Maximum fat file size

Its cluster size is 4KB up to a partition of 8GB. Above 8GB the cluster size grows up to 32kb. NTFS is what almost everyone should be using on their hard drives today. Its cluster size stays at 4kb, regardless of the volume size. That is not correct. Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is always possible that something could go wrong.

For that reason, it's prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose before beginning. Was this reply helpful? Yes No. Read more If you only intend to use the drive with your PC, then either of these systems should work just fine. If you plan to use the drive with non-microsoft devices, then exFAT would probably be a better choice, because exFAT system is supported by a wider range of third-party manufacturers.

For example, if you format a micro-SD card with exFAT, chances are your Android phone would be able to recognize it, too. It's quite easy to change the file system using your PC: you just need to use the format command on the drive. The most important thing to remember is that changing the file system destroyes any existing files on the drive, so before you begin, attach the drive to the PC and make sure it contains no important files of yours.

If it does, save them for later by copying them out of the drive to some other folder on the PC. To actually change the file system, open the This PC folder, right-click on the drive in question, choose Format After the formatting is finished, your drive should be ready to accept files larger than 4GB limit with no problems. What if formatting the drive is not an option for some reason? In such a case you could still use a FAT32 formatted drive, for example, to transfer a large file between two PCs, but you need to split such a file into several chunks, smaller than the 4GB limit.

Unfortunately, Windows does not have a built-in command to split a file into parts. The size of a cluster has nothing to do with the limit on the size of the file. A cluster chain is only limited to the size of the FAT File Allocation Table , which should have enough room to hold all clusters of the volume. How are we doing? Please help us improve Stack Overflow. Take our short survey. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

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