Raspberry Pi is a device capable of providing users the freedom to do different tasks like controlling machines, automating their homes, building websites, learning programming and much more. However, you must install an operating system on your Raspberry Pi device to do these tasks.
The good thing about the device is that it manages to support running different Linux-based operating systems like Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Raspberry Pi OS and more. However, to boot these operating systems, you must install them using an SD card or an external storage device like a USB.
Though having an SD card for booting the OS is a good choice since it’s a safe option compared to external devices like USB. But, if somehow you want to boot OS through USB, you should need knowledge about the file system Raspberry Pi support.
In this article, you will find guidance about the file system that supports Raspberry Pi so that you can install an operating system like Raspberry Pi on a USB and boot it on your device.
In What File System Do I Format a USB for the Raspberry Pi
Not all operating systems support running on Raspberry Pi devices through USB; the better choice is still using the micro-SD card for booting an operating system. However, if you don’t have an SD card and want to use the cheaper USB option, installing the Raspberry Pi OS on your device is a better choice. The reason is Raspberry Pi OS supports both USB and SD card booting.
The choice of USB storage matters during the formatting because there are different options available for you to format the USB, which are FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT.
When to Format USB using FAT16 or FAT32 File System
If you are installing Raspberry Pi OS on your device, you must need storage of around 8GB; thus, the FAT16 option doesn’t work in this case. Because it supports maximum storage of 4GB, which is ideal if you install a lightweight Linux operating system on your Raspberry Pi device.
When to Format USB using FAT32 or NTFS File System
If you want to format a USB of around 32GB storage or less, you can choose FAT32 or NTFS file systems, as both supports booting the Raspberry Pi OS on your device. In the case of other operating systems, you have to check whether these operating systems support USB boot on Raspberry Pi devices.
When to Format USB using NTFS File or exFAT System
In case you want a large storage USB for your Raspberry Pi device, around 64-128GB, you can go with formatting the USB through NTFS or exFAT file system.
Is exFAT Supports Raspberry Pi
Although discussions are going around that the exFAT format system doesn’t support Raspberry Pi, storage of around 32GB is ideal for Raspberry Pi OS. It may be true somehow for an older version of Raspberry Pi device. However, I have tested installing the Raspberry Pi OS on my Raspberry Pi 4 device using the 64GB storage and the device is successfully booting the Raspberry Pi OS. So, if you want to use large storage space, you can choose to format the USB device through NTFS or exFAT file system. Both these formats options support USB storage greater than 32GB.
Advantages of NTFS over exFAT
Though NTFS works slower than exFAT, the selection of NTFS may be better since it has a journaling system that limits the chances of data corruption or loss under system failure. Further, exFAT may or may not work for other Linux operating systems, while NTFS has been widely used over the years because of its compatibility support for various systems. For the case of exFAT, you may need some configuration for other Linux systems that support booting from USB.
Advantages of exFAT over NTFS
Contrary to the advantages the NTFS system has over exFAT, there are some limitations too. You won’t be able to recover data from a USB if formatted through the NTFS file system. However, you can recover your lost data in case if you format your USB through exFAT. Further, exFAT provides much faster speed than NTFS, so it’s hard to ignore these advantages that exFAT has over NTFS.
From the advantages both file systems have over each other, it’s now clearly on users’ preferences regarding which method they want to use to format a USB device over 32GB storage.
How to Format USB for Raspberry Pi
The method to format a USB for Raspberry Pi is similar to the method used for formatting the Raspberry Pi SD card. However, instead of using the Raspberry Pi SD card, you must use a USB drive; follow the guide here to format the USB on your system. However, you must keep in mind the USB storage space as this will help you in choosing the format system for your USB device.
Final Thoughts
You can easily boot the Raspberry Pi OS on your device through a USB device. There are multiple ways to format USB; you can do that easily from your PC. However, selecting the file system to format the USB drive is a thing that needs to be considered. To format the USB for less than 4GB storage, you can use the FAT16 file system, while more than 8GB or a maximum of 32GB USB storage requires formatting it through FAT32 or NTFS file system. For USB storage greater than 32GB, you can choose exFAT or NTFS file system to boot Raspberry Pi OS.
