Many devices only read disks formatted in FAT32 but this filesystem encounters some limitations, first of all it is not possible with the standard Windows utility to format disks larger than 32GB in FAT32. Fortunately, this limit can be easily overcome either through the use of alternative commands or through a program to format in FAT32. In this guide, without wasting too much on useless chatter, I will explain how to format in fat32 external hd larger than 32GB.
Format large disks in FAT32
The FAT32 format for many is a nightmare because it is a format widely used for particular devices (eg consoles) and meets apparent limitations; for example it doesn’t handle moving large files well but the biggest annoyance is that you won’t be able to use the built-in Windows functions to format large disks to FAT32.
There is more than one program per program to format large disks in FAT32 but if you don’t want to waste time looking on the internet download the free FAT32format GUI program (pressing the green button with the word download) and start it from your computer. Once downloaded, start the program by double clicking on the guiformat.exe file.
The program is really very simple to use; you will have to select the disk you want to format in FAT32 from the Drive drop-down menu and eventually assign a name to the disk from the Volume label field . Once done, press the start button and wait for the operation to complete; if the disk is very large you may have to wait a few minutes
As you can see, formatting large disks in FAT32 is extremely simple with this program and you won’t have to enter any particular commands. Since you are here I also recommend that you take a look at my guide on how to recover data from a broken external drive .
