Why can't i format my USB stick to FAT32 ??

[Simone_ltt]

Why can't i format my SONY USB 3.0  stick to FAT32 ??

[Velcade]

She's too big

[minibois]

In my experience, Windows often can't format to FAT32.

You can use a program like GUIFormat to format to FAT32.

[bmx6454]

you can use cmd or powershell as well to format larger than 32gb.

[Simone_ltt]

Just now, minibois said:

In my experience, Windows often can't format to FAT32.

You can use a program like GUIFormat to format to FAT32.

i have a 2 drives(usb sticks) connected  one HP USB 2.0 one SONY USB 3.0
Hp i am able to format it to FAT32 where as SONY now able to

 

[Simone_ltt]

2 minutes ago, Velcade said:

She's too big

I didn't catch that not a kind of a PC guy !

 

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, Velcade said:

She's too big

FAT32 supports up to 2TB, with files up to (just under) 4GB.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/154997/description-of-the-fat32-file-system

 

Proof 64GB FAT32 works:

1 minute ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

i have a 2 drives(usb sticks) connected  one HP USB 2.0 one SONY USB 3.0
Hp i am able to format it to FAT32 where as SONY now able to

Try GUIFormat, as I mentioned in my previous post.

[Jumballi]

1 minute ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

I didn't catch that not a kind of a PC guy !

 

fat32 is limited to 32GB, either you need to make a partition that's small enough and deallocate the remaining space, or use a free program that does it for you.

[Velcade]

1 minute ago, minibois said:

FAT32 supports up to 2TB, with files up to (just under) 4GB.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/154997/description-of-the-fat32-file-system

 

Proof 64GB FAT32 works:

Try GUIFormat, as I mentioned in my previous post.

His drive is too large for the regular Windows format tool, not for FAT32 itself.

[Jumballi]

1 minute ago, minibois said:

FAT32 supports up to 2TB, with files up to (just under) 4GB.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/154997/description-of-the-fat32-file-system

 

Proof 64GB FAT32 works:

Try GUIFormat, as I mentioned in my previous post.

The 2TB is a windows hack to get around the 32GB limit.

[Moonzy]

Just now, Jumballi said:

fat32 is limited to 32GB

is it?

doesnt RED mags use FAT32 and they're like 1TB each?

[Jumballi]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

is it?

doesnt RED mags use FAT32 and they're like 1TB each?

it's the partition size limit, you can just keep making more partitions and tell the software to just treat it like one big partition, but that has to be implemented in the software. IIRC that's why you also have to use RED's proprietary video software or else when you take the video off of it without it, it just reads it as multiple 32gb video files.

[minibois]

3 minutes ago, Velcade said:

His drive is too large for the regular Windows format tool, not for FAT32 itself.

Ah alright, thought you said FAT32 doesn't at all support it, my bad!

[mariushm]

Windows restricts FAT32 to maximum 32 GB, so if your stick is bigger than that, it hides the option and leaves just ntfs and exFat

 

You could go in computer management > disk management and create two partitions on the usb stick, with one smaller than 32 GB, and format that as FAT32.

 

Or, you could use the command line format tool  ... start , cmd  , format /?

something like format x:   /FS:FAT32 /Q /X 

(format x: as fat32, be quick about it, dismout drive letter if needed)

 

You can specify sector size with the /A: command, but 512 is standard. Windows should work with various sizes but your stick may not be read in some devices (ex dvd players or mp3 players or whatever) if the sector size is different than 512.

At 32 GB, the default cluster size (group of sectors) is 32 KB, meaning 64 x 512 bytes in a cluster.

As long as you keep the number of clusters within the limitations - 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918 -  it's a valid fat32 drive.

So in your case, 32 GB is 32 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes   / 32 x 1024  (bytes per cluster) = 1024x1024 = ~ 1 million , which is above 65526 and less than 4 mil, so you're fine. 

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/L] [/A:size] [/C] [/X] [/P:passes] [/S:state]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/Q]

  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  /FS:filesystem  Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS,
                  or UDF).
  /V:label        Specifies the volume label.
  /Q              Performs a quick format. Note that this switch overrides /P.
  /C              NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed
                  by default.
  /X              Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.  All opened
                  handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
  /R:revision     UDF only: Forces the format to a specific UDF version
                  (1.02, 1.50, 2.00, 2.01, 2.50).  The default
                  revision is 2.01.
  /D              UDF 2.50 only: Metadata will be duplicated.
  /L              NTFS Only: Use large size file records.
                  By default, the volume will be formatted with small size
                  file records.
  /A:size         Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
                  are strongly recommended for general use.
                  NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
                  FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
                  FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
                  exFAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  128K, 256K, 512K, 1M, 2M, 4M, 8M, 16M, 32M.

                  Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
                  following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume:

                  FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
                  FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918

                  Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
                  the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
                  cluster size.

                  NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes
                  above 4096.

  /F:size         Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
  /T:tracks       Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
  /N:sectors      Specifies the number of sectors per track.
  /P:passes       Zero every sector on the volume passes times. This switch is
                  not valid with /Q
  /S:state        Where "state" is either "enable" or "disable"
                  Short names are enabled by default

 

[Jumballi]

8 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

is it?

doesnt RED mags use FAT32 and they're like 1TB each?

found the clip that explains how RED does it, starts at 10m29s

[whm1974]

It is a limitation of Modern Windows Versions. Older versions of Windows such as XP didn't have this restriction.

 

I had HDD larger then 32GB before with FAT32.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Storage Devices