disks, because they are supported by many different operating systems. If a backup archive larger than 4 GB should be created on a FAT32 medium, the backup file is automatically split (multi-spanning).

 Limitations of Z-DBackup

  The free standard version of Z-DBackup can save at most 10 GB (4 GB in a compressed backup archive) per backup set!

 Important:

  Multi-spanning files larger than 2 GB should only be created on Windows NT and versions after Windows 2000.

  The standard version (freeware version) can only create multi-spanning files up to 2 GB in size.

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