The FAT (File Allocation Table) file system has been a staple in computing since its initial release in 1977. Over the years, Microsoft made significant updates, introducing FAT16 and later FAT32 with the launch of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.
The introduction of FAT32 aimed to support larger files, up to 4 GB, while maintaining efficiency with cluster sizes as large as 64 KB. For example, a text file with the content “Hello, world” would still occupy 64 KB of space due to the minimum allocation size.
Dave Plummer, the Microsoft engineer who developed FAT32, initially set a maximum cluster size of 32 KB, effectively capping the drive format limit at 32 GB with a 16 KB cluster size. However, storage needs and technology have evolved significantly since then, and such limitations are now considered outdated.
Windows 11 will allow formatting FAT32 drives up to 2 TB
It’s been nearly 30 years since the FAT32 file system was introduced with a formatting limitation of 32 GB, a constraint that now seems entirely outdated given the advancements in storage technology. Today, we have microSD cards with capacities reaching 1 TB, making the original FAT32 limitations impractical for modern needs.
While third-party tools have long allowed formatting FAT32 partitions with cluster sizes up to 64KB and maximum partition sizes up to 2TB, Microsoft had not officially addressed this limitation until recently. When Dave Plummer, the engineer behind FAT32, developed the partition formatting tool, the largest drive he had access to was only 16MB, and the idea of terabyte-sized drives was almost unimaginable.
In Windows 11 Build 27686, Microsoft has finally addressed this issue, enabling the formatting of FAT32 partitions with capacities up to 2TB. Currently, this option is only available through the command line, but there’s potential that it could be integrated into the graphical user interface for easier access in the future. This update marks a significant step in making the FAT32 file system more compatible with today’s storage requirements.
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