Which is the biggest size of a FAT32 partition?

[Juan I. Cahis]

Dear friends:

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no
more. But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

Which one is right?


Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Dear friends:

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?

2 terabytes (2048GB).

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but
no
more.

Correct.


But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

You can also do it with a Windows 98 boot diskette and its FDISK.

Which one is right?

Both. Windows XP will not create a FAT32 partition lrger than
32GB, but it will happily use one if created externally.

Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to
improve it!

Your English is fine. I wish my Spanish were as good as your
English.

 

[John E. Carty]

In



2 terabytes (2048GB).

In theory, FAT32 volumes can be about 8 terabytes

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Fat32 partitions have been limited, by Microsoft, to 32GB max, with the
built-in utilities. Partition Magic allows you to "by-pass" this.

In



2 terabytes (2048GB).

In theory, FAT32 volumes can be about 8 terabytes

 

[Ron Martell]

Dear friends:

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no
more. But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

Which one is right?

Windows XP will not create or format FAT32 partitions larger than 32
gb, by design. The intent appears to be to force the use of NTFS on
these larger partitions, which is probably a good idea in most cases.

Windows XP will use (read from and write to) FAT32 partitions larger
than 32 gb with no problems, provided these are created and formatted
by some other means.

The largest practicable partition size for FAT32 is 128 gb (137
billion bytes) because most disk maintenance utilities (such as the
Windows 9x Scandisk and Defrag, and also Norton products) have
problems or will not work at all on FAT32 partitions larger than that
size.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Don MI]

Dear friends:

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no
more. But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

Which one is right?


Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

As others have explained, both are "right".

When you format a hard drive {either FAT32 or NTFS}, clusters are defined on
the hard drive. The way the file system works is that only one or a portion
of one file can be saved to each cluster. For example, if your cluster
size is 4 Kb a 1 Kb file can be saved to that cluster and the rest of the
cluster will be waste space that you cannot use. If you save a 6 Kb file,
two clusters will be used and the unused space in the second cluster will be
wasted.

In FAT32, the cluster size increases step wise with partition size. For
example at 16 Gb the cluster size changes. A partition of less that 16 Gb
will have a smaller cluster size than a partition of greater than 16 Gb.
Microsoft decided that with partitions sizes greater than 32 Gb the wasted
space on the hard drive would be excessive for most users. Hence the
Windows XP limit which you can by-pass with other format applications.

In NTFS, the cluster size is independent of the partition size. For
example, my 25 Gb and 110 Gb partitions both have 4 Kb clusters.

Don

 

[John E. Carty]

Dear friends:

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp


WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no
more. But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

Which one is right?


Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

As others have explained, both are "right".

When you format a hard drive {either FAT32 or NTFS}, clusters are defined
on the hard drive. The way the file system works is that only one or a
portion of one file can be saved to each cluster. For example, if your
cluster size is 4 Kb a 1 Kb file can be saved to that cluster and the rest
of the cluster will be waste space that you cannot use. If you save a 6
Kb file, two clusters will be used and the unused space in the second
cluster will be wasted.

In FAT32, the cluster size increases step wise with partition size. For
example at 16 Gb the cluster size changes. A partition of less that 16 Gb
will have a smaller cluster size than a partition of greater than 16 Gb.
Microsoft decided that with partitions sizes greater than 32 Gb the wasted
space on the hard drive would be excessive for most users. Hence the
Windows XP limit which you can by-pass with other format applications.

In NTFS, the cluster size is independent of the partition size. For
example, my 25 Gb and 110 Gb partitions both have 4 Kb clusters.

Don

 

[Plato]

Fat32 partitions have been limited, by Microsoft, to 32GB max, with the
built-in utilities. Partition Magic allows you to "by-pass" this.

so does the old fdisk, no need to buy anything new for large fat32
partitions.

 

[Plato]

The largest practicable partition size for FAT32 is 128 gb (137
billion bytes) because most disk maintenance utilities (such as the
Windows 9x Scandisk and Defrag, and also Norton products) have
problems or will not work at all on FAT32 partitions larger than that
size.

Right. Once you go over 4.1 million clusters the old utils balk.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Which is the biggest size for a FAT32 partition?

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no
more. But Partition Manager 8.1, it allows me to format a larger one.

Which one is right?

In a sense both. The theoretical limit is quite high, but MSoft
considers it a bad idea above 32 GB, so XP is restricted to that (it
would certainly be a very bad idea for the partition where XP is
installed). However it will *use* partitions that are bigger if made by
another method like PM

 

[Plato]

In a sense both. The theoretical limit is quite high, but MSoft
considers it a bad idea above 32 GB, so XP is restricted to that (it
would certainly be a very bad idea for the partition where XP is
installed). However it will *use* partitions that are bigger if made by
another method like PM

or win98 dos's fdisk

 

[Al Smith]

WinXP format utility allows me to format a 32GB partition, but no

In a sense both. The theoretical limit is quite high, but MSoft
considers it a bad idea above 32 GB, so XP is restricted to that (it
would certainly be a very bad idea for the partition where XP is
installed). However it will *use* partitions that are bigger if made by
another method like PM

Bad idea? So why is it a bad idea to make an FAT32 partition
larger than 32 gigs? See, I'd assume it was a good idea,
especially if I wanted a larger partition.

 

[Ron Martell]

Fat32 partitions have been limited, by Microsoft, to 32GB max, with the
built-in utilities. Partition Magic allows you to "by-pass" this.

That is incorrect. Hard drive partitions up to 128 gb are perfectly
okay with Windows 98, 98SE and ME.

Windows 95B and 95C have the 32 gb limitation.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Ron Martell]

Bad idea? So why is it a bad idea to make an FAT32 partition
larger than 32 gigs? See, I'd assume it was a good idea,
especially if I wanted a larger partition.

Bad idea in the Windows XP context because NTFS is a more robust and
more efficient files system for large partitions.

More efficient in two ways:

- smaller cluster size, meaning less "slack" space is wasted per file.
- handles larger files. Many people want large hard drives to store
video etc. FAT32 has an absolute maximum size limit of just under 4
gb, NTFS does not.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Alex Nichol]

Bad idea? So why is it a bad idea to make an FAT32 partition
larger than 32 gigs? See, I'd assume it was a good idea,
especially if I wanted a larger partition.

The cluster size used by FAT goes up by yet another factor of 2 at 32 GB
to 32 K (and to 64 K at 64 GB) and is getting absurdly wasteful for
small files. Use NTFS and it has a 4K cluster until much larger sizes.

 

[Lil' Dave]

That is incorrect. Hard drive partitions up to 128 gb are perfectly
okay with Windows 98, 98SE and ME.

Windows 95B and 95C have the 32 gb limitation.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

Yep, but XP can only CREATE 32GB partitions maximum size. That was probably
intent of the snipped post you replied to. XP can work and operate with
most any partition size FAT32 formatted if SP1 is installed.