how do i format a usb drive to fat32 in windows 10

If the file is 100 KB, it will use up 4 clusters. In general, a file can occupy multiple clusters, but a cluster can't be occupied by more than one file.įor example, if the cluster size is 32 KB, a file will be written into drive in the unit of 32 KB. The process of writing data will consume clusters. The cluster is the unit for the PC to read and write the file. When you create a 32 GB FAT32 partition (32768 MB) on a 512-byte sector drive (I use Windows 10 system), the default cluster size is 32 KB, which is much larger than 4 KB, the default cluster size of NTFS file system.Ī partition is composed of many clusters.

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. 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. 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. 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.

How do i format a usb drive to fat32 in windows 10