The 32-bit version of the FAT file system. In wide use on Windows PCs prior to Vista, FAT32 was introduced with the OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) version of Windows 95 in 1996. It supports larger disk partitions and file sizes and has more safeguards than the earlier FAT16 file system. In addition, Windows hard drives that are formatted in the newer NTFS file system are also able to format external hard drives and USB drives in FAT32 for greater compatibility between computers.
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 (see cluster). Starting with Windows NT, FAT32 was superseded by NTFS. See exFAT, NTFS and FAT.
FAT16 FAT32 NTFS
Maximum 4GB 2TB 2TB+
Partition 32GB on
Size Win2K &
WinXP
Maximum Size of
File size 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
Win7
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