FAT32

File Allocation Table

FAT32

(File Allocation Table32) The 32-bit version of the FAT file system. Employed on Windows PCs prior to the more advanced NTFS file system, the FAT32 format is widely used for USB drives, flash memory cards and external hard drives for compatibility between platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android tablets, etc.).

More Advanced than FAT16
Introduced in 1996, FAT32 was a major advancement over FAT16 in storage capacity (see table below). It also supported long file names rather than the eight-character convention in DOS (see 8.3 names). In the event of disk failure, FAT32 can relocate the root directory on the disk and use the backup copy of the FAT table. FAT32 also reduced cluster waste by having smaller cluster sizes at a time when drives were so small that any reduction was meaningful (see cluster). For more about the FAT architecture, see FAT and file system. See exFAT and NTFS.

A Flash Drive in a Mac

The Mac's Get Info (equivalent to Windows Properties) classifies the 2GB USB drive in the machine as an "MS-DOS" device. Curious about the 1969 date? See epoch.

 FAT16 FAT32 NTFSMaximumSize of 4GB 2TB 2TB+ PartitionMaximumSize of Size of File  2GB 4GB Drive OS DOS Support OS/2 Win3x Win95 Win95(OSR2) Win98 Win98 WinNT WinNT WinNT(SP4) Win2K Win2K Win2K WinXP WinXP WinXP WinVista WinVista Win7 Win7 Win8 Win8 Win10 Win10