How to Format 32GB/64GB/128GB USB to FAT32 Easily

File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default filesystem for MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. The increase in disk drive capacity requires file system improvement, producing four major variants: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and ExFAT.

Among these variants, the FAT32 boot sector uses a 32-bit field for the sector count, limiting the maximal FAT32 volume size to 2 terabytes with a sector size of 512 bytes. The maximum FAT32 volume size is 16 TB with a sector size of 4,096 bytes.

Nowadays, the FAT32 file system is a little out of date, but it is still popular because of its wide compatibility with various systems (like Windows, macOS, and Linux) and devices (like cameras, game consoles, etc.). 

As we all know, USB drives are removable devices. You can plug them into various devices for use. To make these devices recognize the USB drive, you may need to format USB to FAT32. In this post, I will show you how to do that in 4 ways. 

The first 3 tools are Windows built-in tools but they can only format USB drives of no more than 32GB to FAT32. They can’t help you format 64GB USB to FAT32 or format 128GB USB to FAT32, because Microsoft has made this limitation on Windows NT systems. 

If you want to format large USB to FAT32, you can use the third-party partition manager. Then, Windows can read and write to these preexisting larger FAT32 volumes.

Way 1. Use File Explorer

This method is the easiest and most commonly used one. However, you should make sure the USB drive is not more than 32GB. Otherwise, the format process may fail. Here is how to format USB to FAT32 in File Explorer:

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your computer. Click the folder icon on the taskbar to open File Explorer. On the navigation pane, under This PC, right-click the USB flash drive and choose Format... option. 

Step 2: On the format window, under File system, expand the drop-down menu and select the FAT32 option. Then, click Start to format USB to FAT32.

Way 2. Use Disk Management

To use this method, you should also make sure the USB drive is not more than 32GB. Here is the guide: 

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your computer. Then, press the Windows logo key + R and select Disk Management from the context menu. 

Step 2: On the Disk Management tool, right-click on the USB flash drive partition and click Format... from the menu. 

Step 3: On the pop-up window, make sure the File system is FAT32. Then, click the OK button to format USB to FAT32. 

Way 3. Use DiskPart Commands

DiskPart commands are used to manage disks and partitions. You can also use them to format USB less than 32GB to FAT32. Here is the guide:

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your computer. Then, press the Windows logo key+ R to open the Run box. Type "diskpart" in the Run box and press the Enter key to open the diskpart.exe input window.

Step 2: Type the following commands in the diskpart.exe input window one by one and press Enter to format USB to FAT32. 

• List disk
• Select disk * (* is the number of the USB drive. You can identify that by the size)
• Lisk partition
• Select partition 1 (if there is only one partition on the UBS drive, the partition number should be 1)
• Format fs=fat32 quick

Way 4. Use MiniTool Partition Wizard

As long as the USB drive is not more than 2TB, this free partition software can help you format USB to FAT32 easily. Here is the guide:

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your computer. Then, launch MiniTool Partition Wizard. Right-click the partition on the USB flash drive and choose Format from the menu.

Step 2: On the pop-up window, expand the File System menu and choose FAT32. Then, click OK. 

Step 3: Click the Apply button to carry out the pending operation.

Conclusion

Nowadays, most USB drives are very large. They can easily exceed 32GB. Therefore, many people may ask on forums how they can format 64GB USB to FAT32 or format 128GB USB to FAT32. If you also have this question, this post is worth reading.