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Vista exFAT (where has FAT32 gone?)

Computer Aid Posted on by

In a prior post, I stumbled across vistas options for formatting drives (it appears that the only choices are ntfs and exFAT).

Now thats going to cause problems with a lot of devices than need FAT32 (usb thumbdrives and mp3 players spring to mind).

So what is exFAT?

its really “FAT64”, but its totally incompatible with FAT32 and FAT16… so XP cannot handle exFAT drives.

Looks like Vista has painted itself into a corner on this (once again!)

While investigating this, I also noticed that XP artificially limits the size of (formatting) FAT32 drives to 32Gb… while FAT32 can actually handle drives up to 2Tb in size.

But I found a useful guide at: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm which allows a disk up to 2Tb to be formatted as FAT32 (the format program even works with vista!).

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Vista exFAT (where has FAT32 gone?) — 7 Comments

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  3. It’s also just because Microsoft too lazy to support their own format.

    Even Vista doesn’t know what the hell to do with exFAT. Its new Windows Photo Gallery has issues with it, and its internal backup program doesn’t even support it.

  4. exFAT support is growing. Microsoft has now released an exFAT driver for XP and it is a native format in Windows 7.

    exFAT is needed because FAT32 develops severe efficiency issues above 32GB. Limiting its use wasn’t just an arbitrary decision. It will work but more slowly as the volume size increases. exFAT eliminates that problem while maintaining the lower overhead compared to NTFS.

    64GB flash drives are now under $100 and could reach below $50 this year. The need for exFAT will become greater as the drives gain capacity. Adding exFAT support to other operating systems and devices like the PS3 should be no problem.

  5. I can understand WHY exFAT was implemented.

    But there is no exuse for HOW it was implemented (very poorly).

    And yes adding exFAT to other OSes *SHOULD* be easy.

    [soapbox on]

    But Microsoft often paint themselves into a corner in these situation.

    Usually by doing things like: quoting exhorbitant fees to the likes of Sony in order to license ExFAT for the PS3… Sony says “go jump in the lake”, and exFAT dies a slow and painful death.

    for example: as of 1st June 2009, Linux still doesn’t fully support exFAT.

    All because Microsoft still don’t understand that the internet is about freely sharing goods and services… not about trying to extract money out of anyone they can, and forcing people towards Windows.

    Until Microsoft truly understand the internet (the way Google does), then they will always be playing catchup with the likes of Google and Yahoo.

    IF Microsoft were really serious about exFAT, they would provide drivers for LINUX, etc… Then people would really start to take exFAT seriously.

    [soapbox off]

    Despite this, I actually like the idea of exFAT, and IF Microsoft can do the right thing and make it freely available across all platforms, then it will eventually become the standard.

    The biggest problem at the moment, is that older systems, LINUX, and most external USB drives and NAS boxes still cannot read exFAT, and will never be able to, without something like a firmware upgrade (which most people don’t bother with).

    Wait another 4 years, and exFAT will either be long forgotten, or it will be the standard for external and network storage.

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