TrueCrypt: NTFS or FAT?

Solution 1:

NTFS is more robust as filesystems go, but isn't supported as well on non-Windows operating systems. If the volume you want to create will be on portable media and used on a number of different machines, FAT32 overall will be easier to manage. It mainly comes down to a question of convenience.

Solution 2:

If you are only going to use the partition under Windows, NTFS would be my choice.

• One drawback is using FAT limits the file size although TrueCrypt seems able to use exFAT with larger files, but this may be OS-dependent. This could be relevant if you use big data on the drive (e.g. SqlServer).
• Another consequence of a (TrueCrypt) FAT volume, is that symbolic links to a TrueCypt-FAT-partition from an NTFS-partition, will show a lock icon in Windows 7. This indicates the FAT-folder does not inherit permissions from the parent folder. I assume the icon is limited to Windows 7, but the permissions-issue is not.

If you are going to use the partition on a read-only medium (CD, DVD), and one should be able to read it with Windows 2000, then FAT should be your choice:

• VeraCrypt FAQ mentions “Windows 2000 cannot mount an NTFS file system on read-only media”. (Considering TrueCrypt’s detailed documentation, I assume this only applies to Windows 2000.)