The two main weaknesses of FAT32 are the system’s inherent limitations in terms of file and partition size, and its much lower data security. These small data storage media are practically unusable today in times of larger multimedia data volumes.

Incidentally, partitions smaller than 512 mebibytes (MiB) continued to be generated as FAT16 even after the introduction of FAT32. If data access occurs via the logical block addressing process (or LBA), IT experts refer to this as FAT32X – not FAT32. The maximum size of a cluster in the FAT32 file system is exactly 32 KB. The number of addressable clusters in the FAT32 file system is 268,435,456. However, these values are only an internal specification within the file system and have nothing to do with the 32-bit and 64-bit distinctions between operating systems or processor architecture. The data width for the current standard file system, NTFS, is 64 bits. The data width for FAT32 amounts to 32 bits – hence the 32 in its name instead of the 16 bit of the predecessor system. Just like NTFS, an older file system, exFAT is a proprietary format of Microsoft and is, therefore, not an open-source standard. A derivative was later developed based on FAT, called exFAT.

As a result, the various FAT formats are used beyond the confines of various operating systems.įAT32 is the last evolutionary step of the conventional FAT standard it was preceded by FAT12 and FAT16. FAT continues to be the de-facto industry standard for file systems to this day. But the technical roots of FAT32 date back all the way to 1977 when Microsoft first developed the File Allocation Table (in short: FAT). Instead of replacing the previous version, it served as an extension.

The FAT32 file system developed from its predecessor FAT16 following the introduction of the Microsoft operating system Windows 95B.

Fat32 formatter