Free FAT32 Formatter Tool

Download Free FAT32 Formatter Tool

When I inserted a Toshiba USB flash drive into Windows 10 computer and chose "Format", I got the dialogue box as shown below. I learned that my Toshiba USB drive was allowed to format to NTFS, FAT32 (Default) and exFAT. Many people would have the question about how to choose the proper file system, and next, I'll give the explanation.

NTFS

NTFS works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac OS X by default. It's mostly used for Windows system drive and other internal drives that will just be used with Windows.

FAT32

FAT32 works with all versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Practically, most USB drives are pre-formatted with FAT32. And most game consoles, such as PlayStation, require external USB drive with the FAT32 format.

FAT32 has a limit that files larger than 4GB can't be stored on a FAT32 drive. It supports file size no larger than 4GB and a maximum partition size 8TB.

exFAT

exFAT is an ideal file system for USB flash drives and other external drives. It's more compatible with Windows and Mac OS X than NTFS and has no file size limit as FAT32. However, exFAT is a newer file system that was introduced in 2006, some older devices may not support this file system.

Understand the difference between NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT now? Whenever you need to format USB flash drive to FAT32, even reformat a drive to FAT32, you can download the free FAT32 formatter tool to perform the task. Besides, the FAT32 formatter can also help to convert NTFS to FAT32.

Effectively Apply FAT32 Formatter in Three Ways

1. Free FAT32 Format Tool - Qiling Partition Master

Qiling Partition Master is an all-in-one internal drive and external USB, SD, memory stick FAT32 formatting/reformatting solution in Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista. The problem about FAT32 that you cannot solve in Windows Disk Management shall be easily overcome by Qiling free partition manager. People seeking for a powerful, easy-to-use and Windows 10-compatible disk and partition management tool have chosen it as the best free FAT32 formatter. Use the software to format new drive as FAT32. In addition, you can also convert NTFS to FAT32 without losing data.

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Step 1. Launch Qiling Partition Master, click the partition you intend to format and choose "Format" in "Disk management" page.

Step 2. In the next window, set the Partition label, File system, and Cluster size for the partition, then click "Proceed".

Step 3. Then you will see a warning window, click "OK" in it to start formatting the partition to FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4.

Smaller cluster size makes less wasting of disk space. The smaller the cluster size is, the bigger the file allocation table (FAT) will be. The bigger the FAT is, the slower the operating system works with the disk.

Though as an FAT32 formatted, Qiling Partition Master can also execute other hard drive partition operations on your disk, such as resizing/moving, extending, shrinking, and even creating new partitions on your device.

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2. Built-in FAT32 Formatter - Windows Disk Management

As I've said, when you plug in a USB drive in a Windows computer, you can directly format the drive to the FAT32 file system by using the built-in Windows Disk Management. However, once your drive's default file system is not preformatted as FAT32, You can only be allowed to format it to NTFS, the default file system in Windows. So, the first attempt sometimes may fail. In this case, move on to the second option of FAT32 formatter tool.

1. Press Windows + X to open Disk Management.

2. Choose the target partition of your disk that you want to format to FAT32 and click Format from the right-click menu.

3. Appilable FAT32 Formatter - Diskpart

Now we are going to show you the last fat32 format tool in Windows 10. This method is more complicated than the other ways, do as following:

Step 1. Open search box and input diskpart.

Step 2. Copy the following commands.

list disk
select disk *
list volume
select volume *
format fs=ntfs quick

Step 3. Then type exit. (You can not format disk larger than 32GB to fat32, go back to method one.)

4. Another Built-in FAT32 Format Tool - PowerShell

In addition to disk management and diskpart, Windows also provides a free FAT32 format tool - PowerShell.

Step 1. Press Windows + X shortcut on your keyboard. Select "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".

Step 2. Type the command line and press Enter.

format /FS:FAT32 (Drive letter):

Like the following screenshot - format /FS:FAT32 o:

You May Want to Know about FAT32 Format Tool?

1. How to Format USB to FAT32 for Free?

You can use the USB format tool like Qiling Partition Master, Windows Disk Management, Diskpart, and PowerShell to format to FAT32.

How to Use Free FAT32 Format Tool:

Step 1. Download and install Qiling Partition Master.

Step 2. Click target partition and select Format function.

Step 3. Follow the instruction and execute the operation.

2. Why Can't Format to FAT32?

By default, Windows built-in tools will format a USB drive below 32GB into FAT32. Check if your USB drive storage is above 32GB.