Windows XP/2000 FAT32 Formatting Limit

    "While the FAT32 file system can support drives up to a standard theoretical size of 2 terabytes, (it 'can' be jury-rigged under Windows Millennium Edition to support partitions of up to 8 TB), Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional cannot FORMAT a volume larger than 32 GB in size using their native FAT32 file system.

    "The FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system, such as those created locally by Windows 98 or ME in dual boot configuration, (subject to other limits listed here for Windows 98, ME and 2000 and here for Windows XP), but you cannot CREATE one using the Format tool from within either Windows 2000 Professional or XP Professional. If you attempt to format a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB, the format fails near the end of the process with the following error message:
 
Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big."

• "The 127.5-GB limit on FAT32 volumes imposed in Windows 98 no longer applies to Windows Me. In Windows Me, using a cluster size of 32 KB, a FAT32 volume can theoretically be about 8 terabytes. However, the 32-bit fields in the partition table (and in the FAT32 boot sector) limit the size of an individual volume (regardless of file system) on a basic MBR disk using a sector size of 512 bytes to approximately 2 terabytes."
   
  
• "Although Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can mount FAT32 volumes of any size, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can format FAT32 volumes up to 32 GB only. Use NTFS to format larger volumes. For more information about the benefits of formatting Windows XP Professional volumes by using NTFS, see 'Advantages of Using NTFS' earlier in this chapter."

    This "cannot Format more than 32GB" behavior is by design, as Microsoft recommends using the NTFS file system for partitions greater than 32GB. One reason for this is: as a FAT32 partition goes beyond 32GB, the cluster size that is used jumps from 16K to 32K, thus "wasting" far more drive space when small files are stored. (See the FAT16 page for more about Cluster Size and Wasted Space.)

    However, as Windows 2000 or Windows XP fully supports using a FAT32 partition over 32GB, and only does not permit formatting a FAT drive over 32GB, it is possible to use a Windows 98 or Windows Me boot diskette to get a larger FAT partition formatted. Just be extremely careful that the correct partition is formatted when booting from a diskette.

Related Information:

Windows 98 FDISK bug
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044

When the original Windows 98 fdisk is used to partition a hard drive larger than 64GB, fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard drive. The updated Windows 98 fdisk is not designed for 48-bit logical block addressing (LBA), so it does not support ATA drives larger than 128GB (137 billion Bytes).

 
Format Displays Over 64GB Partition Size Incorrectly
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263045    [New Window]

"When you use Format.com to format a partition or logical drive that is larger than 64 gigabytes in size, Format.com does not report the correct size of the drive being formatted at the beginning of the format process. However, as the formatting process progresses, the entire drive is formatted, and the correct formatted size is displayed when the operation is finished."

 
Fdisk.exe 512GB limit
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=280737    [New Window]

 
FAT 32 Formatter
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/fat32format.htm    [New Window]

A third party program for formatting larger FAT32 drives or partitions.