Things you Should know about Antarctica

All of the continents are known for something. Asia is the largest and most densely populated. Africa is home to the most countries in the world as well as the Nile, the world’s largest river. South America contains the Ecuadorian Mount Chimborazo, the highest point on Earth. Not only is Australia literally a country unto itself, but it is also Earth’s largest island. Europe is home to the world’s smallest country – Vatican City. North America contains every climate and is home to the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior. 

But wait – what about little old Antarctica, that cold place on the bottom of the globe? What is there to know about frigid barren land made of ice? The truth is that there are plenty of fantastic and interesting things to know about the loneliest and coldest continent on Earth, and here are just a few fun facts to get you started.

On the southernmost part of Earth lies one huge and mysterious landmass – the frozen continent of Antarctica.

With an area covering about 5.4 million square miles, Antarctica is the fifth largest continent on the planet. It is located entirely within the Arctic Circle, which means the temperatures here are persistently below zero throughout the year. But, despite its incredibly harsh weather conditions, the place is frequently visited by many scientists and explorers. For these reasons, it has been named one of the most interesting places in the world.

Here are some other things you have to know about this frozen continent:

1. Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.

2. Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles.

3. The coldest place on Earth is a high ridge in Antarctica where temperatures can dip below -133°F (-93.2°C).

4. Some parts of Antarctica have had no rain or snow for the last 2 million years.

5. There is a waterfall in Antarctica that runs red.

6. Antarctica has only one ATM.

7. 90% of the world’s fresh water is in Antarctica.

8. You cannot work in Antarctica unless you have had your wisdom teeth and appendix removed.

9. There are no polar bears in Antarctica (only in the Arctic), but there are lots penguins.

10. Antarctica is the only continent without a time zone.

11. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest, and driest continent on Earth.

12. Ice melting in Antarctica has caused a small shift in gravity in the region.

13. Chile has a civilian town in Antarctica, complete with a school, hospital, hostel, post office, Internet, TV and mobile phone coverage.

14. The ice sheet of Antarctica has been in existence for at least 40 million years.

15. There are 300 lakes beneath Antarctica that are kept from freezing by the warmth of Earth’s core.

16. The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica is 58.2°F (14.5°C).

17. Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano on Earth is in Antarctica. It spews crystals.

18. Antarctica was once as warm as modern-day California.

19. There are at least seven Christian churches in Antarctica.

20. A scientist in Antarctica got a date through Tinder with a girl camping just 45 minutes away.

21. Most of Antarctica is covered in ice: less than 1% is permanently ice-free.

22. The largest iceberg ever measured is bigger than Jamaica: 11,000 sq km (4,200 sq mi). It broke away from Antarctica in 2000.

23. The average thickness of ice in Antarctica is about 1 mile (1.6 km).

24. In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant mother to Antarctica in an effort to claim a portion of the continent. The boy became the first human known to be born in Antarctica.

25. Winds in some places of Antarctica can reach 200 mph (320 km/h).

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Do's and don'ts for every Android user

There are a lot of choices when it comes to making your Android phone all it can be, and a lot of nuance about which are the “best” choices to make. Everyone has an opinion about the best apps, home screen layouts, launchers, and so on. However, there are some enduring certainties that cannot be avoided. Here are “do’s” and “don’ts” for every Android user.

Do: Configure data usage limits

Don’t go over your monthly allotment again.

Every Android phone has a tool in the main system settings to monitor and limit your data usage. In this age of limited data plans, you should probably take a moment to set that up as soon as possible. You can set your monthly billing cycle date, data limit, and configure a warning when you’re near your limit. There’s even a setting to disable data so you don’t end up with overages, if that’s something your carrier does.

Don’t: Use third-party lock screens

The stock lock screen is always more secure and stable than its replacements.

Many parts of your phone can be customized extensively, and you can even replace things you don’t like. There’s one component that you ought to leave alone—the lock screen. The Play Store offers a heap of replacement lock screen apps, but there’s no official method for replacing the Android lock screen. 

That means all those apps are just messy hacks that require you sacrifice security. The method they use to take over the screen when you wake the phone is also likely to cause lag. When it comes to the lock screen, you should just make do with the limited customization options included with your phone.

Do: Set up and Use ‘OK Google’

DO: Delete all unnecessary apps, media, and content

Smartphones are just like any other computer. While flash drives don’t work like today’s typical hard drives, they still do slow down when you have more data on them. The easiest way to improve smartphone performance for your Android device is to get rid of all unnecessary material. Not only will doing so speed up the phone itself, but it’ll also speed up your workflow. Instead of having 50 to 60 apps to sort through, just keeping the bare essentials and getting rid of everything else will speed up your usage.

DON’T: Update to brand new versions of Android

While we all want the latest and greatest software and features, they typically slow down devices. This issue isn’t exclusive to smartphones; the recently released OS X Yosemite beta brought a noticeable lag to some MacBooks in addition to the new features.

With Android, you may not even be given the option of whether you want to update software to a new version or not. But if and when you do, take heed: making a significant upgrade will always slow down the phone. The bigger the software update, the slower the phone is likely to become. Wait and see if anyone else who has same phone and has completed the update runs into issues before jumping on board yourself.

DO: Close any apps that you use infrequently, and use lighter apps for the services you need

Android has a number of strengths over iOS and other mobile platforms. One of the best is multitasking, Android can run a variety of applications at once. On older Android phones that may not be a good thing, because as the software improves and becomes more hardware-intensive, your phone remains the same. If you notice things are slower, close whatever you aren’t using.

On that point, there are plenty of different apps that can be used for the same purpose. You may have one web browser built in, plus Chrome, Opera, and Dolphin; multiple chat apps; multiple phone apps; picture apps; Twitter apps; etc. As mentioned above, there’s no reason to have multiple versions of the same app. 

When you decide what to keep and what to drop, remember that some apps are slower than others, and keep the one that best suits your needs along with the speed you require. For example, stick with the stock Twitter app versus Carbon, or Opera instead of Chrome.

DON’T: Run applications off of an external memory card

Android’s expandable memory is a useful feature for many users, but those memory cards are always going to be slower than the phone’s built-in flash drive. If you have a memory card, use it for music, video, and other media. Running apps from an external memory card is just fine, but it will work slower because your phone has to take more time to move it from the external card to internal RAM, and when you close the app, your phone will have to do the process in reverse, too. So run apps straight from the phone, and leave media on the external media card.

DO: Close all applications and reboot the phone once a week

Must Read: Phone slow? quick fixes to make your Android phone fast again

Even on brand new smartphones, eventual slowdown is bound to happen. Mobile operating systems aren’t mature enough to handle data and memory management as well as, say, Windows 7. So even if you’re diligent about closing apps, managing your phone properly, never pushing it too hard, or anything else, eventually it’ll need a fresh reset to clear out the cobwebs.

With older phones, you’ll need to do reboots more often. Make sure to close all apps first, because all of that app data is saved prior to shutting off. Closing apps before turning off the phone will improve smartphone performance because it forces the phone to save information immediately, so when you reboot, the device will be fresh and not cluttered with all of those apps starting up from their last place.

Instant voice search from anywhere!

The “OK Google” hotword is the quickest way to start a voice search on Android, and it’s something you should take advantage of. The options available to you vary a bit from one device to the next, but you should at least be able to speak “OK Google” when the device is awake to open a voice search (called OK Google Everywhere). 

To enable this feature, go to the Google app and open your voice settings to train it with your voice. Some devices (like the Nexus 6) even have the ability to listen for OK Google while the screen is off.

Don’t: Install APKs from untrusted sources

Be careful what you sideload!

One of the cool things about Android is that you can get apps from a variety of sources outside of Google Play, like Amazon and the open source F-Droid repository. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

Don’t go around installing any APK you find posted on a forum, and definitely don’t try to load pirated apps and games on your phone. That’s a great way to end up with malware and spam. You can leave the Unknown sources toggle off in the security settings if you don’t plan to sideload any apps outside of Google Play.

Do: Disable unwanted apps

Get out of here with that junk.

Virtually every phone and tablet comes with at least a few built-in apps you don’t want or need. Even if you never use them, they’ll still sit there in your app drawer, and some will even start up in the background. Often, you won't be able to delete the app if you don't want it. This is particularly common with carrier account management apps.

If you don’t want them, just disable them. You won’t need to root or do anything fancy, just open your system settings and find the app manager (the location within Settings varies by device, unfortunately). Scroll through the list and tap on the offending apps to open the info page. There you’ll see the disable button. Easy.

Don’t: Kill background tasks

This will do more harm than good.

Despite what you’ve heard, Android manages its background tasks just fine. You don’t need a task manager app or anything that claims to speed up your phone by clearing RAM. When a process isn’t needed, Android is smart enough to end it. In fact, micromanaging tasks will cause the phone to slow down because most of the processes these apps kill are simply going to start up again and draw more power in the process.

Do: Set a secure lock screen and use Smart Lock

Security and convenience? Sign me up!

One of Android’s best features is Smart Lock (Android 5.0 and higher only), and it means there’s no excuse whatsoever to put off using a secure lock screen. You can set a pattern or PIN lock screen to keep out unauthorized snoops, then use smart lock to automatically go back to the faster swipe unlock when certain conditions are met. For example, keep the swipe screen active when you’re at home, but if you’re out, the secure lock screen takes over. You can also use trusted Bluetooth devices or even your face to keep the phone unlocked when it’s convenient.

Don’t: Use third-party antivirus apps

This is just redundant.

The internet can be a scary place, and the often sensationalist coverage of Android security issues doesn’t really help. Many phones even come with antivirus apps pre-installed. Frankly, you don’t need them. They’ll just sit in the background and waste processor cycles to scan all the apps you install, even though Google is already scanning them automatically via Play Services. Your phone is better off without a third-party antivirus app.

Do: Plan ahead with Device Manager

Google includes lost phone features as part of all Android devices with Device Manager, which you can access from any computer or phone on the Device Manager website. If you ever lose track of your phone, this tool can track it, make it ring, lock it down, and even remotely delete everything if you don’t think it’s ever coming home. Just make sure you’ve got full administrator access enabled for Device Manager in the settings. Go to Security and find the Phone administrators menu. Make sure Device Manager is checked, and you’re good to go.

Don’t: Reset your phone right after changing your Google password

Device protection is disabled by the OEM unlock toggle.

Google added the device protection system in Android 5.1 to make a stolen phone useless to thieves. Android now asks for the login info from the last Google account used on a device after a reset when Device Protection is enabled. A fair number of devices already support it, and almost every phone and tablet will have this feature by default going forward. 

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Phone slow? quick fixes to make your Android phone fast again

The Mobile devices optionally show fatal errors that let the user get irritated with the slowdown fact. Continuous usage as we discussed brings down the computing devices to slower mode, the reason behind this is not to wear and tear of the device.

All computing/Mobile devices slow down with the use. No, it has nothing to with the wear and tear. There is no such thing in the world of software and the in most cases the electronic components are very resilient. If they work well, they tend to keep on working. 

The computers, laptops, phones, tablets etc slow down with the use because they accumulate data and junk. They also slow down because when there are too many apps, which you will have on your phone after you have used for a year or two, the computing resources like RAM and internal storage becomes scarce.

This is the reason why some months after you bought your shiny new phone you start feeling that it has become very slow. When the phone was new, it was very fast. But now you start perceiving lag, start seeing apps load slowly. What is the solution?

We tell you quick fixes that would make your phone fast again, almost as fast as it was when you had bought it.

Get rid of launchers: If you have installed any custom launchers on your phone, you should get rid of them. Launchers, even the best ones often slow down the phone. The only acceptable reason to use launchers is when the stock launcher is not good and is slow, which can be the case if you have a phone made by Chinese or Indian companies etc. On some occasions the software that these companies put in their phones is not optimised well enough and in that case it is a good idea to use a third-party launcher.

But be careful if you are going to use a third-party launcher. Don't go overbroad and just stick to one launcher. If you don't like the one you are using, uninstall it before installing the other one.

Get rid of the security apps- The fact can’t be denied that, the Android may have some security related bugs as like any of the other operating systems. Bt it is wise not to use the security apps. This is said by Google itself in past days. The security apps mostly don’t do anything they just acquire space in the RAM that results in the device to operate slowly. You need to follow the safe practices to keep your phone safe. Note: Never install an app from an inferior looking website.

Get rid of the apps that optimize: You must be aware that the Nexus phones don’t have any optimizing app but even though they are the fastest Android devices. This confirms that no optimizing app is required for your Android phone and Android has an inbuilt mechanism for optimizing self. You need to get rid of such apps if you have one on your device.

Remove unwanted apps: Go to Settings > Apps and scroll through the list. We don't realise but as we use the phone we often install apps that we don't need, or may be not even use, and then forget to uninstall them. Clean the list now and remove any apps that you don't need.

Free up storage: When internal storage is full in a phone it can have significant effect on the phone's performance because fuller disks have slow read and write data speed. This introduces lag into the phone. Delete the unwanted data (apps, videos, photos) from your phone or copy the data into a computer to free up space on your phone's storage.

Make apps behave: Some apps are necessary but they can also be annoying. For example, an e-retail app. You need it. But don't need it daily and you definitely don't want it to always run in the background. Go to the Settings > Apps and force stop the app you don't want to run in the background. Don't worry, when you need the app you can just tap on its icon and open it. It will again start functioning.

Clear app cache: Apps like the Facebook tend to collect and store a lot of data in their cache. Over a period of time, this can start overwhelming phone's hardware. If you see the apps that are crashing again and again and have become particularly slow, clear their cache and stored data. To clear cache, go to Settings > Apps. Once you clear the cache, you may have to log into the said apps again and you will lose data (like WhatsApp images) stored by these apps on your phone. But clearing this cache can often speed up the phone.

Reboot: Have you ever gone through the words “Reboot the device or turn it off and on again” Yes, this term means simple but often works. If you don’t ever switch off your phone then, reboot it and see the result. This clears the RAM and shuts the unnecessary apps.

Clear the Phone’s Cache even: You have gone through the process of clearing apps Cache but clearing the Phone’s cache is different than this. Clear up the system-wide cache freshen up the phone, for getting into the process you need to go to the recovery mode.

Do the factory reset: Once again, you should exercise this as the last option. Doing a factory reset means deleting everything you have done on the phone since you bought it and resorting it to its original software. This clears all the data on the phone and gives you a device that would feel refreshingly new even if its body bears marks of overuse. 

While factory reset is a fairly good solution to a phone that has become unbearably slow, it also means that you will have to install all your apps again and set up the whole phone again. You can reset a phone by navigating to Settings > Backup And Reset.

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Easy Ways To Boost WordPress Website/Blog Speed & Performance

WordPress is an amazing CMS platform, but it can also be quite slow if not optimized correctly. In this guide, we will show you how to speed up WordPress by sharing our web performance strategies and recommendations.

Why Speed is Important for Your WordPress Site?

Studies show that from 2000 to 2016, the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 7 seconds.

What does this mean for you as a website owner?

You have very little time to show users your content and convince them to stay on your website.

A slow website means users will potentially leave your website before it even loads.

According to a StrangeLoop case study that involved Amazon, Google, and other larger sites, a 1 second delay in page load time can lead to 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

How To Speed Up WordPress

As a side note, these are not ordered by importance or any criteria, I’ve just gathered everything We’ve learned around how to speed up WordPress page loads and listed them all here.

Choose a good Webhost

When starting out, a shared host might seem like a bargain (“Unlimited page views!”). It comes at another cost: incredibly slow site speed and frequent down time during high traffic periods.

If you plan on publishing popular stuff, you’re killing yourself by running your WordPress site on shared hosting.

The stress of your site going down after getting a big feature is enough to create a few early gray hairs: don’t be a victim, invest in proper hosting.

Undocpy.com suggest WP engine Hosing 

follow the link for best Hosting plans:

WP engine Hosing 

Start with a solid framework/theme

You might be surprised to here this, but the Twenty Fifteen “framework” (aka the default WP theme) is lightweight and quite speedy.

That’s because they keep the “guts” simple; compare that to bloated frameworks which have tons of features that you will never use, slowing your site to a crawl.

Utilize Caching

Caching is another important factor when it comes to speeding up WordPress. Caching stores your pages and posts as static files which are then served to your visitors, reducing the processing load on your server.

You can utilize caching by using WordPress caching plugins, implementing browser caching, and server-side caching.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

All of your favorite big blogs are making use of this, and if you are into online marketing using WordPress (as I’m sure many of my readers are) you won’t be surprised to here that some of your favorite blogs like Copyblogger are making use of CDN’s.

Essentially, a CDN, or content delivery network, takes all your static files you’ve got on your site (CSS, Javascript and images etc) and lets visitors download them as fast as possible by serving the files on servers as close to them as possible.

Optimize images (automatically)

Yahoo! has an image optimizer called Smush.it that will drastically reduce the file size of an image, while not reducing quality.

However, if you are like me, doing this to every image would be beyond a pain, and incredibly time consuming.

Fortunately, there is an amazing, free plugin called WP-SmushIt which will do this process to all of your images automatically, as you are uploading them. No reason not to install this one.

Optimize your homepage to load quickly

This isn’t one thing but really a few easy things that you can do to ensure that your homepage loads quickly, which probably is the most important part of your site because people will be landing there the most often.

Things that you can do include:

Show excerpts instead of full posts

Reduce the number of posts on the page (between 5-7)

Remove unnecessary sharing widgets from the home page (include them only in posts)

Remove inactive plugins and widgets that you don’t need Keep in minimal! Readers are here for content, not 8,000 widgets on the homepage

Overall, a clean and focused homepage design will help your page not only look good, but load quicker as well.

Optimize your WordPress database

This plugin lets you do just one simple task: optimize the your database (spam, post revisions, drafts, tables, etc.) to reduce their overhead.

We would also recommend the WP-DB Manager plugin, which can schedule dates for database optimization.

Disable hotlinking and leeching of your content

Hotlinking is a form of bandwidth “theft.” It occurs when other sites direct link to the images on your site from their articles making your server load increasingly high.

This can add up as more and more people “scrape” your posts or your site (and especially images) become more popular, as must do if you create custom images for your site on a regular basis.

Place this code in your root .htaccess file:

disable hotlinking of images with forbidden or custom image option
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?sparringmind.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?google.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?feeds2.feedburner.com/sparringmind [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ – [NC,F,L]

Add an expires header to static resources

An Expires header is a way to specify a time far enough in the future so that the clients (browsers) don’t have to re-fetch any static content (such as css file, javascript, images etc).

This way can cut your load time significantly for your regular users.

You need to copy and paste the following code in your root .htaccess file:

ExpiresActive On

ExpiresByType image/gif A2592000

ExpiresByType image/png A2592000

ExpiresByType image/jpg A2592000

ExpiresByType image/jpeg A2592000

Adjust Gravatar images

You’ll notice on this site that the default Gravatar image is set to… well, nothing.

This is not an aesthetic choice, it because it improves page loads by simply having nothing where there would normally be a goofy looking Gravatar logo or some other nonsense.

Some blogs go as far to disable them throughout the site, and for everyone.

You can do either, just know that it will at least benefit your site speed if you set the default image (found in “Discussion”, under the settings tab in the WordPress dashboard) to a blank space rather than a default image.

Add LazyLoad to your images

LazyLoad is the process of having only only the images above the fold load (i.e. only the images visible in the visitor’s browser window), then, when reader scrolls down, the other images begin to load, just before they come into view.

This will not only speed you page loads, it can also save bandwidth by loading less data for users who don’t scroll all the way down on your pages.

To do this automatically, install the jQuery Image Lazy Load plugin.

Control the amount of post revisions stored

WordPress, left to its own devices, would store every single one of these drafts, indefinitely.

Now, when this post is done and published, why would I need all of those drafts stored?

That’s why use the Revision Control plugin to make sure we keep post revisions to a minimum, set it to 2 or 3 so you have something to fall back on in case you make a mistake, but not too high that you clutter your backend with unnecessary amounts of drafted posts.

Turn off pingbacks and trackbacks

By default, WordPress interacts with other blogs that are equipped with pingbacks and trackbacks.

Every time another blog mentions you, it notifies your site, which in turn updates data on the post. Turning this off will not destroy the backlinks to your site, just the setting that generates a lot of work for your site.

For more detail, read this explanation of WordPress Pingbacks, Trackbacks and Linkbacks.

Replace PHP with static HTML, when necessary

This one is a little bit advanced, but can drastically cut down your load time if you are desperate to include page load speeds, so I included it.

Use CloudFlare

This is similar to the section above on using CDN’s, but I’ve become so fond of CloudFlare since we discussed it in my best web analytics post that  decided to include it separately here.

To put it bluntly, CloudFlare, along with the W3 Total Cache plugin discussed above, are a really potent combination (they integrate with each other) that will greatly improve not only the speed, but the security of your site.

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Different Types of Hard Drive File system Format types.

There are multiple different types of file systems a hard drive or removable media can be formatted. But which format is the best choice to use? It depends on the situation.our Windows system partition must be NTFS. If you have a secondary drive alongside Windows and you plan on installing programs to it, you should probably go ahead and make it NTFS, too.

We will discuss some of the most popular formats out there..

NTFS – NTFS, short for WIndows NT File System, is a propitiatory file system created by Microsoft for its Windows line of opperating system. Initially created for Windows NT 3.1, it has been used for all of its NT line of opperating system; including, Windows NT 3.5, 3.51, 2000 and Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8 as well as Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, Home Server, Home Server 2011 and future desktop and server operating systems.

NTFS

NTFS is the modern file system Windows likes to use. When you install Windows, it formats your system drive with the NTFS file system. NTFS has file size and partition size limits that are so theoretically huge you won’t run up against them. NTFS first appeared in consumer versions of Windows with Windows XP.

Aside from these limitations, NTFS is packed with other modern features. It supports file permissions for security, a change journal that can help quickly recover errors if your computer crashes, shadow copies for backups, encryption, disk quota limits, hard links, and other various features. Many of these are crucial for an operating system drive — especially file permissions.

Your Windows system partition must be NTFS. If you have a secondary drive alongside Windows and you plan on installing programs to it, you should probably go ahead and make it NTFS, too.

However, NTFS just isn’t as compatible with other operating systems. It’ll work with all recent versions of Windows — all the way back to Windows XP — but it has limited compatibility with other operating systems. By default, Mac OS X can only read NTFS drives, not write to them. Some Linux distributions may enable NTFS-writing support, but some may be read-only. None of Sony’s PlayStation consoles support NTFS. Even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 can’t read NTFS drives, although the new Xbox One can. Other devices are even less likely to support NTFS.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default, and may be read-only by default with some Linux distributions. Other devices — with the exception of Microsoft’s Xbox One — probably won’t support NTFS.

Limits: No realistic file-size or partition size limits.

Ideal Use: Use it for your Windows system drive and other internal drives that will just be used with Windows.

As of right now, most Microsoft’s Windows operating systems support the file format (excluding DOS based operating systems like Windows 9x series). Additionally most Linux distributions support it provided by its NTFS-3G driver. Since Mac OS X 10.3, Mac machines are only able to read NTFS drives, though there are builds for the NTFS-3G driver through FUSE that allow the Mac operating system to read and write NTFS drives. People started to notice that Mac OS X 10.6 have the ability to write to NTFS drives, but was disabled since the feature was unstable and lead to kernel panics.

HFS / HFS+ – HFS is a file system created by Apple for use with floppy disks and hard disks on the earlier Mac operating system. Since then, it has been dropped from the Mac operating system starting with Mac OS X 10.6, and replaced with HFS +.

HFS + was introduced with the release of Mac OS 8.1 and has since been used as the main file system for the Mac operating system.

As of right now, HFS + has been able to be read and written in the Mac operating system since Mac OS 8.1. Additionally, Linux has the ability to read and write HFS + partitions up to 2TB; as drives greater than 2TB have been prone to corrupt the HFS + formatted drives in Linux; though attempts to fix it is in place. In Windows Apple has released a read only HFS + driver for Windows XP and higher; though freeware like HFSExplorer has been created to support reading of these formats of drives.

ext / ext2 / ext3 / ext4 – ext, short for extended file system, was created in 1992 as the first file system specifically for Linux. Since then it has been succeeded by ext 2, then ext 3, and ext 4.

exFAT

exFAT was introduced in 2006, and was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista.

It’s a file system optimized for flash drives. It’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without all NTFS’s extra features and overhead, but without FAT32’s limitations.

Like NTFS, exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits. This means you can store files that are larger than 4 GB apiece on a flash drive or SD card if it’s formatted with exFAT. exFAT is a strict upgrade over FAT32, and should be the best choice for external drives where you want a lightweight file system without FAT32’s file size limits.

exFAT is also more compatible than NTFS. While Mac OS X includes only read-only support for NTFS, Macs offer full read-write support for exFAT. exFAT drives can be accessed on Linux by installing the appropriate software.

While exFAT is compatible with Macs — and will be compatible with some devices that don’t support NTFS, like digital cameras — it still isn’t quite as compatible. Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 doesn’t support it, although the Xbox One does. The PlayStation 3 doesn’t support exFAT drives, although the PlayStation 4 reportedly does. Various other older devices may only support FAT32 instead of exFAT.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X, but requires additional software on Linux. More devices support exFAT than support NTFS, but some — particularly older ones — may only support FAT32.

Limits: No realistic file-size or partition-size limits.

Ideal Use: Use it for USB flash drives and other external drives, especially if you need files of over 4 GB in size. Assuming every device you want to use the drive with supports exFAT, you should format your device with exFAT instead of FAT32.

As of right now, the current file system for Linux, ext 4, only has support for Linux as there is little support for the ext formatted disk for non-Linux operating systems. Currently, ext4 formatted hard drives are not able to be fully read or written on Windows. Current Mac operating systems only allows reading of ext 4 drives.

FAT / FAT 16 / FAT 32  – FAT, short for File Allocation Table, is the most compatible format for storing data. Originally designed in 1970 for floppy drives, it has been used in hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, and  Microsoft DOS and Windows operating systems since Windows 1.0 to Windows ME .

FAT32

FAT32 is the oldest file system here. It was introduced all the way back in Windows 95 to replace the older FAT16 file system.

This file system’s age has advantages and disadvantages. Because it’s so old, it’s the de-facto standard. Flash drives you purchase will often come formatted with FAT32 for maximum compatibility across not just modern computers, but other devices like game consoles and anything with a USB port.

Limitations come with that age, however. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size — that’s the maximum. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which is less of a limitations — but still a noticeable one if you have a new, high-capacity mechanical drive.

While this file system is okay for USB flash drives and other external media, you won’t want to use this for an internal drive. It lacks the permissions and other security features built into the more modern NTFS file system. Modern versions of Windows can no longer be installed to FAT32, and must be installed onto drives formatted with NTFS.

Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, and practically anything with a USB port.

Limits: 4 GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size.

Ideal Use: Use it on removable drives for maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you don’t have any files 4 GB or larger in size.

Since then, FAT has gone through different variations with FAT 16 and FAT 32. Although it has some advantages, it has its disadvantages. FAT formatted drives do not have built-in mechanisms to prevent newly written files from becoming scattered across the partition; thus de-fragmentation are usually needed to keep the device organized. Additionally, a single file can be at most 4GB and drives can be at most 2TiB.

As of right now, FAT is compatible with almost all operating system and devices.

exFAT – exFAT is a propitiatory file system created by Microsoft for flash drives in situations where NTFS is not feasible due to its data structure overhead or file size limit of FAT 32. exFAT brings to max to 512 TiB, allowing files to be bigger than 4GB, and more features not in FAT formatted drives.  

It also increases the speed with which those files can be accessed. The exFAT file system not only facilitates large files for use of audiovisual media, it enables seamless data portability and an easy interchange between desktop PCs and a variety of electronic devices. A number of companies have integrated the file system into devices such as mobile phones, PCs, and cameras.

NTFS is ideal for internal drives, while exFAT is generally ideal for flash drives. However, you may sometimes need to format an external drive with FAT32 if exFAT isn’t supported on a device you need to use it with.

Right now, exFAT is compatible with Windows XP (with an update KB 955704) Windows Vista SP1, and higher as well as Mac OS X 10.6.5 and higher operating systems. Though exFAT is supported in Windows XP and higher as well as Mac OS X 10.6.5 and higher, other operating system as well as devices have little to no support for the file system.

RAID – RAID, short for redundant array of independent disks, is a category for storage drives, that allow two or more drives that can set fault tolerance (in case a drive fail) and/or performance. Although RAID is rarely used on personal computers, it is used in servers to store data in multiple places to improve performance and redundancy. Unlike other formats RAID requires either a software or a hardware to implement RAID.

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