How to format a large capacity USB flash drive, FAT32, Windows

[tm3vt]

Hello! I tried to find a "how to" post on formatting large capacity flash drives but I can only find links to external utilities or programs to purchase. Now that we have Sentry Mode on all the time (except when we're home!) and, since I like to save clips especially on beautiful days - I'm saving clips from our neighborhood through all the seasons) - my 16 GB drive filled too quickly.

Personally, I just don't trust what an EXE file I find online could potentially do to my computer. And I certainly don't want to pay for something that my PC can already do.

It's actually very easy to format a drive yourself! Open a command prompt window - I have Windows 10, so press Start, then type CMD. You'll want to elevate it to run as Admin, so right click and choose "Run as Administrator".

You can see all the parameters and what they do by typing,

Format /?

All I need is to specify the File System and for these larger USB flash drives, set an Allocation unit size, and make it a "quick" format. I like to add a volume name (but it's optional and can be done later.) Just BE SURE to use your correct flash drive letter!!!

To check, I plug in the USB flash drive, I see it's identified as "D:" (To quickly see your drives, open an Explore window with StartKey + e, choose "this PC")

For me, I bought a Samsung 128 GB for $25 on Amazon. I like the small size, it doesn't overheat, has many great reviews. [link] )

So then, my format command is

Format d: /FS:FAT32 /A:32768 /V:tesla /q

You can copy/paste that line to your Command Prompt window, again, please make sure you have the correct drive letter!!

Here's a table of the common allocation unit sizes for FAT32:

256 MB - 8 GB would use 8 KB ( so type /A:8192 )
16 GB - 32 GB would use 16 KB ( so type /A:16384 )
32 GB - 2 TB would use 32 KB ( so type /A:32768 )

I hope this helps!

 

[woodmountain]

Spot on formatting info. How is the Samsung drive performing?

I had looked at that and had gone with another members recommendation. I am currently using the Samsung PRO Endurance 128GB Micro SDXC Card and a Rocketek Aluminum USB 3.0 Portable Memory Card Reader Adapter. After placing 2,925 mp3's I'm satisfied although it heats up more than I had expected.

 

[Obliter8]

Just tried to do this on Win10 and it says 'Invalid Parameter - /A:65536'

 

[Obliter8]

Yup, deleted that string and then got 'The volume is too big for FAT32'

 

[jeadams]

I used a 3rd party tool to format. See How to Format a Large Hard Drive With FAT or FAT32

 

[voxelman]

Just tried to do this on Win10 and it says 'Invalid Parameter - /A:65536'

I experienced the same result except 'Invalid Parameter - /A:32768'

 

[RFernatt]

I tried with Windows 10 and a 256GB Samsung flash drive, but no dice. Found this nugget online:

"Microsoft has set a 32GB partition size limit for the FAT/FAT32 file system to promote NTFS, which is generally more efficient when working with large partitions.

In truth, this limitation only exists in recent versions of Windows. Moreover, Windows does recognize large hard drives formatted with FAT/FAT32."

And, it seems to hold true in Win10. I used a free 3rd party tool even though I really didn't want to. Downloaded, scanned the install package, installed it, formatted the flash drive and then got rid of it. Don't even remember which one it was now.

 

[Knightshade]

Hello! I tried to find a "how to" post on formatting large capacity flash drives but I can only find links to external utilities or programs to purchase.

Because Win10 can not natively format larger than 32GB in FAT32 using the format command.

Hence all the rest of your advice, as all the repliers are finding out, isn't actually useful.

Weirdly- this fact is usually mentioned in all the other threads you supposedly found as the reason they're giving out links to 3rd party utilities (plenty of which are free and work great).

 

[Kevy Baby]

I don't know why I am so amused that you can format a drive for FAT32 much more easily on a Mac (with a utility that comes included with every Mac) when the format is not one that you would normally use on a Mac.

 

[Knightshade]

I don't know why I am so amused that you can format a drive for FAT32 much more easily on a Mac (with a utility that comes included with every Mac) when the format is not one that you would normally use on a Mac.

It's an old disk format not really ideal for large storage- so MS is trying to encourage folks to use a newer, better, file system for such... the embarrassment here is on Tesla for not supporting them.

 

[Dad97]

I just went through this as well. I used an Ubuntu VM to format the disk. If you happen to have an Ubuntu system that would be easier than building a whole VM to format a disk but in my case I do a lot of work with VM's anyway so that was easier for me.

 

[FairWeatherFan]

I experienced the same result except 'Invalid Parameter - /A:32768'

Change the parameter to:Format d: /FS:FAT32 /A:32K /V:tesla /q

That allowed me to get past that error, but now I'm getting a write protected error. I just did this 6 months ago for my other Tesla, but don't know what I'm having such a hard time with the write protection this time....

 

[FairWeatherFan]

I don't know why I am so amused that you can format a drive for FAT32 much more easily on a Mac (with a utility that comes included with every Mac) when the format is not one that you would normally use on a Mac.

Wow, thanks... I didn't even think of that. It just took me 2 seconds to do it with the Disk Utility! It was so easy, I spent more time triple checking that it worked than the actual format.

Hopefully it works with the Tesla. It still shows up as "write protected" on my Windows machine even though I copied several files to it on my Mac.

 

[NicolaiMagnify]

Format anything above 32Gb in windows 10 seems not possible, even with the right syntax:

C:\Windows\System32>Format d: /FS:FAT32 /A:32k /V:tesla /q
Insert new disk for drive D:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT32.
QuickFormatting 116,2 GB
The volume is too big for FAT32.
Format failed.

 

[Knightshade]

Format anything above 32Gb in windows 10 seems not possible, even with the right syntax:

Yes, as already mentioned in post #8 in the thread back in December.

Easiest method for most in windows will be just use a 3rd party utility like Rufus

 

[NicolaiMagnify]

I downloaded a tool from called guiformat.exe and used it to format the USB drive. With a 128Gb drive I used an allocation unit sizes of 32768.

 

[Ambigulous]

Just tried to do this on Win10 and it says 'Invalid Parameter - /A:65536'

well, run format /? and I think you'll work it out
hint: 65536 = 64K, 32768 = 32K