Need to format a 32GB USB flash drive as FAT32 but Windows won’t let you? No problem, here is a free and safe utility that you can use to format your thumbdrive: ( website) More details and background: Recently I needed to format a 64GB USB flash drive as FAT32. This was for use in a Chevrolet vehicle that requires FAT32 and 32K cluster sizes in order to read from high capacity USB flash drive.
I ordered a snazzy flash drive from Amazon, prepared to format it in Windows 8.1 and discovered that Windows would not format a drive larger than 32GB as FAT32 ? This issue will likely occur on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Thankfully, there was an easy fix: #1 Download #2 Extract the downloaded ZIP file in a directory of your choice (C: Users User Documents X fat32format in my example below) #3 Open a command prompt and run the fat32format command, with the drive letter you want to format as the parameter. Here is a transcript of my command prompt session where I formatted my drive: Microsoft Windows Version 6.3.9600 (c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C: Users Usercd C: Users User Documents X fat32format C: Users User Documents X fat32formatdir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 70CE-03EB Directory of C: Users User Documents X fat32format 12:10 AM. Hi GPO, Thank you for your comment ? FAT32 definitely gets the job done for basic tasks and I use it regularly for flash drives.
Is an attorney and IT professional living off the grid. He has been a tech enthusiast ever since his dad let him play with computers in the early 80s.
Double click the USB flash drive to show its Properties and then click Policies tab. And then select Optimize for performance and click OK button (On Windows XP) If your computer runs Windows Vista / 7 or later version of Windows, it shows Better performance. Right click the USB flash drive and then format it with NTFS file system.
Now jdhodges.com is where he shares tech tips. Thanks for visiting & feel free to join in the discussion by commenting:-) Recent Comments. Tracy on Thank you so much for your help. I worked like magic! Dec 22, 2018. Matt Rantala on.POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO HELP THE LIGHT ISSUE.LIKE TO SEE A FEW OTHER PEOPLE GIVE THIS A.
Dec 20, 2018. Jesse on Worked perfectly on elitebook 8460p, thank you!!!
Dec 20, 2018. Joshua Chavis on Wow man, you're amazing! I just came home to find my laptop's brightness awry, and an. Dec 17, 2018. JOHN JOHN on HOW DO YOU STOP THIS CRAP FROM HAPPENING????
I DON'T WANT A STUPID YELLOW LIGHT. Dec 17, 2018. jon on well you just saved me a lot of leg work!
Thanks buddy! Dec 17, 2018 Tags.
According to, though the theoretical max FAT32 volume size is 8TB, Windows 95/98 could only create up to 127.53GB volumes, while Windows 2000/XP can only create up to 32GB volumes, without third-party software. One could surmise from this that OS X also places a limitation on FAT32 volumes of around 128GB, though I don't think that's true.
However, if you were able to format the whole 500GB volume, with the size reported correctly afterwards, I would expect that the whole volume should be available. Well, the end goal would be to make this the active iTunes folder, therefor, the files can't be spread into two different locations. I know that technically it CAN by adding media without copying it to the iTunes folder, but this is for a friend of mine, and I'm trying not to make this complicated at all. One hard drive with one iTunes folder in it, and that folder (at this time) sizing up to be about 220gb. Has anyone had experience using the MacFuse and NTFS-3g solution, or with the NTFSOSX solution available on sourceforge?
How well do they work, and do they work as well as a FAT32 on Mac? Thanks again! Hi there Spotkat, I doubt that FAT32 has a 128GB limit, since I have a 250GB FAT32 drive and have been using it with a Mac for months, sometimes up to near the limit. What I'm more interested in is what error message it threw up? The reason I ask is because although it stops when it gets to 128GB, the error may not be a FAT32 capacity limit, but the same problem I'm having - a filename or file that is incompatible with FAT32. Instead of throwing up an alert which allows you to skip the file in question, it tends to fail the rest of the copy process.
I am trying to find a way round this myself at present. Is there any way you can let me know what the error message was? Just to add my twopenneth, I seem to have exactly the same problem. I have: Powerbook G4, OS X 10.4.10, Attached via USB2 to Western Digital MyBook Essential 500GB. This exhibited the Error -36 problem straight out of the box. (I have 3 of these, bought at the samer time. They all do exactly the same thing - brand new, out the box).
Same PB G4, Attached by FW800 to WD MyBook Pro 500GB, Just started doing this today. (I have 3 of these too, and I daren't even look at the other two). The Essential has had just about everything done to it - Partitioned at all levels as FAT32; Partitioned as Mac OS Extended (Journaled and not); Sub-partitioned into smaller units, you name it.
Nothing makes any difference. Drive hits a wall. Not necessarily at 128GB, and not with any particular file (although a lot of my files are similar - DV, and Photoshop/RAW images), but there's a definite wall in there somewhere. After which, I get error -36 a few times, followed by Finder Hangs if I'm persistent.
I'm going to do a 'fill with Zeros' reformat tonight (it estimates 6 hours). We'll see what happens. FWIW, I thought it might be a 10.4.10 thing, seeing as I'm on my 11th outboard, and this is the first time I've seen anything like this.
BIG coincidence after the recent 10.4.10 update (with reported issues on the USB interface) but we've attached the Essential drive to my Partner's G4 (10.4.9) and it fails there too. Could be something, could be nothing. The weird thing is the MyBook Pro's - I've had them all for a number of months, and they have had varying amounts of data on them, but since I bought the Essential's they've started failing too. By comparison, I have some older Maxtors, and they are 250GB, 300GB and 500GB - all running up to the max and been healthy for 2 years plus.
Like everyone here, I'm scouring every source for a solution, and new 'sightings' are popping up daily, so I'll post what I find. Keep posting, folks. Sorry for the long post, but I hope I've used enough description here that people searching for this specific problem will find it more easily - I've read more than my share of unrelated iTunes and Windows SMB posts over the past couple of days. Apple Footer.
This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site. All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the.