Microsoft increases maximum FAT32 partition size to 2TB for Windows 11 – Windows 11

This change comes after nearly three decades and is expected to bring new features to Windows users.

The new feature is first seen in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27686 in the Canary channel. A user with the pseudonym “XenoPanther” has already demonstrated the new functionality by creating a 114.6GB FAT32 partition via the command line.

The 32GB limit was set during the development of Windows 95 and has remained unchanged to this day. Former Microsoft developer Dave Plummer open The original choice of threshold was somewhat arbitrary.

Although Microsoft already supports reading the larger FAT32 file systems, their creation has been limited. FAT32 remains useful because of its compatibility with many operating systems and USB devices. Although exFAT exists, many older systems do not recognize it, making increasing the FAT32 limit important.

Currently, larger FAT32 partitions can only be created via the command line, using DISKPART.EXE. The Disk Management GUI is still limited to 32GB. However, the user community expects improvements to Disk Management, including the ability to create FAT32 partitions up to 2TB in size via the GUI, which should make the process much easier.

The upgrade is expected to simplify the process of creating large FAT32 partitions, eliminating the need for alternative operating systems or third-party applications. However, users will have to wait until this feature is fully integrated into the Windows GUI to get an accessible experience.