Should NTFS-Formatted USB Stick Be Set to Optimize for Quick Removal?

ntfsusb-flash-drive

So what I did was I open the properties tab and change the checked markings from OPTIMIZE FOR QUICK REMOVAL to OPTIMIZE FOR PERFORMANCE, so that Windows XP would allow me to format it in NTFS.

Now my question is: After I had formatted my USB stick using NTFS, should I bring back the "OPTIMIZE FOR QUICK REMOVAL" checked mark, or just leave it with the new setting: "OPTIMIZE FOR PERFORMANCE".

Thanks..

Best Answer

According to a comment by Adrian Oney, a Microsoft developer, in this conversation:

What's the issue? Optimize for Performance to format. Format. Change to Optimize for Quick Removal. Done. (Had to do just this a couple of weeks ago for my external firewire drive.)

— Phli, 6 Apr 2004 4:26 AM

Reply (emphasis added):

What's the issue? Optimize for Performance to format. Format. Change to Optimize for Quick Removal. Done. (Had to do just this a couple of weeks ago for my external firewire drive.)

I'm afraid that won't work. A filesystem that supports quick removal will flush lazy writes quickly (~1 sec). The FAT driver in XP does this, while the NTFS driver in XP doesn't. So fiddling with the optimize option after the formatting won't help.

NTFS also plays poorly with hibernate. Here's a good way to corrupt your drive:

  1. hibernate with your 1394/USB drive attached
  2. Take it to another machine and add files
  3. Bring it back to the original machine and resume

The FAT driver will remount the drive, tossing out all its cached state on the assumption an offline edit may have occured. NTFS doesn't do this. Thus it'll be using stale cached metadata after the resume, the result being drive corruption.

In summary - NTFS in XP just doesn't play with removable media well.

— Adrian Oney, 6 Apr 2004 9:12 AM

In short, the Windows XP NTFS driver does not support "Quick Removal" mode.

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