But to utilize storage space, Microsoft manually limits the max FAT32 size to 32 GB. Therefore, the real size limit of FAT32 should be 2TB or 16TB. Nowadays, most hard drives are 512-byte sector or 4 KB sector drives. On a hard drive with 4 KB sectors and 64 KB clusters, the real size limit is 16 TB. On a hard drive with 2 KB sectors and 32 KB clusters, the real size limit is 8 TB. On a hard drive with 512-byte sectors, the real size limit of FAT32 is 2TB. Actually, the reason why you can't format to FAT32 is that the FAT32 file system has size limit (32 GB), which is set by Microsoft manually. If they format the drive in Windows, the system will not display the FAT32 option. Nowadays, they want to extend the storage but they find that the system can't format the drive to FAT32. Some people may have old devices (such as PSP, XBOX360, some TVs and some XP machines without exFAT patch) that only support FAT32 file system.
#FAT32 FORMATTER PORTABLE#
It is widely supported by many portable and embedded devices. Released in 1977 by Microsoft, FAT32 is the most common version of the FAT file system and has great compatibility. My only options are exFAT (default) and NTFS. When I try to format the new drive, it doesn't have a FAT32 option.
#FAT32 FORMATTER HOW TO#
How to Fix the FAT32 Not an Option IssueįAT32 Not an Option Windows 10 I just finished adding OTG support to my PSC with a 4 GB 2.0 USB drive and now I'm getting ready to format my new 128 GB 3.1 USB drive and add AutoBleem/games to the drive.Why does the " FAT32 not an option" issue occur and how to solve this issue? In this post, MiniTool will give you answers. You will be back at the standard command prompt.Do you want to format a drive to FAT32? In some cases, the Windows may not offer FAT32 format option and you can't format to FAT32. (you might have to approve this operation as anĪdministrator). Then click the entry for the cmd program. Manually forcing Windows to format as FAT32 The disks and partitions on your machine, so be sure to choose theĬorrect one. Several utilities exist to perform this operation one is Partition Manager from utility is fairly simple to use however, it does show you all Typically show the drive size use that information to identify theĬorrect disk. Possibility of recovering the data on that disk. If you format the wrong disk, there is very little Used to seeing, and typically do not display identifiers like the "C:" Information this can cause the new boot record not to work correctly.ĭisk format utilities work on a level lower than you may be typically Longer, but quick format does not reliably remove some of the previous The standard format can take significantly
Use a third-party FAT32 format utility, or manually force Windows toįormat your drive as FAT32 from the command line using Therefore, to format a drive in FAT32 format, you will have to either
Windows can format a disk larger than 32 GB as FAT32. While Windows Vista does have a FAT32 option, no version of NTFS and exFAT file system options, but these are not as
#FAT32 FORMATTER WINDOWS 7#
Windows 7 does not have a native option for formatting aĭrive in FAT32 format through the GUI it does have the Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable. This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University.