windows 8 format hard drive fat32

COKEDUDE

Member
Messages
53
Does Windows 8 no longer give you the option to format your hard drive to fat32? I only see exfat and ntfs.

I tried computer, right click drive, format, only saw exfat and ntfs.

I tried windows + r, diskmgmt.msc, right click drive, format, only saw exfat and ntfs.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
The maximum size Windows can format a drive to fat32 is 32GB. If the drive is larger than 32GB, you can use a free partitioning tool like MiniTool Partition Wizard free.
With a drive formatted to fat32, you can not store files larger than 4GB. The fat32 file system does not support it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
For FAT32 formatting I thought the maximum HDD size was over 2TB (using 512 byte sectors) and over 16TB (using 4096 byte sectors)? If you look at the "Allocation Unit Size" options and choose a smaller value (512 bytes) then maybe the FAT32 option may become available for selection. I agree with the 4GB max file size though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
For FAT32 formatting I thought the maximum HDD size was over 2TB (using 512 byte sectors) and over 16TB (using 4096 byte sectors)? If you look at the "Allocation Unit Size" options and choose a smaller value (512 bytes) then maybe the FAT32 option may become available for selection. I agree with the 4GB max file size though.

All that may be true but the OP was asking about Windows. It does not support formatting anything larger than 32GB. That’s why I suggested MiniTool Partition Wizard.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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