Format exFAT to FAT32 with a Free Drive Formatting Utility. Warning: Formatting will remove. There are third party tools that can create larger Fat32 partitions, most operating systems support partitions up to 2TB. ExFAT - Microsoft proprietary extension to FAT32 designed for flash drives, allows for files larger than 4GB, and much larger partition size than FAT32. Theoretically it has smaller footprint than NTFS, no journaling (can unplug device without losing data), and it can be read on OS X 10.6.5 (NTFS is read-only unless you modify the fstab). Aug 19, 2020 exFAT is optimized specifically for flash-based disks, and is becoming the standard default file system format for memory cards over 32GB. It also supports individual file sizes well in excess of the 4GB FAT32 limitation.
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- Fat32 Or Exfat For Flash Drive Windows 10
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Feb 04, 2019 Fat32 is commonly found in flash drives and hard drives so it is easy to obtain. Most of the flash drives you will find on the market are Fat32. This is excellent for the summer as you don't really have to worry about proprietary technology on MacOS, or windows preventing you from using the drive wherever you want. Pros – Behaves as a fusion between FAT32 and NTFS by providing practically unlimited file size and partition size. Cons – Microsoft restricts its usage by license obligations. Usage – Use with external hard drives or flash drives if you want to transfer files larger than 4 GB. Always prefer exFAT over FAT32, if the operating system.
You format an internal hard drive, external drive, USB Pen drive or SD card, Windows will give you the choice of FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. The Format dialog box in Windows does not explain the difference, then we will.
FAT32 is an older file system that is largely relegated to USB flash drives and other external drives. Windows NTFS uses for its system drive, and it is also ideal for other internal hard drives. exFAT is a modern replacement for FAT32, and more devices that do support NTFS – although it is not as widespread as FAT32.
See also: How To Protect USB Pen drive With Password.
FAT32
FAT32 is the oldest file system here. It was introduced all the way back in Windows 95 to replace the FAT16 file more.
The age of this system has advantages and disadvantages files. Because it is so old, it is the de facto standard. Flash drives you buy are often formatted as FAT32 for maximum compatibility between not only modern computers, but other devices such as game consoles and all with a USB port.
Limitations come with age, however. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can not be over 4GB in size – which is the maximum. A FAT32 partition must be less than 8 TB, which is fewer limitations – but still significant if you have a new, high-capacity mechanical drive.
Although this file system is correct for USB flash drives and other external media, you will not want to use an internal drive. It does not have permissions and other security features built into the system more modern NTFS files. Modern versions of Windows can not be installed to FAT32, and must be installed on NTFS formatted drives.
Limitations: 4GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, gaming consoles, and practically anything with a USB port.
Ideal use: Use it on removable drives for maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you do not have files of 4GB or larger.
See also: How to Check Your Motherboard Model Number on Your Windows PC.
NTFS
NTFS is the modern Windows file system likes to use. When you install Windows, it formats your drive system with the NTFS file system. NTFS is a file size and partition size limits that are so huge that theoretically you do not run against them. NTFS first appearance in the consumer versions of Windows with Windows XP.
Outside these limits, NTFS is packed with other modern amenities. It supports the file permissions for security, a journal of changes that can help recover errors quickly if your computer crashes, shadow copies for backups, encryption, disk quota limits, links hard, and various other features. Many of them are crucial to an operating system drive – especially the file permissions.
Your Windows system partition must be NTFS. If you have a secondary drive alongside Windows and plan to install programs on it, you should probably go ahead and make NTFS, too.
However, NTFS is simply not compatible with other operating systems. It will 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 read NTFS drives, not written for them. Some Linux distributions can help support NTFS-write, but some are read only. None of Sony PlayStation consoles supports NTFS. Even the Xbox 360 from Microsoft can not read NTFS drives, though the new Xbox can. Other devices are still less likely to support NTFS.
Limitations: No file size or partition size realistic limits.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, but Mac read only by default, and can be read only by default with some Linux distributions. Other devices – except for the Microsoft Xbox One – probably will not support NTFS.
Ideal use: Use it to your Windows system drive and other internal units that will just be used with Windows.
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See also: How To Use Pen Drive as Ram In Windows
exFAT
exFAT was introduced in 2006 and was added to the older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista.
It is an optimized file system for flash drives. It is designed to be a system of light as FAT32 file without any additional features NTFS and overhead, but without the limitations of FAT32.
As NTFS, exFAT has very large file size and partition size limitations. This means you can store files that are larger than 4 GB each to a flash drive or SD card if formatted with exFAT. exFAT is a strict upgrade on FAT32, and should be the best choice for external drives when you want a light FAT32 file system without file size limits.
exFAT is also more compatible than NTFS. While Mac OS X includes only read-only support for NTFS, Mac provide full read-write support for exFAT. exFAT drives can be found on Linux by installing the appropriate software.
Although exFAT is compatible with the Mac – and will be compatible with some devices that do not support NTFS, such as digital cameras – it is still not entirely compatible. own Microsoft Xbox 360 does not support it, although the Xbox One does. The PlayStation 3 does not support exFAT disk, although the PlayStation 4 would. Various other older devices can not support FAT32 instead of exFAT.
Limitations: No file size or partition size realistic limits.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X, but requires additional software on Linux. More exFAT support devices that support NTFS, but some – especially older – can not support FAT32.
Ideal use: Use it to USB flash drives and other external drives, especially if you need the files of over 4 GB in size. Assuming that all the devices you want to use the drive with exFAT support, you must format your device with exFAT instead of FAT32.
See also: Does using Pen Drive as RAM really increases your Computer speed ?
Need more information about the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS? NTFS.com shared information table here.
NTFS is ideal for internal drives, whereas exFAT is usually ideal for flash drives. However, sometimes you may need to format an external hard drive with FAT32 if exFAT is not supported on a device you need to use it with.
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Fat32 Or Exfat For Flash Drives
If you need to format a USB flash drive, HDD, SDD, or some other form of storage to FAT32, you've come to the right place.
In this article we'll go over what a file system is, the FAT32 standard, and several ways to format a storage device to FAT32 on Windows 10.
What's a file system?
A file system is a standardized way of organizing data on a computer storage device like a flash drive or HDD.
A file system divides a storage device into virtual compartments, almost like a wall of post office boxes, and keeps track of all the information that gets stored in each box.
Some of the most common file system formats for portable storage devices are FAT32, NTFS, and ExFAT.
FAT32 compared to other formats
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Of those three common formats, FAT32 is the oldest and most widely supported. Every major operating system will allow you to read and write from a USB flash drive that's formatted to FAT32.
Meanwhile, macOS can only read NTFS drives, and you would need to install third-party software to write back to the drive.
However, though FAT32 is well supported, its maximum drive and file size is severely limited when compared to newer formats like NTFS and ExFAT:
Max drive size | Max file size | Windows | macOS | Linux | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FAT32 | 32 GB (Windows), up to 16TB (Other OSs) | 4 GB | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
NTFS | 8 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read | Read/Write |
ExFAT | 128 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
* 1 petabyte is about 1 thousand terabytes
** 1 exabyte is about 1 million terabytes
Note that the maximum drive and file size of NTFS and ExFAT is so large that there's basically no limit. (But it would be nice to have a 128 PB USB drive, wouldn't it?)
On the other hand, FAT32's max file size of 4 GB is almost nothing now that phones can record 4K videos. Also, it's a little more difficult to format a drive larger than 32 GB to FAT32 on Windows 10.
These days, the only reason why you'd choose to format a drive to FAT32 is for compatibility. For example, if you need to boot up an old computer, maybe with a different operating system, and backup some of its files. But you'd need to be sure that none of those files are greater than 4 GB.
If you're sure you want to go with FAT32, here's how to format a storage drive on Windows 10. Adobe do pdf.
Important note: Before you format a drive, make sure that you backup all of your important files. In fact, make two backups, and keep one on a remote service like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Formatting a drive will delete all of the data that's currently on it.
How to use Windows File Explorer to format a USB drive to FAT32
A quick note about this method: it only works on USB flash drives that are less that 32 GB. If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, check out one of the later methods.
With that out of the way, plug your USB drive into your computer and open Windows File Explorer.
Next, right-click on the drive on the left hand side of the File Explorer window and click 'Format':
In the window that pops up, ensure that 'FAT32' is selected. Also, feel free to rename the USB drive whatever you'd like:
You can leave the rest of the options alone. Just click start to format your drive.
Once it's done, your USB drive should be formatted to use the FAT32 file system.
To double check this, open File Explorer, right click on your USB drive, and click 'Properties'.
A window will pop up and you should see that the file system is now FAT32:
How to use Rufus to format a USB drive to FAT32
If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, you'll need to use a third-party program like Rufus to format it.
There are lots of other programs that can format USB drives, but Rufus is really small and portable. This means you can stick Rufus right on a USB drive, plug it into any Windows computer, and format other drives on the go.
After you download Rufus, double click on the .exe
file to start the application.
Make sure your USB drive is selected. Then, click the 'Boot selection' dropdown and select 'Non bootable':
Next, click the 'File system' dropdown and select 'FAT32'.
Also, feel free to change the name of your USB drive under 'Volume label':
Then, click the 'Start' button to format your drive. After a few seconds it'll be formatted to FAT32.
How to use PowerShell to format a USB drive to FAT32
While this method works with drives larger than 32 GB, it's really slow – even formatting a 32 GB drive can take up to an hour depending on your computer.
But, if you aren't able to use the previous two methods for some reason, this will work in a pinch.
First, click on the Windows Search Bar and type in 'powershell'. Then, click 'Run as administrator' to launch PowerShell with elevated privileges:
In the PowerShell terminal, enter the following command:
format /FS:FAT32 DRIVE_LETTER:
Fat32 Or Exfat For Flash Drive Windows 10
Use the File Explorer to double check your drive letter. My drive letter was D, so I entered format /FS:FAT32 D:
.
Press Enter, make sure your USB drive is plugged in, and press the Enter key again to start the process:
Then go run some errands or something – it will take awhile.
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Once the format
command is finished, your drive should be formatted to FAT32.
In closing
Now you should be able to format a USB drive of any size to FAT32 on Windows 10. And with just a little modification, any of these methods can be used to format your drive to another file system like NTFS or ExFAT.
Now get out there and format all your USB drives. (But only after you backup everything important!)
Was this helpful? Is there a better method that you know of? Tweet at me and let me know how you format things on Windows 10.