Updated on July 11th, 2017
This article discusses “The volume is too big for FAT32” error, telling why and when this volume too big error occurs and how to format large HDD to FAT32 step by step.
If you format a large partition or USB hard drive to FAT32 file system under Windows, you can only see NTFS or exFAT in the drop list for file system section. Windows can format a disk which is larger than 32GB to FAT32 with DOS command prompt. However, if the hard drive is 1TB or larger, the formatting will give error “The volume is too big for FAT32”.
Most computer users own more than one hard drives or external drives. Though it’s recommended to format disk into NTFS, some users still want to format removable disk to FAT32 in order to transfer files from Mac.
Here is a real story told by customers:
Back up all your files on the USB drive onto a secure location on your Mac. Open Disk Utility by searching it in spot light or opening it from /Applications/Utilities Select your desired drive on the left side.
“I’ tried formatting my 500GB external hard drive to FAT32 so that I can use it on PS3. I tried on Windows 7 computer, but FAT32 is not available. I googled this issue online. All advise to format hard disk with command prompt. But that didn’t work and gave error ‘The volume is too big for FAT32’ after it hit 90 percent. Is there other solution out there that can help me?”
- FAT32 is flexible and robust file system providing enhancements over previous FAT file system, and yet it has a couple of limitations. This part explains limitations existing in FAT32 file system with Windows operating system, which can account for the volume too big issue.
- Clusters can’t be larger than 64KB; otherwise some application won’t be able to calcite disk space correctly.
- A FAT32 volume must contain at least 65,527 clusters. Users can’t increase cluster size on a volume using FAT32 file system format so that clusters is less than 65,527.
- The maximum possible cluster number on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445. There is a maximum of 32KB per cluster with the space demanded for file allocation table. Thus the maximum disk size is about 8TB.
- Users can’t decrease cluster size for FAT32 volume, hence FAT size is larger than 16MB less 64KB.
- You can’t format a volume whose size is larger than 32GB using FAT32 file system in Windows. If you want to format a volume larger than 32GB, use NTFS file system. Note: if you try the formatting, the process will fail in the end with error: Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big.
- A file larger than 4GB can be created or stored on a FAT32 volume. If you copy a file larger than 4GB, you’ll get error “File is too large for the destination file system”.
There are several methods to format HDD or USB to FAT32 even when it is larger than 32GB. You can use either Command Prompt or third-party FAT32 format tool to change file system to FAT32. If you are not comfortable using command line, the format tool is a good choice, as it is more easy to use. In this guide, we are going to use format using both Command Prompt and FAT32 formatter.
Important: Formatting a drive will erase all data, thus please back up all data before formatting your disk.
Method 1: Format USB / HDD to FAT32 with Command Prompt
- Open Command Prompt. Click Start button and type cmd in searing box. Right click the item in the searching result and select Run as administrator. Windows users can open it by right-clicking Start menu and select “Command Prompt (Admin)”. If you are prompted to provide password or confirmation, then enter password or click OK.
- type the command format /FS:FAT32 G: and hit Enter key. In this command, the letter G is the drive letter of the disk you want to format and it may be other letters on your computer. Replace G with the correct drive letter which can be seen in Windows Explorer. Make sure correct drive letter is entered here; otherwise the process will format wrong partition.
- Confirm formatting by typing Y. It’ll prompt with information “All data on non-removable disk drive will be lost! Proceed with Format”.
- Wait for the formatting to complete. The process may take some time, which mainly depends on operating system and disk speed. However, if the process is too slow and you don’t want to wait, you can try the solution on Method 2.
Method 2: Format disk with free FAT32 format tool
PartitionGuru is powerful and free partition manger which allows you to format hard drive and USB drives to FAT32, exFAT, NTFS or Ext4 in Windows XP/vista/7/8/10. With this format tool you can perform quick or slow format, set cluster size, specify drive letter, etc. The easy-to-use UI makes formatting and easier task.
- Connect the disk to be formatted to a Windows-based computer.
- Download, install and launch Eassos PartitionGuru Free. If it is run from your computer for the first time, check option “I have read and agreed the license agreements of this product” and click OK.
- Locate and select the volume you want to format and right-click it to select “Format Current Partition”.
- Select FAT32 from the drop-down list and click Format button. As to cluster size you can use the defaulted value if you do not have special requirement.
- Click Yes on the message box saying “Are you want to format the partition (or volume)? All files on this partition will be lost. Select Yes to continue.” Wait for a second and the formatting completes.
Imagine that you’ve bought the USB flash disk with capacity of 16 GB or external hard disk. Sooner or later you’ll need to transfer files larger than 4 GB, whether it comes to ISO files, backup copies of your operating system, movies, personal video files or other; so when this situation happens, while copying or moving your large files to USB flash disk, the following error may occur: The file is too large for the destination file system. In this article we’ll discuss ways to prepare an USB flash disk or external hard disk and seamlessly transfer large files (greater than 4 GB) to your USB flash disk.
Let’s simulate this situation: I inserted my Transcend USB Flash with 16 GB in my computer, with the Windows 8.1 operating system and the operating system assigned H: drive letter to my USB disk. I double clicked it and put a file in this disk (Creative Blog logo):
On my Desktop, in Transcend folder I have really large file, over 8GB (you can see both Transcend folder and the root folder of my USB disk displayed on the screenshot below), so I dragged that Fil.iso file and dropped it to my USB disk:
… but the file is too large:
![File Too Big For Usb Mac File Too Big For Usb Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125641194/614525724.png)
The first thing you need to check is the file system of your USB disk, whether it is FAT32, to be precise. Default file system format for my Transcend flash device is FAT32, which lacks support for files larger than 4 GB. To be sure what file system you have, right click on your USB flash disk (or hard disk) and select Properties:
There are two ways to fix this:
- Formatting your USB disk to NTFS file system,
- Converting FAT32 file system to NTFS without data loss.
How to format USB disk to NTFS file system and avoid file is too large error
If you choose this way it’s mandatory to copy all your files from the USB disk to your PC, because all files on your disk will be deleted. After the format to NTFS is finished, you can copy that files back from PC to USB disk. Follow this procedure to format your disk to NTFS file system: right click on desired disk and select Format:
Select NTFS, Volume label (this is good practice; my label is CREATIVBLOG) is optional and tick Quick Format option (quick format is quite sufficient). When the format finishes, try to transfer large files to your USB disk.
How to convert FAT32 to NTFS without formatting or losing data on USB disk
Yes, this is possible, too: we’ll use convert command in the command prompt to avoid disk formatting and unnecessary copying files to your computer; this is a simple and time effective way to convert FAT32 to NTFS file system.
Open your command prompt; I always start it via Run dialog box – hold this key combination: Win key + R to open Run dialog box:
Enter cmd and confirm with Enter to open the Command Prompt. Enter the convert command in Command Prompt to start the FAT32 to NTFS conversion. It’s important to double check what letter is assigned to your disk (letter H is assigned to my Transcend disk, which I marked with the red rectangle):
Enter the command as follows: Convert H: /FS:NTFS and press Enter. The conversion process will start:
After several minutes the conversion process will finish, and you can now try copying large files to your disk:
This command is supported on Windows XP operating system and above.
![File Too Big For Usb Mac File Too Big For Usb Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125641194/961742081.jpg)
Further info regarding FAT32 limitations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
How to fix
Description
While transfering large files to USB flash disk, the following error may occur: The file is too large for the destination file system. Here is a fix.
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