Microsoft is removing a long-standing limitation in Windows that restricted FAT32 disk formatting to 32GB. With Windows 11, users will now be able to format FAT32 partitions up to 2TB in size.
This update is being introduced first in a beta version of Windows 11, specifically in the Build 27686 preview release for the Canary channel.
In a blog post about the beta release, the company stated, "When formatting disks from the command line using the format command, we’ve increased the FAT32 size limit from 32GB to 2TB."
This enhancement simplifies the process for users who need to format USB drives or flash cards using the FAT32 system, which has been widely adopted across Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, as well as gaming consoles, since its introduction in 1996.
Although Windows has long been capable of reading large FAT32-formatted drives, an arbitrary decision made by a Microsoft engineer three decades ago imposed a 32GB limit on creating FAT32 partitions within the OS.
As a result, users had to rely on third-party tools to surpass this restriction. However, with this update, Microsoft is finally bringing the OS in line with the 2TB maximum size that the FAT32 standard supports.
It's worth noting, though, that the Windows 11 disk management tool still does not support creating FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB; users will need to use the format command in the Windows command line prompt instead.
A Twitter user has already tested this feature, successfully creating a FAT32 partition larger than 114GB. Despite the increased partition size, the FAT32 file system still has a 4GB limit for individual file sizes due to an inherent design constraint.