When formatting a hard drive, SSD or USB stick, through Windows, we can choose between three file systems: FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. Each of these file systems offers a series of limitations that do not make it the best option for formatting any disk, as long as we do not leave the Windows ecosystem.
For example, if we want to use a hard drive or memory card with any operating system and electronic device, the file system we must use is exFATa file system that we could call standard. However, things change a lot when we talk about FAT32
Both are Microsoft proprietary file systems, which means that these disks can only be accessed through computers managed by Windows, which is problematic if we want to use them on computers with Linux Or macOS or on electronic devices.
The default file system that Microsoft uses to install Windows is NTFS, a file system which offers features very similar to exFAT and far superior to FAT32, the file system that Microsoft introduced to the market with the launch of Windows 95.
FAT32 is now more versatile
Although it is a file system that, whether we like it or not, is doomed to disappear due to its large number of limitations compared to exFAT and NTFS, it seems that Microsoft does not agree.
With the release of the latest Windows 11 Insider build 27686, Microsoft has made a major change to the FAT32 file system. Until now, this file system could be used to create volumes of up to 32 GB, but with this new update, the limitation increases to 2 TB.
However, what might at first seem like fantastic news is not really. FAT32 has a Maximum file size limit of 4GB. Microsoft has only changed the maximum size of volumes that can be created, keeping the same 4GB limit.
At the moment, this is a feature that is in beta, so if you install the latest version of Windows 11 to start using it, you may encounter a problem during the process. In addition, this new limit is only available if we format the disk using the command line
FAT32 was first implemented with the release of Windows 95 and was no longer the default option in Windows when the Redmond-based company released the NFTS file system to all users with Windows XP to provide greater versatility when managing large amounts of files and storage units.
In the post where Microsoft announced the news of the latest version of Windows 11 currently available, it only refers to the extension of this limit, without adding any additional information about the reason for this decision.
