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Formatting a usb stick to fat32

satman17satman17 Posts: 2,607
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in PC & Mac Hardware and Software #1
If I plugged in a usb stick into my laptop running windows 7 and format would it be fat32 ?

Comments

  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    #2
    FAT32 is the default. If you are planning on storing a single file or multiple files that individually exceed 4GB, then choose NTFS.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #3
    satman17 wrote: »
    If I plugged in a usb stick into my laptop running windows 7 and format would it be fat32 ?
    It will be whatever file system you tell it to format with.

    As selected by the File System drop down shown circled in red in this image

    http://cdn.winability.com/info/format-flash-drive.png
  • c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,587
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    #4
    evil c wrote: »
    FAT32 is the default. If you are planning on storing a single file or multiple files that individually exceed 4GB, then choose NTFS.

    I've have started using exFAT as I now share devices between windows, linux and a mac. If its windows only then NTFS is fine.
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,415
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    #5
    Unless things have changed recently, Windows XP and onwards will only give you the option to format as NTFS if the volume is over 32GB. If you need FAT32 on a large capacity drive then one workaround is to use something like this instead of the builtin Windows format tool.

    Note that on Win7 you need to right click and "run as administrator" for it to work.
  • oilmanoilman Posts: 4,529
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    #6
    You need to consider what the usb stick is to be used for.

    exFAT is good is transferring between various operating systesm mac, windows etc.

    If you want to use it to plug into a TV or PVR say, you may find the device only accepts FAT32. This is a bit of a pain partly because of 4GB file size limit, but also because windows (don't know about other systems) will only format a 32 GB partition, and only allows one main partition to be set up, If USB is above 32 GB, you noramlly need to install a 3rd party app to do teh formatting.
  • ChocolateCheeseChocolateCheese Posts: 3,537
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    #7
    s2k wrote: »
    Unless things have changed recently, Windows XP and onwards will only give you the option to format as NTFS if the volume is over 32GB. If you need FAT32 on a large capacity drive then one workaround is to use something like this instead of the builtin Windows format tool.

    Note that on Win7 you need to right click and "run as administrator" for it to work.
    I've been given the option to format my old 256 MB and 64 MB flash drives as NTFS under Windows 7. :confused:
  • oilmanoilman Posts: 4,529
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    #8
    ChocolateCheese wrote: »
    I've been given the option to format my old 256 MB and 64 MB flash drives as NTFS under Windows 7. :confused:

    Why would anybody keep tiny drives?

    Assign them to where they belong ie the dustbin, and get some new ones!

    Of course windows 7 will offer to format as NTFS. I doubt it bothers check if drive is too small.
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,415
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    #9
    ChocolateCheese wrote: »
    I've been given the option to format my old 256 MB and 64 MB flash drives as NTFS under Windows 7. :confused:
    Anything under 32GB - You have the choice of either NTFS or FAT32
    Anything over 32GB - Windows limits your option to NTFS only. Hence the need for a 3rd party utility if you intend to use the flash drive with anything other than a Windows PC.
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