38

Formatting an external 500GB HDD took almost >6 hours that I started like:

D:\>format /FS:fat32 F:
The type of the file system is EXFAT.
The new file system is FAT32.
Enter current volume label for drive F: musix

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK
DRIVE F: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y
Formatting 476810M

finally responded with the error:

The volume is too big for FAT32.

However according to MSFT there are no such limitations. (I used XP specs, while I am formatting in Win7, ok?) I am not formatting the drive during setup but on an installed version from the command prompt.

I want to use this disk with the maximum available capacity as en external HardDrive connected to an MDI interdface in my car to play music.

What are the proper settings for that and can I use/format the (almost) full 500GB?

Caspar Kleijne
  • 665

5 Answers5

42

What an annoying limitation! You can't format FAT32 volumes larger than 32GB from any version of Windows...

C:\Users\jeff>format e: /FS:fat32 /Q
Insert new disk for drive E:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is EXFAT.
The new file system is FAT32.
QuickFormatting 58.9 GB
The volume is too big for FAT32.
Format failed.

... but they must exist because this Lexar USB 64GB drive right here is formatted FAT32! How?

It is possible to do it, you just have to use some other tool. I used this one, FAT32 Format.

enter image description here

Jeff Atwood
  • 24,402
34

Rufus can do this. Start it up, then:

  1. set Boot selection to Non bootable
  2. set File system to Large FAT32
  3. set Cluster size to 32 kilobytes
  4. click START

The Cluster size was an important step for me. On my system, only these options work:

32 kilobytes, 16 kilobytes

Zombo
  • 1
7

You cannot format a FAT32 volume greater than 32Gig from XP or Win7 but you can mount and use a bigger one.

However you must use an alternate tool to format the volume.

There are limitations as to bootable drives on your greater than 32gig Fat32 drive

Partition Tool

Also read this guys page for more technical info.

kingchris
  • 638
7

It doesnt help when you want to use the maximum available capacity, but for those of you who need a fat32 disk under 32GB what I did was setup the primary partition as under 32GB.

Run these steps/commands
1. Open command prompt as administrator 
2. Diskpart
3. List disk
4. Select disk X (where x is the disk you want to partition/format)
5. Clean
6. Create partition primary size=30000   (where 30,000 is the size in MB you want the partition to be, under 32GB)
7. Select partition 1
8. Active
9. Format quick fs=Fat32
10.Assign
11.Exit
n00b
  • 933
1

You can format your external hard drive in FAT32 using SwissKnife (freeware). It will let you bypass The volume is too big for FAT32 error.

Mehper C. Palavuzlar
  • 55,953