How do I format a USB drive to fat file system?

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click Drive Converter (FAT32), and then click Next. In the Drives box, click the drive you want to convert to the FAT32 file system. Click Next, and then click OK.
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How do I Format my USB to FAT32 FAT?

Right-click the USB flash drive (press right mouse button once). Select “Format…”. Click the button “Restore device defaults” once. Open the drop down menu “File system” and select FAT or FAT32.
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Why can't I Format my USB to FAT?

There are a few reasons why your USB drive might not be formatting to FAT32. The first reason is that your USB drive might be larger than 32 GB. As a result, it can't be formatted to FAT32. The second reason is that your USB drive might have been formatted using a different file system, such as NTFS.
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How to Format USB to FAT Windows 10?

How to Format a USB Drive as FAT32 Using File Explorer
  1. Select Start icon.
  2. Select This PC.
  3. Right-click the USB Drive.
  4. Choose Format.
  5. Select Start. If the File system isn't listed as FAT32, click on the drop-down menu and choose it.
  6. Select OK.
  7. Wait for the drive to format then select OK to finish the process.
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Can any USB drive be formatted to FAT32?

Of those three common formats, FAT32 is the oldest and most widely supported. Every major operating system will allow you to read and write from a USB flash drive that's formatted to FAT32. Meanwhile, macOS can only read NTFS drives, and you would need to install third-party software to write back to the drive.
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Format USB to FAT32 - Quick Guide



How do I convert my USB to FAT32 without losing data?

How can I convert the USB Drive format from NTFS to FAT32?
  1. Right-click "This PC" or "My Computer" and click "Manage", click "Disk Management".
  2. Choose your USB Drive, right click the drive and choose "Format". Click "Yes".
  3. Name the drive and select the file system as "FAT32". Click "OK".
  4. You can find the format is FAT32.
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How do I format my USB to FAT32 without the option?

Actually, if the Windows doesn't display the FAT32 option, it means that the USB is larger than 32 GB. In this case, you can't format the USB to FAT32 via any Windows built-in utility (like File Explorer, Disk Management, and DiskPart). Instead, you need to use third-party software.
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Should USB be NTFS or FAT?

The FAT32 file system is suitable for smaller capacity flash memory devices (such as memory cards, USB drives, and other storage devices), while the NTFS file system is suitable for large capacity disks.
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How do I convert exFAT to FAT?

On Disk Management, Right-click on your exFAT USB or external device, select "Format”. Step 4. Set the file system to FAT32, tick "Quick Format" and click "OK" to confirm. When the formatting process finishes, your device is ready for saving and transfer files in the FAT32 format.
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How do I format a 64GB USB to FAT?

Method 1: Use PowerShell to Format USB to FAT32 on Windows 10/11
  1. Press "Win + X" on your keyboard to open the Start menu.
  2. Type the command "format /FS: FAT32 #:" in the PowerShell window and hit Enter to execute it.
  3. Your 64 GB USB Drive will begin to format to the FAT32 file system as soon as the command is provided.
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How to transfer files larger than 4GB to FAT32 without formatting?

How to Transfer Files Larger than 4GB to FAT32 with or without Formatting Free. You must try to break the FAT32 file size limit to be able to save some extremely large files. The only solution is to change the file system to the other Windows-compatible file systems, usually NTFS.
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Why can't I format my 64GB USB to FAT32?

Due to the limitation of FAT32, the Windows system doesn't support creating a FAT32 partition on a more than 32GB disk partition. As a result, you cannot directly format a 64GB memory card nor USB flash drive to FAT32.
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What does FAT mean on USB?

File Allocation Table is a primary computer file system for various operating systems, mostly DOS, including DR-DOS, OpenDOS, freeDOS, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows (up to and including Windows Me). FAT is also used for removable flash drives and memory cards.
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Do all USB drives support FAT32?

Hi, please be informed that all the USB Flash Drives with equal to or less than 32GB capacity are formatted in the FAT32 File System and the USB Flash Drives equal to or greater than 64GB capacity are formatted in exFAT File System.
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Is exFAT the same as FAT?

So no, exFAT is not the same as FAT32 and was introduced as a replacement for FAT32. The most significant advantage of using exFAT is that there are practically no limitations on partition size, whereas FAT32 supports files up to 4GB and partition size is 8TB at the max.
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How do I convert to FAT format?

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click Drive Converter (FAT32), and then click Next. In the Drives box, click the drive you want to convert to the FAT32 file system. Click Next, and then click OK.
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Which is better FAT FAT32 or exFAT?

Generally speaking, exFAT drives are faster at writing and reading data than FAT32 drives. You'll find benchmarks online if you're interested in specific details; Flexense has a thorough comparison of FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS. In almost every test from that comparison, exFAT outperformed FAT32.
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Can I convert exFAT to FAT32 without losing data?

Right click the your media usb/sd/hdd NTFS partition and select "Convert to FAT32" option. Step2. Click "OK" button to confirm convert the selected partition to FAT32 file system. Guarantee: No files will be erased or lost during converting files from ntfs/exfat to fat32 with IM-Magic Partition Resizer.
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Should I use FAT32 or exFAT for USB?

Should I use exFAT for USB? Absolutely, exFAT is the best formatting option for portable storage devices. It is compatible with more systems than NTFS and supports larger storage sizes and file sizes than FAT32 which makes it perform external hard drives and flash drives.
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Why is my USB drive not recognized FAT32?

If your flash drive shows up as unallocated space, you can right-click it and select “Create Partition” to create FAT32 partition directly. If your large drive is of NTFS file system, you can directly convert it to FAT32 without losing data by reformatting via "NTFS to FAT32 converter".
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How do I format a 128GB USB to FAT32 for free?

FAQ about Formatting 128GB USB Flash Drive
  1. Right-click your USB and then choose Format.
  2. In the pop window, select the file system as FAT32, then click OK.
  3. Click the Execute Operation button.
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How do I change USB format from NTFS to FAT32 without formatting?

Step 1: Press "Windows" + "X" and select "Disk Management". Step 2: Right-click on the dedicated partition and select "Shrink Volume". Step 3: Type the size you want to shrink and select "Shrink". Step 4: Once the volume is shrunk, format the drive to FAT32, and move the data from NTFS to the new FAT32 partition.
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Can you change USB format without losing?

The answer is a YES! If you have backed up files before formatting the USB flash drive, you can directly format the USB without losing files. Nevertheless, if you didn't backup data beforehand, you still have the chance to format a flash drive without losing data.
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How do I change the file system on my USB without formatting?

Method 1. Convert RAW to NTFS via CMD (Without Formatting)
  1. Click on Start, then type cmd and hit Enter.
  2. Right-click on cmd and then click on "Run As Administrator".
  3. Type Diskpart and then hit Enter.
  4. Type H: /FS :NTFS and hit Enter. (H shall be the drive letter of your RAW storage device.)
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Can I change USB format without formatting?

Thus, how can you change file system without formatting in Windows? Fortunately, you can complete this task with the help of third-party software like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. You cannot do it without losing data using Windows Disk Management because it will format the partition at first.
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