Formatting 64GB USB Drive to FAT32

Question

Formatting 64GB USB Drive to FAT32

Anonymous

Is this possible? I've read many threads. I followed these steps:

B1.Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port.
2.Click Start, type devmgmt.msc in the Search textbox and press Enter.
3.Find Disk Drives and expand it.
4.Find the USB flash drive you want to format, and double-click it. It opens the Properties dialog box.
5.Click Policies tab.
6.By default, the Optimize for quick removal option selected, switch it to Optimize for performance and then press OK.
7. Now open Computer. Right click on the USB Flash Drive and select Format. The Format dialog box now appears.
8.Select FAT32 in the File System field.
9.Press Start and wait while the process will be completed.
10.Now your USB Flash Drive is formatted with FAT32 format.

Regarding step 8: no, there is no choice for FAT32, only exFAT and NTFS. I thought I had completed a FAT32 format but it hung up at 99% and then closed down with a "Volume too Big" error message.

My car radio needs FAT32. How do I get there?

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8 additional answers

Answer 1

Hi Curmudgeon10,

I'm Rodrigo, Independent Advisor and I will help you.

Windows don't format USB drives bigger than 32GB to fat32, to do that you need an alternative tool. This one can help you, but you can use another if you like

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/usb-d...

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Answer 2

After endless stuffing around and links to dodgy third party software, which wanted to charge, I found this application Rufus which worked quickly and perfectly first time, at no cost. https://rufus.ie/en_US/ Even worked on Win 7 machine.

Selected Large FAT32 and did a 256GB USB from Samsung quickly. Yahoo!

Answer 3

Even if it's not the main goal of Rufus, the thing I didn't know is that we can perform a simple format by selecting "Non bootable" in the "Boot selection" listbox.

For me it's the most reliable tool I've ever used to make bootable USB drives based on ISO images. And it seems to be the same for FAT32 formatting as it's the only free soft which managed to format successfully my 64GB USB key in FAT32.

Now that I know, I'm not about to change of tool!

Answer 4

Anonymous

Tried it. Downloaded but wouldn't format the USB unless I paid a large fee. The demo and free home use option doesn't work.

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Answer 5

Thank you. I wanted to format a new Samsung 256GB USB 3.1 thumb drive to FAT32 so it would work between desktop and my television.

The suggested third party app was simple to install and offers the choice to format as FAT32.

The USB was already exFAT. I did a Full Format not the Quick Format.

It took a long time, and failed on three occasions for unspecified reasons.

It then suggested I pay money to get a premium product to do so.

It is frustrating that Windows cannot offer this simple utility to format larger than 32GB drives with FAT32.

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Formatting 64GB USB Drive to FAT32

8 additional answers