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FAT 32 is one type of disk partition format in Windows system. It adopts 32bytes file
allocation table, which increases the ability of disk management and breaks through the
limits to the 2GB capacity of every partition of FAT16. Because the cost of hard disk
production declines and its capacity is larger, the disk can be defined as one partition
instead of being divided into several partitions. It is much easier to manage the disk.
However, it has been replaced by NTFS zoned format, for its property is better.
by FAT16 is 2GB. As is known to all, the information is stored in the field named "cluster"
on hard disk. Therefore, the fewer clusters are used, the more efficient information is
stored. In FAT16, if partition expands, cluster must expand accordingly, and it cause low
storage efficiency and waste of storage space. As the development of hardware and
application of computer, FAT 16 can not meet the requirements of new system. So
enhanced version of FAT 32 is released. Compared with FAT16, FAT 32 has the following
features:
1. FAT 32 is in support of disk of 2TB (2048GB) at most, but it is not in support of
partitions less than 512MB. Win 2000 based on FAT32 is in support of partitions of 32GB
at most. And the biggest partition supported by Win2000 based on Fat 16 is 4GB.
2. The adoption of smallest cluster makes Information preservation more efficient in
FAT32 system. For example, if there are two partitions of 2GB, one uses FAT16 system
and the other uses FAT 32 system, the cluster of partition using FAT16 is 32KB and that of
partition using FAT32 is 4KB. Therefore, the efficiency of FAT32 is higher than that of
FAT16. Usually it can be increased by 15%.
3. FAT32 system can relocate root directory and use FAT to back-up. In addition, the boot
logging of partition in FAT32 is contained in a structure with critical data and this reduces
the possibility of system crash.
Function of FAT32
Compared with previous FAT, FAT32 has the following enhancements:
FAT 32 is in support of driver of 2GB at most.
Note:
Microsoft Windows 2000 is only in support of partitions of 32GB in FAT32.
FAT32 can use space more efficient. FAT32 uses smaller cluster (that is, using 4KB
cluster on drivers of less than 8GB). Compared with larger FAT or FAT16 driver, the
usage rate is increased by 10% to 15%.
FAT32 is more stable and reliable. FAT 32 can relocate root folder and it uses backup of
FAT, not the default copy. In addition, boot record on driver is also expanded and it
contains backup copies of data structure. Then compared with the current FAT 16 driver,
FAT32 is not easily influenced by single point of failure.
FAT 32 is more flexible. The root folder on FAT 32 is normal clusters chain, so it can be at
any place of the driver. The previous limit to number of root folders disappears. What's
more, the file allocation table mirror can be forbidden. Therefore, instead of the first file
allocation table, the backup of it is active. And these functions allow users to re-adjust
partitions of FAT32 dynamically. It's worth noting that the design of FAT32 allows this
function, but the Microsoft will not achieve it in original version.
Limitation of FAT32 System in Windows XP
When FAT 32 is used in Windows XP, the following limitations should be noticed.
Cluster must be less than 64KB. If the cluster is 64KB or bigger, some programs (such
as installation program) may calculate disk space wrongly.
The volume of FAT32 must contain 65,527 clusters at least. Users can not increase the
use of clusters in volume of FAT32. Otherwise, the number of clusters will be less than
65,227.
If the following variable factors are considered, the biggest disk is about 8TB. The
maximum number of cluster is 268,435,445 and the maximum cluster is 32KB, and FAT
also takes up space.
Users can not reduce clusters in FAT 32 volume, otherwise, FAT will be bigger than the
result that 16MB minus 64KB.
In the installation procedure of Windows XP, users can not use file system format volume
bigger than 32GB. However, windows XP can use the volume bigger than 32GB in FAT32
(it is limited by other factors). But the format toll can not be used to create FAT32 volume
bigger than 32GB in the installation procedure. If the users want to format volume bigger
than 32GB, NTFS could be used. There is also another method. Users can start from the
startup disk of Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), and
then use format tools contained in the disk.
If users want to know other information about how to use startup disk of Microsoft
Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) to format disk, please click the
following article number to refer to the relevant articles in Microsoft knowledge base.
255867 How to sue Fdisk and format to divide or redivide disk.
Note: If users want to format partition bigger than 32 GB in FAT32system in the installation
procedure of Windows XP, the operation will be fail near the end of format procedure. And
the following wrong information may appear: Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too
big.
MS-DOS (original version of Microsoft Windows 95) and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
and lower version can not be identified by partitions of FAT32, so they can not be started
from FAT32 volume.
Users can not create files bigger than (2^32)-1 bytes (4GB minus 1 byte).
FAT32 format is in support of 128TB disk theoretically (cluster size multiply by cluster
number32K*(2^32)). However the theoretical result can not be achieved because of the
limitation of soft and hard ware and other factors.