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FAT32 and exFAT, which file timestamps are supported?
Laradu9sna7al's user avatar
 Laradu9sna7al
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Asked 4 years, 4 months ago
5

Edit summary: "the entry of last access time cannot be written, or be changed" is a false statement given that the timestamp indeed changes when the file is accessed as its name implies, and it is possible manually using time -a -t [timestamp]. Anyone on Linux can test it or read it in the manual page.

Yes, if the file system is FAT32, the entry ofThe last access time cannot be written, or be changeddoes exist on FAT.

The specifications of the Compared to FAT, exFAT file system includeimproved its granularity:

Timestamp granularity of 10 ms for Create and Modified times (down from 2 s of FAT, but not as fine as NTFS's 100 ns).

Timestamp granularity for Last Access time to double seconds (FAT had date only).

Timestamps come with a time zone marker in offset relative to UTC (starting with Vista SP2)

Yes, if the file system is FAT32, the entry of last access time cannot be written, or be changed.

The specifications of the exFAT file system include:

Timestamp granularity of 10 ms for Create and Modified times (down from 2 s of FAT, but not as fine as NTFS's 100 ns)

Timestamp granularity for Last Access time to double seconds (FAT had date only).

Timestamps come with a time zone marker in offset relative to UTC (starting with Vista SP2)

The last access time does exist on FAT. Compared to FAT, exFAT improved its granularity:

Timestamp granularity of 10 ms for Create and Modified times (down from 2 s of FAT, but not as fine as NTFS's 100 ns).

Timestamp granularity for Last Access time to double seconds (FAT had date only).

Timestamps come with a time zone marker in offset relative to UTC (starting with Vista SP2)

Yes, if the file system is FAT32, the entry of last access time cannot be written, or be changed. The specifications of the exFAT file system include:
The last access time does exist on FAT. Compared to FAT, exFAT improved its granularity:
Timestamp granularity of 10 ms for Create and Modified times (down from 2 s of FAT, but not as fine as NTFS's 100 ns)
Timestamp granularity of 10 ms for Create and Modified times (down from 2 s of FAT, but not as fine as NTFS's 100 ns).
Timestamp granularity for Last Access time to double seconds (FAT had date only). Timestamp granularity for Last Access time to double seconds (FAT had date only).
Timestamps come with a time zone marker in offset relative to UTC (starting with Vista SP2)
Timestamps come with a time zone marker in offset relative to UTC (starting with Vista SP2)
Proposed 2 mins ago by an anonymous user
2
  • Thanks for the answer. Do you also know about change time, so in NTFS is change time -> MFT Entry modified. Is it also supported in FAT32 and exFAT or is there not? Other question do you know if there is file manager (GUI) on Windows 10 (20H2) where I can see all 4 timestamps regardless if the file system stores the timestamps or not?
    – Laradu9sna7al
    Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 13:06
  • Such attribute should exist for NTFS, and fsutil should be able to display it. But it simply isn't there on FAT file systems, that are all more or less "architecturally" identical (you can also see how i_ctime=i_mtime in the Linux's driver source code).
    – mirh
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 19:37
2

is it true that the FAT32 only supports these file timestamps?

  • Creation time (birth time)

  • Modified time

  • Change time

  • Access time does not exist on FAT32.

With exFAT all 4 timestamps are supported:

  • Creation time (birth time)
  • Modified time
  • Change time
  • Access time

It would be good to know how the behavior is on current Windows 10 (20H2) and it has been tested in real.

CC BY-SA 4.0
1
  • 1
    No FAT* file system supports change time (and in fact, even for NTFS that does, Microsoft isn't officially acknowledging it).. Anyhow you should note that once upon a time Linux used to set those fields with an entirely different/wrong meaning in vfat, and even across different Windows versions there are some quirks.
    – mirh
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 21:24