

Each file or subdirectory can take up multiple entries therefore, FAT32 directories are limited with how many files it can hold. With DVD and high resolution DVD formats now available, this limit is commonly reached.ĭealing with fragmentation and free disk space calculations can become painfully resource intensive in large FAT32 systems.Ī FAT32 directory can have 65,536 directory entries. The maximum file size on a FAT32 formatted drive is around 4 GB. When formatted at these bigger sizes, FAT32 becomes increasingly inefficient. Additional software works around this issue. FAT32 issues and problems –īy default windows systems can only format a drive up to 32 GB. Windows first supported FAT32 with Windows 95 OSR2 and increased support for it through XP. Surprisingly to many people, exFAT even may be better than the much loved NTFS in some circumstances.įAT32 is the file system with which most windows users are most familiar.

This article will explain the issues that exist with FAT32 that exFAT has been designed to fix. The file system that had been rumored to be released with the original Vista was finally available to the public on a wide scale. Microsoft released the exFAT file system with Vista SP1. What are the advanatages and disadvantages to this new file system? What are the differences between exFAT and FAT32? When is exFAT preferred over NTFS? Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) is the successor to the old FAT32 file system. Microsoft introduced the new exFAT file system with Vista SP1. Posted Februby David Kirk in Microsoft Vista, Windows
