Blame Me: The Windows 11 Disk Formatter
Why Super User recommends it
Super User users link it when explaining why Windows refuses to format large volumes as FAT32, since the dialog's author says the 32GB limit was an arbitrary choice.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2021 to 2024.
What it is
Dave Plummer, the former Microsoft engineer who wrote the Windows format dialog, gives a retro tour of the dialog and explains how and why it was designed. He also covers why Windows limits FAT32 formatting to 32GB, even for large SD cards.
What people said
Cites Chris Tollefson · 2021-01 · Super User · on “Formatting : The volume is too big for FAT32”
Hehe, according to Dave Plummer (the former Microsoft engineer who wrote the disk formatter for Windows NT), the FAT32 "limit" of 32GB is "because I said so" ( [this video] ). P.S.: He mentions Rufus [LINK] or Fat32 Format [LINK] as workarounds.
Cites Journeyman Geek · 2022-01 · Super User · on “If FAT32 is limited to 2^28 clusters, why can't I format a 250GB partition with a 1K cluster size?”
Essentially - the formatting tools on modern versions of windows are 'worse' that those of win 9x versions, and tend to give you limited options. I've created a 250gb partition in a VHD Windows won't even let you format the disk as FAT to start with in the disk management MMC - I think it follows the 32GB maximum windows arbitrarily has on all NT family systems. [LINK] Or anything but NTFS in windows 11 [LINK] (I've tested it in windows 10 too. I don't think I have anything older in the farm) However using a third party formatting tool - I favour ridgecrop's fat32 formatter, and in this case I used the GUI version [LINK] [LINK] Fundamentally - this is a limitation of the windows disk formatt
Cites Kamil Maciorowski · 2024-01 · Super User · on “Formatting 500gb HDD NTFS to FAT32 then returns: The volume is too big for FAT32”
Related: *If FAT32 is limited to 2^28 clusters, why can't I format a 250GB partition with a 1K cluster size?* [LINK] . One of the answers provides a link to this video [this video] , maybe you will find it interesting.