Windows XP and 64GB flash drives

[Daniel Prince]

Someone told me that Windows XP will not work with 64GB flash
drives. Is that true? Thank you in advance for all replies.

 

[R.Wieser]

Daniel,

The problem seems to lie in the fact that XP cannot *format* a drive larger
than 32 GB.

Funnily enough w98 had no problems with that, but that one FDISK could not
handle such a large storage ...

See what MS says about it here :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q314463&

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:

 

[Arno]

If it is not pre-formatted, you can either paritition the
64GB drive or format it with something else, e.g. a Linux
life-CD. While XP cannot format larger than 32GB it has
no trouble using them when formatted.

Chances are that a new 65GB flash drive is formatted
with VFAT and works with XP.

Arno

Daniel,

The problem seems to lie in the fact that XP cannot *format* a drive larger
than 32 GB.

Funnily enough w98 had no problems with that, but that one FDISK could not
handle such a large storage ...

 

[GMAN]

Daniel,

The problem seems to lie in the fact that XP cannot *format* a drive larger
than 32 GB.

Not true, it just cannot format (Without a third party app) using FAT32. I
have formatted a 64GB flash drive repeatedly on Windows XP Pro SP3 both with
NTFS or using a 3rd party app in FAT32 for use in an old media player.

 

[R.Wieser]

GMAN,

My apologies, I should have been more clear in the specifics of it.

Luckily I provided a link to an MS webpage with all the details ....

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:

 

[Joseph Terner]

Someone told me that Windows XP will not work with 64GB flash drives.
Is that true? Thank you in advance for all replies.

It works after installing the Exfat IFS driver (KB955704) via Windows
Update.

Joseph

 

[R.Wieser]

Joseph,

From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of file
systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....

Also read other posts here: Although XP cannot format drives larger than 32
GB with FAT32 there are other programs (including w98's FORMAT) which does
not have that limitation.

Regards
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:

 

[R.Wieser]

Vanguard,

The format command in Windows XP won't *create*
a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in size;

FORMAT does not *create* such a partition, FDISK(/the equivalent on XP)
does.

that doesn't preclude you from using 3rd party partition
managers to enlarge that partition to encompass the rest
of the available free space on the device

The other way around I'm afraid. Parititioning on an XP machine will
succeede, its the formatting that needs to be done either by a third-party
program or somewhere else.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:

 

[GMAN]

GMAN,

My apologies, I should have been more clear in the specifics of it.

Luckily I provided a link to an MS webpage with all the details ....

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

Hey, no need to appologise, we are all here to put our 2 cents in and help
eachother.

 

[GMAN]

That's a limitation of formatting using FAT32 on the flash drive. The
format command in Windows XP won't *create* a FAT32 partition larger
than 32GB in size; however, that doesn't preclude you from using 3rd
party partition managers to enlarge that partition to encompass the rest
of the available free space on the device. Even if you create and then
enlarge a FAT32 partition, you will still have the limit of 4GB for the
maximum size of a file.

If you convert to NTFS then there is no such limit. If you format as an
NTFS partition on the flash drive, there isn't the 32GB limitation.
Under NTFS, you also won't incur the 4GB maximum size for a file.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/format-usb-drive/

Exactly, so basically if you are going to use that flash drive on any system
Xp or newer, you might as well format it NTFS

 

[Joseph Terner]

From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of
file systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....

For specific flash media like SDXC you need that patch anyway.

Also read other posts here: Although XP cannot format drives larger than
32 GB with FAT32 there are other programs (including w98's FORMAT) which
does not have that limitation.

Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program and it cannot format flash
drives, because Microsoft DOS doesn't support them.

So digging out tools from the stone age doesn't help. But of course there
are mkdosfs and others.

Joseph

 

[R.Wieser]

Hello Joseph,

Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program
and it cannot format flash drives, because Microsoft
DOS doesn't support them.

Simple solution: don't boot into DOS.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional mesage:

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program and it cannot format flash
drives, because Microsoft DOS doesn't support them.

I use Win98Se, and it FDISKs and FORMATs USB drives just fine. In fact
I set up a 320GB USB HDD using Win98SE. And, BTW, DOS drivers for USB
storage devices do exist. I use them.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[VanguardLH]

Vanguard,


FORMAT does not *create* such a partition, FDISK(/the equivalent on
XP) does.

Yep, you're right. It's the FDISK command that creates partitions. It
is the FORMAT command (that you use to layout a particular file system
within a partition), as you noted via the MS KB article, that won't
structure a partition larger than 32GB.

 

[VanguardLH]

Joseph Terner ...

From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of file
systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfat#Disadvantages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfat#Support_on_other_platforms

The OP is asking about removable storage media. exFAT is usable only if
using the flash drive on other Windows or mobile hosts where exFAT is
supported or support has been added. Good luck with that.